Archives and conservation biology.

IN a previous editorial in Pacific Conservation Biology, (PCB 2012, 18(2), p.68), I referred to recent papers in the insect conservation literature that made use of decades-old data sets to establish longterm changes in the species richness and abundance of insect groups in grasslands in eastern Germany. This is a signficant example of the lasting value of descriptive data sets. In this issue’s guest editorial, Sebastian Schuch, one of the authors of the recent papers, describes how he came to find the original studies and their value in documenting long-term change in insect communities.