Are these real insects?
Yes.
Are they dead?
Also yes.
Why would anyone want dead animals in their house?
Well, let me speak for myself. I was obsessed with the natural history museum as a kid and to create my own natural history museum in my home brings me a lot of joy. Nature and evolution have done some truly amazing things with the creatures on this planet!
What are your ethics? (Are the insects ethically sourced)
First of all I would like to state that ethics are a subjective matter and probably everyone in this branche will answer 'YES' to the question 'Are your insects ethically sourced?'. Your ethics might differ from the person that sells the insects.
My priority in ethics is the conservation of ecosystems all over the world. If insects are wild captured, that will always have an impact on the local ecosystem, so I always make sure my insects are sourced from breeders and butterfly farms. A lot of these butterfly farms are actually conservation areas and they release butterflies back in the wild when the population declines. Some of these butterfly farms also painlessly kill a part of their insects to sell them to entomology collectors and to keep their conservation projects going. I personally try to use as many no kill specimens as I can and I try to buy my specimens at smaller breeders that let the bugs live their full life cycle. Unfortunately it's very hard to find or get in contact with breeders (if you're a breeder or know a breeder, hit me up). I also buy a lot of imperfect quality specimens that other entomology artist would just throw in the thrash. I like to show people the beauty in imperfection.
I try to tell a very honest story here, because I know a lot of others don't (maybe unintentional, because they don't know this or their suppliers might also be dishonest). In my opinion it's just impossible to sell flawless no-kill insects in big amounts. Especially butterflies have no nerve endings in their wings. They will bump into everything while flying and damage their own wings, but that's okay because they don't feel it. And I want to show the beauty in these specimens with their flaws as much as I can.