Engineer with English disease collected insect colonies (8)
I believe the answer is:
beehives
'collected insect colonies' is the definition.
'beehives' can be an answer for 'colonies'. I am not sure about the 'collected insect' bit.
'engineer with english disease' is the wordplay.
'engineer with' becomes 'be' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'disease' becomes 'hives' (I've seen this before).
'be'+'e'+'hives'='BEEHIVES'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for beehives that I've seen before include "An apiarist cares for them" , "Habitations for hymenoptera" .)