I brought four niclasi, plus “normal” back from Rannonga. I can’t say what makes them blue, but these specimens had not been treated with UV- there was no power on the island then. I paid the same for niclasi as I did the typical.

I can say that OV have a very high rate of various mutations (forms). I had some spectacular oddities. My favorite is the gold form, one of which I still have.

As far as waiting for a photo, good luck. Not many people go to Rannonga.

adamcotton wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2025 7:36 pm Yes, it is common across SE Asia, and its larvae feed on many different species of plants. I see them on different plants in my garden here in Chiang Mai sometimes. The female is even larger than the male.

Baldie wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2025 11:52 am It is just staying still on a pillar of my house and not moving for two hours.

If there is a light nearby it will have been attracted to it during the night, and it will spend all day sitting still, then fly away as it gets dark.

Adam.

It has been hanging still on the pillar during the evening and it's been there for sixteen hours and forty five minutes till now. Now it's already late at night which is 4:45 AM with the lights off and it's still staying there and not moving.
Does it want something? Like waiting for a mate,resting or even hibernating(?)

I'm a psychology student in Turkey, recently i am working on rattus norvegicus (brown rat), we have some experiments going on right now. But we are planning to do some research about insects, for that we are planning to build an insect lab. The conditions and equipments of this lab, we got that under control. But here is the thing: Which insect species should we work on? We need an insect that's harmless and no-poisinous. We will observe their behaviors and then examine their nervous system. Right now i'm thinking about these species:

Rhagoletis pomonella, delia antiqua, tenebrio molitor. We thought about crickets but im not sure about that. Anybody help?

wollastoni wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2025 10:42 am I read the article.
Very interesting, good work ... but wrong conclusion.

The conclusion should be to enforce environmental laws in these African countries and/or enlarge National Parks there. "Red listing" these species, putting them under CITES will have no effect at all except increasing their market value and preventing Japanese & Taiwanese from breeding them. Totally counter-productive.

It is not by "red listing" all tropical insect species that you protect them. It is by protecting their environment.

The Goliathus trade, well organized, could even help buy some lands to protect them in Africa.

As we have observed, these bureaucratic organizations do everything EXCEPT what needs to be done to protect species.


Fortunately in upstate NY, private organizations have leveraged land and cash donations to preserve hundreds of thousands of acres of special ecosystems. Power of the people works where governments and feel-good paper pushers fail.

Paul K wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2025 2:10 pm It’s Attacus atlas-male, one of the biggest moth.

Is it common in a Malaysian tropical rainforest climate?

It’s Attacus atlas-male, one of the biggest moth.

It is just staying still on a pillar of my house and not moving for two hours.

jhyatt wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2025 4:04 pm Good question! And I'd love to know how these "blue" aberrations are manufactured. Exposure to UV everyone says, but what wavelength? How intense? For how long?

I tried exposing an old beat-up rag of a dataless O. p. poseidon to short-wavelength UV overnight (low pressure mercury vapor, peak at 2537 angstroms), a few watts at about 3" from the bug just to see what happens, and nothing at all changed.

I think it's probably longer. Most OV experience roughly 12 hours of daylight (UV), so figure, what, six hours of bright UV? And they don't turn blue, even over a couple weeks lifetime. So it's probably more than 100 hours.

kevinkk wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2025 4:47 pm

Chuck wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 8:47 pm As a general warning, there's a question on the Insect Collector proboard forum about how to get the right shade of blue with UV to fake Ornithoptera victoriae rubanus form niclasi.

Is this legitimate study, or a prelude to fraud? I am not too concerned, after Charles Limmer stopped selling, Ornithoptera are out of my reach, but perhaps an inquiry like this should get some scrutiny from management.

If you read it, the poster makes it pretty clear they want to know what to do in order to profit. They know that some method turns the OV an obvious fake blue, but were looking for the secret sauce to get them just right.

Most of my Ornithoptera are naturally blue. I suppose I could experiment with others, but don't have the time. And, if I did discover the secret, all I could do is reveal it so the market floods with quality fakes. Why bother?

Thanks! I downloaded and skimmed it. Same old story- deforestation and urban sprawl. Fortunately for the species, the Japanese will keep them going. Shame we can't keep most of the species surviving in USA as well.

A new paper on the conservation status of several species of African Goliath beetles: Red Listing African Goliath Beetles: Assessing Threats and Conservation Needs, February 2025, African Journal of Ecology 63(1):e70018.

Congratulations to all the authors on this important work. Their paper should be available to download free of charge at the following link.

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... tion_Needs

Thank you Adam for the follow-up. I've been to Vietnam collecting several times but never to Thailand. Wang Chin looks like a nice place. Much appreciated!

Chuck wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 8:47 pm As a general warning, there's a question on the Insect Collector proboard forum about how to get the right shade of blue with UV to fake Ornithoptera victoriae rubanus form niclasi.

Is this legitimate study, or a prelude to fraud? I am not too concerned, after Charles Limmer stopped selling, Ornithoptera are out of my reach, but perhaps an inquiry like this should get some scrutiny from management.