Thanks so much daveuk for your compassion. Hopefully I'll be back to near normal by year's end & ready... for next year! I really enjoy finding interesting videos & unusual/rare "bug" photos to share with the like minded crowd here on the Insectnet site. I have to also Thank you daveuk, again, in return, for all your posts of your immaculately curated & beautiful specimens... they are a delight to see!

John K.

Have you got half an hour to spare? Check out this fabulous video. It is in German (I think?!... someone please correct me if I'm wrong..), but the language of "bugs" is universal. Does anyone know this collector & can tell us more. Is he still with us? What is the current status of his massive collection? The amazing thing about this collection is that he only shows us a few drawers out of each huge cabinet (even has the Alexandra Birdwing!) & every drawer viewed is spectacular!.... what else is there in the dozens of unseen drawers?... we can only imagine!

Lindenfels Schmetterlingssammlung - Hansjorg Morckel... 29 minutes:



John K. ENJOY!

boghaunter1 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 25, 2023 11:08 pm Hi Trehopr1,

I will try sometime, but not now, as I am still recovering from my left hip joint replacement & am still in considerable pain as I am still awaiting word on when I can get my other right hip done as well! Right now I am still hobbling around with the aid of two walking canes & cannot carry about glass cases or anything heavy, especially my precious insects!... in fear of dropping them... I think you can understand. My life has come to a near complete standstill since a very bad fall I had in Jan, 2021 & I hope to be better by this fall... provided I have my 2nd surgery this year sometime from spring to fall. All I can really do right now is upload 15 year old photos to this site & spend a lot of time on the internet looking at "bug" videos... & recommending some for you here!

John K.

Hope you are in much better shape come the autumn John. Meanwhile thanks for all your posts. Much appreciated.

58chevy wrote: ↑Sun Mar 26, 2023 12:35 am I'm surprised that the abdomens are still attached. Were they removed and re-attached, or is there now a method of preventing greasing that I don't know about?

They were attached when I got them as papered. I took a risk & set them with abdomens on.
Have some closely related species where the abdomens were removed. These are subspecies of Morpho deidamia. M d electra from Bolivia & M d deidamia from French Guyana

I'm surprised that the abdomens are still attached. Were they removed and re-attached, or is there now a method of preventing greasing that I don't know about?

Hi Trehopr1,

I will try sometime, but not now, as I am still recovering from my left hip joint replacement & am still in considerable pain as I am still awaiting word on when I can get my other right hip done as well! Right now I am still hobbling around with the aid of two walking canes & cannot carry about glass cases or anything heavy, especially my precious insects!... in fear of dropping them... I think you can understand. My life has come to a near complete standstill since a very bad fall I had in Jan, 2021 & I hope to be better by this fall... provided I have my 2nd surgery this year sometime from spring to fall. All I can really do right now is upload 15 year old photos to this site & spend a lot of time on the internet looking at "bug" videos... & recommending some for you here!

John K.

Many years ago while out collecting dragonflies on a favorite stretch of backroad, (the same road where I also collected those ab. Mourning Cloaks shown in one of the Lepidoptera threads)... I came across a beautiful & unique looking (in flight) spectacle I had never seen before (or have since!) . It was a startingly colorful little cranefly (for a cranefly that is!) commonly called a Phantom Crane Fly - Bittacomorpha clavipes. In doing a little research I found that it is quite widespread in eastern N. Am. right up to the eastern edge of the Rocky mountains. Even though it is quite widespread in it's distribution it is uncommon/rare in the central, drier prairie regions of N. Am.. It likes cool, damp, shady woods along nearby water sources. As mentioned before, it was the only specimen I have ever seen up here in central NE Sask., CANADA. It's long wispy, thread-like legs (flattened & elongated at the ends) are marked with alternating & very contrasting rings of black & white & are held spread wide to the sides as it "floats or hovers" about in the air. The delicate body, fluttering wings & inner parts of the legs completely disappear in flight giving it it's distinctive "phantom" name. I was absolutely stumped when I first came upon it floating about... I didn't have a clue as to what I was looking at! Luckily I managed to net it just before it veered off the shady road where it would have, no doubt, tried to get away, & would have quickly completely blended in & disappeared among the underbrush. Upon gingerly taking it out of the net I immediately recognized it as a crane fly... WOW... what a little beauty... looked like something that should be flying around in the tropics! Due to its delicate & fragile build I ended up just preserving it in a vial of alcohol. Below are a few clear closeup YouTube videos I found of it sitting/walking about on foliage & a second of it's unique appearance in flight (0:40 to 2:20). Anyone else familiar with this species?





John K.

Hi John,

Can we see some of your finished dragonflies that look so nice?

Worst Invasive Species in 150 years... the Spotted Lantern Fly... a new (but beautiful!) invasive sp. spreading in the eastern U.S. that may cause billions in damages/losses to agriculture/native trees...



John K.

Just a curious thought... I wonder if momentarily soaking them in acetone (to dispatch them) & then quickly mounting/spreading them (on a wood strip), before they begin to dry out & stiffen, & then resubmerging them in the acetone for a couple of days - weighted down) would help preserve the colors? Have to try that this coming season. I have used this acetone dispatching/quickly mounting/spreading them on wooden strips of 1/4" plywood/resoaking them again in acetone method many times for the beautiful & rare, female, yellow forms of Aeshna dragonflies; the yellow colors come out great & I end up with really nice, fully spread, exhibition specimens... just an idea.

John K.

Hi daveuk,

Indeed, very nice historic specimens still in great shape at 87 years old! Well done looking after/preserving them

Here is another excerpt from the "The Guinness Book of Animal Facts & Feats" (pg.171) regarding the biggest stag beetle specimens from the U.K.. "The largest recorded specimen is a male in the British Museum which measures 77.4mm (3.05") in length & probably weighed at least 8000mg (o.282 oz.) when alive. It was collected in Sheerness, Kent in 1871. Another male measuring 76mm (2.99") was captured at Priest Hill, Caversham, Berkshire in June 1969 & later presented to the Reading Museum."

Maybe there may be larger specimens collected since 1969? It would be interesting to find out more current record sizes... I know larger specimens have been found in mainland Europe & I believe some of the largest wild collected specimens (80mm+), I've seen online, were of a ssp. found in Turkey? (Poland?)

Another rather amusing little story from the Guinness book (same page as above). "In Oct.1939 London Zoo received a large male stag beetle which came with the following note: ' The defendant was found lying on the pavement in Regent Street, outside the Cafe Royal at 11:15 pm on the evening of the 4th inst. As he was unable to stand, was causing an obstruction, & inclined to resist, I took him in charge. He did not appear to have any visible means of support & would give no account of himself. A strong tendency to alcoholism was shown by the fact that he refused a meal of drops of ten percent cane sugar solution, but voraciously attacked the same solution when fortified with two drops or three drops of sherry. He probably had been overcome at a stag party.' "

John K.

A lot of video on youtube. You can live vicariously without the risk and expense of travel. I watched a nice video of a Titanus giganteus, surprising
how fast they can move.

Pyrops candelaria
This is very similar species to P.spinolae
I found it in Central/east Laos.
Their behaviour and camouflage is incredible.
When disturb feeding they are not flying off but simply moving slowly on the tree trunk so they blend in with the background.
First picture shows when I approached them,
Second is when one moved to be invisible. This is the first strategy, if intruder is still showing the interest in them they flash the yellow bright hidewings and fly off.

Thanks for all that information Adam. Thankfully did not personally have any close encounters with tropical wasps or hornets on my yravels. It sounds like a truly hazardous occupation. Glad you recovered fully from that sting. Even though it left a scar.

Papilio daedalus & Papilio pericles