nikiahloch wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 1:35 am but most of the time there's not permits required and most will let you walk through as long as they are dead and you aren't bringing endangered or protected species

Who will let you walk through, and where? Is that after or without informing in/out customs?

So as far as i can see, mauensis orange form female became the dominant form for aurantiaca immaculatus and so on.

Here’s that pic.

Both were nearly A1, came to my sugared trees and, imo, freshly eclosed. I’ll have to get out a pic later.

I'd try looking at where inaturalist records are in June.

Or try reaching out to Norbert Kondla who is a local collector. You can find his info on inaturalist, he post a lot of specimens.

I don't think you will find a better name than bernadetta, every population has extreme examples.

Compare with this one

Hello all... need some help please,

I've been going through/rearranging/updating my SK butterfly list, based on my collection, & have no clue as to this unidentified Checkerspot.... it is a female that was collected in Canada, SW Saskatchewan, in the Cypress Hills, (very close to the Alberta border), on 04 July 1991. It's ventral surface is so different than the other 2 ssp. I have - Euphydryas a. anicia & E. a. bernadetta (even though it looks like E. a. bernadetta on the dorsal side)....




Thanks in advance!! John K.

Chuck wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 11:46 am

nikiahloch wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:53 am

I sent an email to the Vietnam Department of Agriculture and still haven't heard back from them and that was 8 months ago, I leave the 30th of this month. I've contacted the US Department of Agriculture and even talked to someone and they said I don't need permits for importing dead insects in the US. I think at this point its a matter of hoping for the best.

Most foreign organizations don't have or won't take the time to respond. They leave it to you and/or your local agent to arrange.

USDA has nothing to do with dead insects, they only oversee live insects. Dead insects fall under USFWS.

One does not want to run afoul of Vietnamese officials. Getting caught on the way out with dead insects and no paperwork is going to be, at the least, expensive.

If one elects to "wing it", which I have as sometimes it's the only option, the best approach upon arriving in a foreign country is to find a local who knows the laws and officials, and can help get a permit. Even better is to make contact with a knowledgeable person in VN BEFORE going. Hoping to do it yourself in-country may not be effective, and will cost a fortune in bribe money.

Very true. I did talk to the USFW and they said I may need a 3177 form. To have one just in case but most of the time there's not permits required and most will let you walk through as long as they are dead and you aren't bringing endangered or protected species

Hey Tim, we're the same age so I figured id pop in and give some of my thoughts.

Collecting wise, the easiest way to get permits in SA is to have a university endorsement. So my suggestion is find where you want to go based on permit requirements, then find a research institute, station or park ranger station etc in the local you want. Then call them up or email them and ask if they can provide housing for researchers.

For most of the travel I do for collecting I usually find a research or biological station that accepts volunteers. These stations have housing for the volunteers usually and if they have space they will allow you to stay there - usually free of cost. Often times they also have a kitchen for food preparation.

In South America if you're eating rice and beans then your food cost is likely to be under 10$ a day. Flights to places like CR (where I just returned from) are 500-600$ round trip. So you could totally do a south american collecting trip for a month and do it for less than 1000$

The biggest challenge for you would be language barrier unless you speak fluent Spanish.

While I was in costa rica I was able to find short term jobs that paid/housed me and balance that out with free housing stays in a few national parks/conservation areas. In the end the trip cost came out to a net <1K for 5 months. You can see more about this trip on my IG @ed_tomologist and probably on my blog soon too!

Start planning now and next Fall you could be collecting in the tropics.

Chuck wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:58 pm Man, that's great! You survived a foreign country.

Would love to see some photos from CR.

For sure! Spent 50 days in Brazil, ca,e back to the US just long enough to spread them before I left for CR.
Currently I'm in the process of building some 100 drawers. Pictures of my finds can be seen on my instagram @ed_tomologist

I may make a proper thread in the future

Hey Billg,

Very nice to hear that you have actually picked up a couple of specimens of C. briseis here. I don't know anyone else that has....

Could they have been strays ?
Were their colors too fresh to have been that so, maybe it is just rarely encountered ?

Wonderful series of C. briseis mothman55 showing the wonderful variation that occurs !

The first and second relicta in your photograph are certainly quite unique in their own right. Some wonderful self-collected specimens....

I read an article a while back that said academics generally have a "window" of intellectual productivity. The article mentioned that between the ages of our mid-20s (fresh out of schooling) and up to and including our early 50s most people are at the peak of their personal intellectual capabilities. After the early 50s health issues, administrative responsibilities, and a certain "feeling" that "I don't have to work that hard anymore" overcomes most individuals. Also, many that have made a name for themselves tend to step back and revel on the laurels of their past glory. A future retirement is looking like it's not that much farther down the road so, why not coast....

For all these reasons it made a lot of sense to me. While there may still be some OUTSTANDING individuals who buck this trend; most do not.

This is why any large time consuming projects like Mona fascicles need to be addressed earlier in life (not later) during our intellectual productivity window.

Otherwise, it may well remain a project very much unfinished.

Chuck,

Nope, you gotta have the actual book to read Legion of Night.... which I heartily recommend one do. It's a very good read, but sadly the cost has about tripled since I bought my copy - it's now $30 used (from abebooks.com). Personally, I hate trying to read anything longer than a paragraph on a computer anyway!

jh

And the relicta posted by Trehopr1, quite unique. I don't believe there is a form name for that one, believe it is considered normal form, although it is far from normal. I have a few that are also normal form and somewhat dark, this is as close as I can come to Trehopr1's.

Breisis is another favourite, and we are fortunate to see a few every year here in Southern Ontario. The forewings can be quite variable from very dark grey to those with wide whitish bands, although I have never seen one like John K posted with mostly white forewings. Something to hope to see someday in my backyard.

Chuck wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2024 12:52 pm
If you don't take the time to respect the landowners,

Landowners are fine (usually). But the worst are the officials They are often difficult (even impossible) to deal with.

nikiahloch wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:44 am
I know export from Vietnam isn't banned. I purchase insects from private dealers all the time over there and they always show up

How it is in Vietnam I can't publish here The only positive thing about Vietnam (as far as insect exports are concerned) is that the law enforcement associated with it is not as radical as in, say, India, Ceylon, or Turkey.

jhyatt wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 2:10 pm

Chuck wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:10 pm As Vernon pointed out and solely about MONA, the inconsiderate and unethical activities by professionals isn't new. I too have had my issues with those types in Entomology (to be fair, I've also been overjoyed with others.) Backstabbing and politicing in entomology is NOTHING- I think the Paleontologists make the worst entomologists look like amateurs.

There was a period, say 1950s-1990s when entomology was "more polite."

Chuck, for some illustration of how bad things can occasionally get, see Chapter 1 of T. Sargent's "Legion of Night: The Underwing Moths" (U. Mass Press, 1976). His quotes from the fights involving Grote, Strecker, Hulst, and others in the 1870's are a real hoot to read!

Cheers,
jh

John, thanks for flagging that. I was sadly unable to find it online and available to read.

EdTomologist wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:24 am

papiliotheona wrote: ↑Thu Jan 11, 2024 9:55 pm I don't see how this is worth it unless you get a collecting permit while you are under their employment, and CR is one of the toughest countries around.

I just got back two days ago from a 5 month collecting trip in Costa Rica. Permits are very easy to get and they take about a month from start to finish. I even spent time within some well known national parks collecting. Permits involve filling out a form, getting a support letter, and emailing that along with your project proposal to the individual in charge of your collecting area. there are several conservation areas that the country is divided into. You can also just send it to the director and they can help you get permits from multiple areas if you don't want to apply to each area individually. They really are pro research so it was a breeze getting my permits for multiple areas. Now for export permits that's a little more involved but still 100% possible if you apply at least 30 days before you export.

You're the man, Ed!