Hi Paul,

Maybe contact Mikeh.
He seems to travel all over that region.
Probably one of the most knowledgeable Western collectors regarding where certain butterflies can be found.

Evra might know as well but, he seems to collect the more southerly portions of the West in much drier habitats. He is certainly very knowledgeable in that regard.

Does anyone know current systematic of this species?
Also if anyone knows good locality to collect it around eastern slope of Rocky Mountains south of Calgary.
As far as my research there should be A.stella inhabit some areas.

I have seen D.plexippus in Costa Rica and Dominican Republic. It does not occur in Thailand or Laos, at least not yet, most of subspecies other than N.American nominate don’t migrate.

Trehopr1 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 06, 2024 6:13 am Hello Tim !
Congratulations are in order for finishing up your schooling.

Very nice to see you once again posting some of your acquisitions. Have missed your presence here on the forum but, hope to see more of you here now as youthful collectors help to invigorate our forum !

A. narcissus is certainly a grand start in the genus and females of just about anything are just "icing on the cake" for one's collection.

Wish you well in your endeavors and do stay in touch with us here !

Cake needs icing :

Hello Tim !
Congratulations are in order for finishing up your schooling.

Very nice to see you once again posting some of your acquisitions. Have missed your presence here on the forum but, hope to see more of you here now as youthful collectors help to invigorate our forum !

A. narcissus is certainly a grand start in the genus and females of just about anything are just "icing on the cake" for one's collection.

Wish you well in your endeavors and do stay in touch with us here !

I'm entering a new phase in my collecting now that I am working full-time and out of school (YAY!). Currently, I'm expanding my South American Nymphalidae. I finally snagged my favorite species of butterfly of all time (Agrias narcissus) for a reasonable price. I also have some other nice Agrias on the way.

Agrias pericles aurantica f. trajanus - Female - Brazil


Agrias narcissus narcissus - Male - Brazil

Yes they will come to her assuming she calls and assuming there are males flying. Exactly what the pheromone is chemically is probably unknown and the exact flight time of the males might vary though. I've found that the males of the western Smerinthus fly really late, like 1-3 AM. Good luck. I would recommend trying along a river with lots of willows/aspens.

Pierre wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 7:19 pm Confirmed by Patrick Arnaud, organizator of this fair.

Thank you very much for the information Pierre.

My copy of The Hawk Moths of North America doesn't have much information on using virgin females to attract males, has anyone
tried it with Smerinthus? I have a female cerisyi and hope to attract some local males with her. I have the pupa outdoors in a screen
box, protected from the rain so she has the best chance of emerging when the local males do. I have found the larva 2 years in a row on my Salix babylonica, and assume there is a breeding population here, although I've never found an adult when I ran my UV light at home.
This is a first for me, we don't get Saturniidae here at the beach, and trying to synchronize with wild populations that are hours away
is something I have never bothered to try.

Danaus plexippus is all over the place.

I have captures from several locations in Solomon Islands.

University of Hawai'i on Oahu has a light morph, and on Maui can be found a dark morph.

Females are rarer and more expensive.

I was surprised to meet Danaus plexippus in a Papuan village in the Baliem Valley in 2009.
I didn't know then that it was naturalized in New Guinea.

Barnzell < you should double-check as I regularly send parcels with Colissimo to the USA, including to American Museums who make me fill some declaration for the USFWS.

It looks to be naturalized in western Europe and northern Africa as well. The range extends far south of Mexico as well. I've personally encountered them in Peru, although I'm not certain if this is an instance of the milkweed and butterfly having been introduced there or if it is native. As for Canada, the map is limited and inaccurate - The Travels of Monarch X was published in the 60's was it not? So it isn't as if better information hasn't been around.

So you don't feel ignored- the pictures are not definitive, and do appear to show 2 different moths, unless someone is familiar with that particular
moth, it's going to be difficult to identify.

Thank you both for the information. This is good to know about the declaring on the French side.

Unfortunately it seems impossible to import with anything else other than DHL/Fedex nowadays.

From the pictures of past events, I am thinking that I would probably purchase too many pinned specimens to easily carry with me

I notice that most Agrias collections are mainly male specimens, is it because females are rarer or males are more attractive.?
I would have thought that a collection of pairs would be a preference

vabrou wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 4:48 pm I will end with that statement I often repeat: The only persons that don't make mistakes are those that do not do anything. Now this is a 100% certainty, then maybe not.

Exactly what I said once to my employer at the roofing company when one of my coworkers claimed he never made mistakes, after I, as foreman
made a judgement call. "You never make mistakes because you never make decisions." That ended the conversation.

Barnzell wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2024 3:05 am Hello all!

Does anyone in the United States have any experience with purchasing insects at this fair and then importing them to the US? I would really like to go but I am not exactly sure about the process of exporting from France. Of course I would use my American import license and fill out a form 3-177. Would likely mail to myself with DHL. Unfortunately my French is very limited. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If you have the import/export license, why not hand carry and schedule an inspection at the US international airport? That way you reduce risk of damage during shipping and USFWS inspection. As well, with you there during the inspection if the USFWS inspector says "hey this looks like an Ornithoptera!" you can say "no, it's a Pierid. See look here on my phone."

Wonderful Charaxes from Madagascar. When I was student and collected these, I received some nice pairs of these species from Rémi Radanielama (a local collector, not 100% sure about his name, he passed away about 10/15 years ago).