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Topic: RIP Chuck Kondor | Author: chrisw | Replies: 4 | Views: 51
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Chuck
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Re: RIP Chuck Kondor

by Chuck » Fri Mar 29, 2024 7:20 pm

When I was a kid- younger than 10- I wrote him for a price list. It was all hand written, and not knowing any better, I closed with "Love, Chuck." I quickly realized that was inappropriate, but wasn't going to rewrite the whole letter, so sent it. I never got a price list. I wonder why.

Sad to hear of this passionate man's passing, and thanks Chris for sharing that anecdote.
Topic: RIP Chuck Kondor | Author: chrisw | Replies: 4 | Views: 51
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Re: RIP Chuck Kondor

by adamcotton » Fri Mar 29, 2024 7:14 pm

Sad news reverberates around the world.

RIP

Adam.
Topic: RIP Chuck Kondor | Author: chrisw | Replies: 4 | Views: 51
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Re: RIP Chuck Kondor

by Panacanthus » Fri Mar 29, 2024 6:55 pm

This is sad news, but thank you for sharing your stories. Although I never met Chuck in person, I had some wonderful conversations on the phone with him and some insect “dealings” as well. He also purchased a freeze dryer(not a cheap piece of equipment) from me which I was no longer using, just to give it to the Lewellens - another example of his generosity. The experiences you describe are exactly what I would expect from Chuck!
“Seems to me the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.” -David Attenborough
Topic: Rarities in Charaxes | Author: Annarobertson1947 | Replies: 41 | Views: 1066
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Re: Rarities in Charaxes

by livingplanet3 » Fri Mar 29, 2024 6:17 pm

daveuk wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2024 9:59 am About two years ago I managed to get some male specimens of Polyura posidonius from Tibet for the first time. It is a small (for the genus) but beautiful species. Probably not that rare but always considered a bit of a "holy grail". By me at least...
I have not seen a female...
Beautiful specimens!
Topic: Huh? Monarch butterfly range | Author: Chuck | Replies: 3 | Views: 40
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Re: Huh? Monarch butterfly range

by livingplanet3 » Fri Mar 29, 2024 6:07 pm

D. plexippus has become naturalized across the Pacific, in every place where its host plant (milkweed) has also become naturalized. Monarchs reached Australia by the 1870s, and can now be found across much of the continent's southeast, along the entire east coast, and north into PNG.
Topic: Huh? Monarch butterfly range | Author: Chuck | Replies: 3 | Views: 40
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Re: Huh? Monarch butterfly range

by kevinkk » Fri Mar 29, 2024 3:42 pm

Maybe. I am sure D, plexippus is found here in Oregon. I just saw a news clip about a butterfly house in Hawaii and all they showed were
Monarchs, I don't think they occur there naturally, but I've never been. Perhaps it is just the comparison between the respective species, I had to look
up gilippus :)
Topic: Limenitis chrysalides | Author: lamprima2 | Replies: 3 | Views: 37
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Re: Limenitis chrysalides

by kevinkk » Fri Mar 29, 2024 3:35 pm

livingplanet3 wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2024 2:58 pm
lamprima2 wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2024 3:09 am Does anyone have any info on the structure and possible
function of a flipper-like outgrowth on the dorsal side of
Limenitis lorquini chrysalis? It is present in other
Limenitis species as well...
As both the larvae and chrysalides are bird dropping mimics, perhaps this projection serves to give a more irregular shape, augmenting the effect?
As good as guess as any. There are moth larva that mimic bird droppings, but moths spin cocoons or burrow, so don't need the camo decor butterflies
do. Other butterfly pupae have projections and unusual shapes, as compared to the hidden moth pupaes.
Topic: Limenitis chrysalides | Author: lamprima2 | Replies: 3 | Views: 37
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Re: Limenitis chrysalides

by livingplanet3 » Fri Mar 29, 2024 2:58 pm

lamprima2 wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2024 3:09 am Does anyone have any info on the structure and possible
function of a flipper-like outgrowth on the dorsal side of
Limenitis lorquini chrysalis? It is present in other
Limenitis species as well...
As both the larvae and chrysalides are bird dropping mimics, perhaps this projection serves to give a more irregular shape, augmenting the effect?
Topic: RIP Chuck Kondor | Author: chrisw | Replies: 4 | Views: 51
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RIP Chuck Kondor

by chrisw » Fri Mar 29, 2024 2:01 pm

Chuck Kondor passed away yesterday. He had been dealing with cancer and heart disease for several years.

I know many of you on this forum have had interactions With Chuck over the years. I would like to share some of my interactions with you.

I met Chuck by chance, in of all places Patagonia Arizona in July of 2014. This was my first collecting trip to Arizona with my 17 year old son.
We were staying at the Stage Stop Inn in downtown Patagonia. There were a couple of other collectors staying at this hotel as you could tell by the gear in the back of their trucks. One afternoon as I was putting things in the truck I noticed a business card under my windshield wiper. The card said "The Bug Guy" Chuck Kondor. He wrote on the card "How's the collecting going? I would like to visit. I am staying in room 201. I had heard of this Chuck Kondor guy, but never had dealings with him or met him. So I went up and knocked on the door. This large scruffy man opened the door and let me in. It was Chuck. He introduced me to his collecting partner, Greg Lewellen, and we visited for maybe 45 minutes or so. I found out that Chuck lived about an hour away from my house. He told me to call him when I got back to Wisconsin to set up a time that my son and I could come over and see his stuff.

About 2 weeks after we got back my son and I went for a visit. He welcomed us into his home and down to his "bug room" where he did his business and displayed many of the butterflies, moths & beetles he had for sale. My son & I were amazed at the amazing specimens he showed us. We also found his collecting stories fascinating. As we visited he he started to give us specimens to take home. He would ask "Do you have one of these?, and if course the answer was no. At the time I had a very meager collection of exotic specimens. By the time our visit was over Chuck had given us over 100 specimens to take home. When we got into the truck to go home I looked at my son and said "Did that just happen?"

That was the start of a wonderful friendship with Chuck. I would stop over to visit with him every couple of months just to listen to his stories about collecting all over the world. I would always come home with some new specimens for my collection. When Chuck found out that I grow flowers for a living and did landscaping through my business we began trading with each other. I would plant flowers in his yard and he would send me home with new specimens.

I now have an incredible collection and many fond memories just by that chance meeting in Patagonia. I will miss those visits.
Topic: Huh? Monarch butterfly range | Author: Chuck | Replies: 3 | Views: 40
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Huh? Monarch butterfly range

by Chuck » Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:46 pm

I was reading an enjoyable article on Danaus gilippus in LepSoc Journal Spring 2024 when the following map caught my eye:

Image

Huh? Everyone knows that Danaus plexippus breeds all the way up into Canada. Right?

The purpose of the map is to demonstrate the lack of competition for foodplant between gilippus and plexippus; so no harm done to the point being made. Still, this seems to be a significant oversight concerning something that I consider common knowledge.

Am I missing something?
Topic: Ring light techniques? | Author: Chuck | Replies: 1 | Views: 20
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Ring light techniques?

by Chuck » Fri Mar 29, 2024 12:36 pm

Frustrated that all of my specimen photos are either too dark (cloudy day) or have a shadow, I broke down and bought a ring light.

This one is low-end, and you get what you pay for. It wasn't as shown on the box, and it isn't what's in the instructions. Some parts discussed in the manual have been very much made cheaper. The friction rings to hold arm position don't work well. Typical Amazon junk. But it was inexpensive (no, it was cheap. There is a difference.)

Anyway, it does throw out nice light. It does have an automatic shutter remote, which does sync with Bluetooth to my phone.

The idea then, I guess, is to get the tripod and light set up over a surface, and rotate specimens under it. That way the same heads-up angle is achieved with correct lighting.

Does anyone have any tricks or hints to using a ring light?
Topic: Rarities in Charaxes | Author: Annarobertson1947 | Replies: 41 | Views: 1066
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Re: Rarities in Charaxes

by daveuk » Fri Mar 29, 2024 9:59 am

About two years ago I managed to get some male specimens of Polyura posidonius from Tibet for the first time. It is a small (for the genus) but beautiful species. Probably not that rare but always considered a bit of a "holy grail". By me at least...
I have not seen a female.
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Topic: Limenitis chrysalides | Author: lamprima2 | Replies: 3 | Views: 37
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Limenitis chrysalides

by lamprima2 » Fri Mar 29, 2024 3:09 am

Does anyone have any info on the structure and possible
function of a flipper-like outgrowth on the dorsal side of
Limenitis lorquini chrysalis? It is present in other
Limenitis species as well.
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Topic: Butterflies of Virginia, Clark & Clark 1951 | Author: Chuck | Replies: 3 | Views: 81
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Re: Butterflies of Virginia, Clark & Clark 1951

by Chuck » Thu Mar 28, 2024 9:04 pm

Ha, John it never occurred to me that the book would be ESPECIALLY interesting and useful for those living in Virginia!

Yes, it's sad to now look back and see how so many species are extirpated from the lands they once occupied. I did find it interesting that in the early 20th century they reported (as you cited) species expanding in range, and apparently quickly.
Topic: Butterflies of Virginia, Clark & Clark 1951 | Author: Chuck | Replies: 3 | Views: 81
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Re: Butterflies of Virginia, Clark & Clark 1951

by jhyatt » Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:03 pm

I reread my copy every few years, Chuck -- and not just because I live near, and collect in, VA regularly. There's fascinating info in there -- like the fact that they found only one specimen of Pieris virginiensis in Virginia, and it was about 200 feet from the WVA border (it's now dirt common in SW VA, and much further south, too), that Colias eurytheme was a recent addition to the VA fauna (it wasn't seen north of the NC border until around 1920, as I recall), and that Speyeria diana still flew on the outer coastal plain at their time of study (the type locality of diana is Jamestown, VA!). They gave records for the now-vanished Speyeria idalia in over 30 VA counties, too. I'm sure their long, long discussion of P. glaucus broods and variation is of great interest to your own research, too.

Cheeers,
jh
Topic: Rarities in Charaxes | Author: Annarobertson1947 | Replies: 41 | Views: 1066
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Re: Rarities in Charaxes

by adamcotton » Wed Mar 27, 2024 6:45 pm

The reason Amphion floridensis is not called nessus is because Sphinx nessus Cramer, 1777 is a junior homonym of the Asian Sphinx nessus Drury, 1773 which is currently known as Theretra nessus (Drury, 1773).

Adam.
Topic: Butterflies of Virginia, Clark & Clark 1951 | Author: Chuck | Replies: 3 | Views: 81
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Butterflies of Virginia, Clark & Clark 1951

by Chuck » Wed Mar 27, 2024 5:53 pm

Image

I pulled this book out to research something, and got caught reading it. I'd forgotten just how wonderfully chock full it is with information. It's not just about Virginia's butterflies- it goes into extensive observations by Mr. and Mrs. Clark and other researchers, correlations with weather patterns, and goes well into other states. Unlike most books on identification (from Golden Nature to Opler or Scott) this one goes into details...it's more like a very thorough field notes.

Though many hypotheses and taxonomic "facts" have been changed in the 70 years since publication, it is astonishing the number of questions raised, generally in the form of observations that don't quite form a conclusion, that remain unanswered today. And being a snapshot of the time, focused on the early 20th century, some observations now may be relevant, such as one taxon that had apparently been moving north- an early harbinger of climate change?

It's an astonishing read, from end to end, because it's not just a book about butterflies, it's a story, a true story. Clearly, the author didn't intend it to be that way, but with all the name dropping, period observations, and data it has become a story.

Unfortunately, I could not find a copy available online to purchase. But you may want to keep your eyes open.
Topic: Rarities in Charaxes | Author: Annarobertson1947 | Replies: 41 | Views: 1066
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Re: Rarities in Charaxes

by Chuck » Wed Mar 27, 2024 5:44 pm

eurytides wrote: Wed Mar 27, 2024 4:21 pm Chuck, what happens with the genus Amphion? I thought this was still legit?
My error- old age. Amphion is valid, the species name was changed from nessus to floridensis. It's still nessus to me. I ain't changing any labels either.
Topic: Rarities in Charaxes | Author: Annarobertson1947 | Replies: 41 | Views: 1066
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Re: Rarities in Charaxes

by eurytides » Wed Mar 27, 2024 4:21 pm

Chuck, what happens with the genus Amphion? I thought this was still legit?
Topic: Cartoon name for new species? | Author: Jshuey | Replies: 6 | Views: 169
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Re: Cartoon name for new species?

by eurytides » Tue Mar 26, 2024 10:13 pm

Yeah, I say go for it!

Chuck: rex :)