Totally awesome Giant Katydid specimens, beautifully mounted, as usual, Panacanthus! Congrats on acquiring such a spectacular mini army of a usually underappreciated order of insects. All of these impressive giant Katydids are certainly "armed to the teeth" with protective spines on all their legs...

Your secret is finally out with livingplanet3's photos of your namesake avatar... . Hope we can see any specimens you have of "Panacanthus" & any others you care to share...

John K.

58chevy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 3:43 pm Zopherus nodulosus, USA. I'm not sure if this is considered a scarab (maybe Teneb?), but it's interesting for its almost impenetrable elytra and "tar-sprinkled" appearance...

Zopherus nodulosus haldemani - this subspecies is endemic to TX (possibly ranging into MX), and while not uncommon in the areas in which it occurs, I myself have only ever seen a few of them here in North TX, and it seems that very little is known of their biology. They're in the family Zopheridae, which is part of the superfamily Tenebrionoidea.

https://www.texasento.net/Ironclad.html

https://bugguide.net/node/view/54853

World's largest species of bee (Megachile pluto), previously thought to be extinct -

boghaunter1 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 7:06 pm Unusual, but beautiful color for a bumblebee sp. - Java...

Xylocopa caerulea -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylocopa_caerulea

Yes, a very beautiful shade of blue! -

Despite apparently being quite common in the places it occurs in southern peninsular Thailand, Mormolyce phyllodes is one of the relatively few beetles protected by law in Thailand.

Adam.

This is one of my favorite genura! Though I only have three in my collection (a specimen of each of the three species that are usually available). It is worth mentioning that there are several more species in the genus (6-7 total I think), most just never come up for sale. Anyway, here's my three.

The "Spiny Lobster" Katydid from Peru. Panoploscelis specularis. Amazing predatory species. All of these photos are of the same male and female.

The incredible and rather large "bronze armored" cricket - Bradyporus dasypus from Macedonia. First photo is my own, second photo is from the internet, to show size.

I don't know the name of these, but they are one of the rarest and most unusual pairs I have ever acquired. These are absolutely perfect specimens. All of the "notches" are natural mimicry. I haven't seen any of these spread but there appears to be a lot of yellow in the hindwings.


from Peru

livingplanet3 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 24, 2023 2:08 am Another predatory katydid, Panacanthus cuspidatus -

I like that one!

Mormon Crickets (actually Katydids)...

The largest sp. of cricket/katdydid I've found here in Saskatchewan was a couple of small "colonies" of Mormon crickets in extreme southern Sask. many years ago. I volunteered to help some entomologists from the Ag Canada Research stations in Regina (now closed) & from the Saskatoon station to do an inventory of the larger insect spp. in what has now been established as Grasslands National Park. The 2 small "colonies," as I called them, were found miles apart, on the tops of very arid, sparsely vegetated small knolls/hills in overgrazed pasture land. At these widely scattered locations there were about 30-50 individuals, of both sexes, at each site. They were made up of 2 color morphs brown & mottled green. I was shocked to see them for the very first time becauce of their size... large females approach 75mm (3") in length & were almost as fat as your thumb with a huge knife blade like ovipositor! They instantly reminded me of being smaller cousins of the Giant endangered Wetas of New Zealand! Following are a couple of YouTube videos (lots more online) that are pretty good at explaining them... they certainly can, at times be a pest sp. & can break out, occasionally, by the millions, in the drier areas of the western United States.





John K.

Another predatory katydid, Panacanthus cuspidatus -

From my part of the world, Neobarrettia spinosa, a quite large carnivorous katydid found in desert scrubland -

Cosmoderus femoralis (Cameroon) -



and a huge Pseudophyllus from Borneo -

More good memories livingplanet3! Thanks for the additional info on the author. Collecting vintage entomology books is another hobby of mine, as well. Interesting to hear how similar interests were spawned from some of the same books. I have another of his books on Butterflies & Moths. His pictorial encyclopedia is still available online (ebay, Abebooks, Thriftbooks, etc.)... have seen numerous copies recently & was quite surprised; must have been published in good numbers in different languages.

John K.

boghaunter1 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 8:52 pm ...I first became aware of S. grandis when I bought a 1969 book, long ago in my youth, entitled "The Pictorial Encyclopedia of Insects" by V.J. Stanek. On pg. 52 - photo #71, is an old B. & W. photo of S. grandis resting on an outstretched hand. I was completely amazed by that old photo & that image has stuck in my brain for 50+ yrs!...

That insect book by Dr. Václav Jan Staněk (1907–1983) was enormously influential on me in my youth as well, and it was from it that I too, first heard of S. grandis (which at the time of the book's publication, was called Phyllophora grandis), and was stunned by the photo. I still have the book, some 40 years after acquiring it, and it's quite treasured! Actually, Staněk's publications in general were an inspiration to me, and I have around half a dozen or more of them, most of which have now become quite obscure to all apart from a few enthusiasts with an interest in vintage natural history books. By age 30, Staněk was assistant to the National Museum (Prague), and not long after, he became director of the Prague Zoo -

https://cs-m-wikipedia-org.translate.go ... r_pto=wapp

https://www.librarything.com/author/stanekvj

Paul K wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 9:37 pm Cerania bosci.
This is quite common species in Thailand.
The males resemble a drone, they fly slowly with the legs wide stretched in all direction. Easy to net it in flight however yes the legs are quite fragile and easy to brake off.

In season I see these flying slowly around my garden. They look really rather strange moving forwards rather slowly, almost hovering, unless they are disturbed when they can move faster.

Adam.

boghaunter1 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 8:30 pm Very cool (& fragile looking!) spider mimic Cerambycids pr. from Thailand


Cerambycid Beetle. Spider mimics pr, Thailand.jpg





John K.

Cerania bosci.
This is quite common species in Thailand.
The males resemble a drone, they fly slowly with the legs wide stretched in all direction. Easy to net it in flight however yes the legs are quite fragile and easy to brake off.

This might be a model: Nephila maculata
It is very common species of orb spiders, quite large as palm of the hand. It is not surprising to walk in once web hiking along the forest path.

The photo is from the web and it is for educational purpose only

I had no idea S. grandis is now being reared. I haven’t seen any whatsoever on the dealers’ lists. Evidently they are only being kept as “pets” at this time? I do wonder if these reared specimens attain the same size as the “wild” ones.

Would be nice to see some high quality dried specimens for sale!

Another couple of really bizarre (pretty? ) Hemipterans from Ecuador,


John K.