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).

vabrou wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 3:32 pm Chuck, I direct you to view our 30-year sphingids of Louisiana study. .... taken in fermenting bait traps included Sphinx kalmiae Neurn., Enyo lugubris (L.), Sphecodina abhottii (Swainson), A. floridensis, Darapsa myron, and Darapsa pholus (Cram.). We captured several specimens each of species not generally known to be attracted to fermenting bait were taken by this method, including Laothoe juglandis (J. E. Smith), Hemaris diffinis , Darapsa versicolor (Harr.), and Xylophones tersa (L.). S.

Thanks Vernon. That's the summary I was asking for. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to read papers outside of my specific area of research. Job and family keep me busy, and with summer (MV season) coming I'll be pulling 4 hours of sleep a night for 90 days.

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

Thank you Pierre, I have updated InsectNet Insect Fair agenda : https://www.insectnet.com/blog/insect-c ... nsect-fair

Unlike the USA, France is a collector friendly place. You have nothing to declare or fill on the French side (as long as you don't buy protected species).

If you want to mail it, you should better use the French post system called Colissimo (cheaper and less procedurial than DHL).
In the parcel declaration, you can write "dried dead lepidoptera for study".

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.

While on the subject of Charaxes endemic to Madagascar, we should of course make mention of the rather large and spectacular species, C. andranodorus -


Source: https://wobam.co.uk/product/charaxes-an ... adagascar/


Source: https://wobam.co.uk/product/charaxes-an ... adagascar/

I find the word “typical” helpful in these situations. Typical, X is found at location Y.

A pair of Charaxes cacuthis collected in Madagascar in 2000.
Don't think these are particularly rare but thought they were worth posting in this thread anyway. This is the only pair in my collection. Shown upperside & underside.

Confirmed by Patrick Arnaud, organizator of this fair.

Here's a second pic just in case the first one is not clear. It could be the same or a second moth but it most likely is the same one.

This moth always shows up at our house at this time of the year during a significant day in the Chinese calendar. But out of curiosity, what moth species/type is this? Either it could really be a reincarnated relative or it is just that certain moths have a migration pattern during this time of the year. (This pic was taken at my house in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Thanks thus far for the input.

I'm rather caught in the middle- I like to keep things short, which at times requires the reader's understanding that there are exceptions.

If I have to write something like "chances of finding Papilio multicaudata east of the Mississippi are .00001%" for every instance when a "fact" is presented then a paper would double in size without adding any real value.

Even something so simple as "flight period June-August" infers that there are no adults on the wing in September, while in fact one might see one per year the first few days of September. Must such a thing be accounted for? We as scientists KNOW there are outliers in virtually every case; the end of the bell curve is miniscule.

Newly released, the first publication to specifically address the known species of Fulgoridae (sensu stricto) for the state of Louisiana.

Freely accessible link:
https://www.academia.edu/117030842/Fulg ... _Louisiana

I can safely proclaim that 'virtually everyone' is guilty of using 'absolutes'. People write in the same mannerisms they do when speaking. I am certainly guilty of doing these things, though I am aware of the prevalence of this affliction and when writing make an attempt to eliminate doing this. I can say with 'absolute certainty' that I often fail.

One idiotic thing that even the most learned persons do is to say something is 1000% true. Once one has reached 100%, there is no more of anything beyond 100%. This is entirely different than saying something is 10 times as many e.g. 10 times 100 = 1000 (a quantity) which does not infer or result in 1000 (percent). I can proclaim with 'absolute certainty' that there are a few persons reading this do not comprehend this concept.

I can say with certainty and agree there are 'probably' exceptions to any proposed rules. Chuck, I watched a video where someone was 'running' from an out of control vacuum. An exception obviously.

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.

I note that novice collectors often go out light trapping 2-3 days in a year and afterward make foolish BS statements publicly based upon their meaningless experiences. Even though I have operated all of insect traps for nearly 50 million trap hours, I cannot with certainty make some proclamations as an absolute. Such statement have to have some limiting criteria. Another example is in our N.A. scientific literature for the past near two centuries is the repeatedly plagiarized statements concerning how many broods of lepidoptera species exists. Nearly all of these statements do not have have any limiting criteria. e.g. someone reporting a species in Canada only has one annual brood and makes such a proclamation without clarifying that occurred in Canada (this is how our scientific literature reads). But that same species here in Louisiana may have 11 or more annual broods. Here in Louisiana are several agricultural noctuid pest species which have 13 annual broods, How can that be? 13 broods X 28 days each = 364 days.

Pierre wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2024 8:09 am Confirmed: september 28 / 29, 2024

Hello
Could I please know who has confirmed the dates, because I can't find information other than what you have provided.
And I wanted to make sure before buying the trip.
Thank you.

Yes, there are exceptions to virtually everything. I think people use "figures of speech" and that's where "absolutes" pop up. For instance,
the old saying is the only certainties in life are death and taxes, I would argue that taxes are not a certainty, and we can only count on expiration.
An interesting observation, and an issue fixed with proper language and grammar, in their correct context.