Chuck wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2024 3:09 pm No kidding. I never saw one there.

It's there:
https://yutaka.it-n.jp/nym/760360001.html

Adam.

Cassidinae wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 6:21 pm

Jshuey wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2024 3:12 pm Plus, in Brasil at least - it's hard to imagine that "tourists" like me really add much when they have people who are aggressively sampling across the country and house university collections of South American bugs that put the holdings in the Northern hemisphere to shame. And - they fight the good fight - trying to temper the deforestation you speak of.

No country in the world owns its nature! Only people would like to be the rulers of the world and be able to make decisions for everyone! It is reasonable not to collect insects in countries ruled by "madmen". But putting up with this madness or justifying it is not reasonable. This "craziness" is highly contagious.

Three thoughts about this and your other responses.

• 80% of the citizens of Sri Lanka believe in reincarnation. Mostly Buddhist (as in the soul doesn't go with the new body) but still, people who kill insects for fun are not working towards nirvana - that's for sure. So of course this is a big deal on the island and the fine may be entirely proportional.

• Like it or not, most counties do own "nature" and they have laws regulating hunting, habitat protection, and wildlife trade. Here in the US, individual states enact further regulations protecting habitats.

• Finally, no one on this list is going to be too surprised when they read about your legal issues at some point in the future - are they? Your responses typify the attitudes that get entomologists into trouble around the world.

john

Chuck,

The reason I have all these external hard drives is because I create all my images and text on my PC, but do not ever save any on my pc's hardrives. I save the PC's hardrives for operating system files and various softwares. So I learned my lesson early on that PCs die without warning and so do the external hardrives. So I have these many external hard drives as main storage drives and also as duplicate back ups. And though I only show 8 currently connected to my pc, I do have another 8 of earlier filled hard drives not currently connected to my pc sitting here in boxes. Too many connected hard drives slows down the performance of PCs. The PC age created amazing and professional results, but it takes a hell of a lot of time consuming work to produce these good quality manuscripts and images. Like your specimens, each photo (Image) has to have date and location of capture, otherwise it is worthless. One has to set up a system of alphabetical file folders to be able to find what you created or photographed 20 years ago with just a few mouse clicks. I have a used all along a system of creating alphabetically named file folders as I need them, and this has worked really great. I taught myself how to use a PC trying to figure out how to professionally create 'phenograms' for my hundreds of entomological publications, and I successfully did that when no one had ever done this before. People ask my how I learned to operate a pc by myself, I tell them truthfully.... Start downloading PORN and all your questions will be answered. 'OH, NEVER EVER USE 'THE STUPID CLOUD'. Miss a monthly payment and all your life is deleted. Who would stupidly place their most valuable possessions in the hands of corrupt money-grabbing Micro-soft?

Though, like everything I do is different from others that I know, e'g, I never ever take photos with my phone, nor do ever access the WWW on my phone, nor do I send or read text messages sent to me. Using these things will only lead to them eventually be used against you. You are probably asking what do I do with my phone, you probably guessed it, I make and receive phone calls. You can see my 'stupid phone' to the right in the earlier attached image of my hard drives. I don't walk around all day playing with my phone. Wife and I once each bought one of those so called 'smart phones' which i referred to back then as 'boat anchors' because one needed reinforced pockets to carry them around. But alas, once was enough. I was upset very upset when the cost of my $14.00 flip phone went up to $50.00 and the most recent one I have that went up to $88.00. Each of us has our bucket of idiosyncrasies, the types of persons we often call 'he is a real character.' I guess I am one of those 'real characters'. Those large capacity external hard drives are useful to download you-tube videos, 35 years of free porn, music, how-to videos, did I mention porn?, how to play the guitar better..... my younger planned avocation for life was to be a R&R musician. I worked as a musician in a New Orleans Bourbon street strip club 'Silver Frolichs', 427 Bourbon Street (bottom two photos from my saved photos back in 1967), when I was 18 years old, and so was the babe, one of the dozens of cuties where I worked back then as a musician If she is still with the living, she is now 75, (also I'm 18 in upper photo (year 1967), I'm that skinny guy on left of photo).... Needless to say that was the best job I had over my entire lifetime,
and the absolute most memorable job I ever had.

I end by saying, only those who publish their valuable research in time tested ;PRINT PUBLICATIONS' will be remembered. I prepare my research using PCs, then publish it in a print venue, then convert the publications to portable document format (PDF) which can be accessed by persons in 200 countries of the world. My publications have been downloaded via the WWW as PDFs tens of thousands of times so far.

Chuck wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2024 12:47 pm As for me, last year I scanned all my printed film photos from the past 50 years. Boxes of them. I'm going through them one more time to take out important photos, and toss th

Exactly. I've been transferring digital pictures from the camera(s) to dvd for several years now ,it doesn't take much thinking to realize how fleeting
digital could be, a strong magnet, water, coffee all sorts of stuff can wipe you out. Hard copies don't always hold up either, I've scanned all the old family photos as well. I don't use the "cloud" either, besides the fact microsoft wants paid for more storage, it seems less tangible than anything.
I like putting pictures on sd cards and putting them in digital photo frames so we can see them, although there's going to a limit to that.

adamcotton wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 6:18 pm It looks like that species to me too.

It occurs on Doi Inthanon (the highest mountain in Thailand, 2595m) here in Chiang Mai, at about 1700m.

Adam.

No kidding. I never saw one there.

Its origin is Tibet, China. I collected several individuals.

Message edited by Moderator. Offering specimens on the forum is not allowed.

Here is a Pepsis collection I found on the web. Don't know whose it is.

wollastoni wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2024 1:31 pm No, they were Indonesian.
No problem with Papuans at all.

Ah. Indonesian civil servants have a hierarchy that is largely cultural but also part of the bureaucracy. Those low level bureaucrats get stuck in Papua (or some other unfriendly-to-them place) and make nothing. Every step up the ladder doubles income, but one still has to be up a ways to make enough money to be comfortable. Corruption/ payoffs is an intrinsic part of the government culture, so for the low-level servants any few bucks they can make are acceptable and much needed. Big "favors" demanding more substantial payoffs go up the chain of command, and the bottom level guy, who may be ultimately responsible for seeing through the favor, gets nothing.

Now, remember that for these poor suckers pushing government regulations in Papua, they are not well liked by the Papuans. They have to constantly watch their back. You'd have to search real hard to find a Papuan who'd shed a tear if every Indonesian in Papua was massacred. Many of the Indonesians in Papua were born there. But there are still two societies, one the master and one the slave. But even for the Papuan-born Indonesian masters, their marching orders, their pay, their everything comes from Jakarta, which oppresses them as well. It's not unlike the old East Germany.

So in general, for the petty bureaucrats, life sucks. Thus the bad attitude. You'll find the same thing in Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, etc.

No, they were Indonesian.
No problem with Papuans at all.

I read once a reference to those living in the digital imaging era as "the lost generation." Meaning, their photos will not outlive them, and images of them, and their lives, will not exist. Photos taken with phones rarely get downloaded, and get purged when the new phone arrives or the phone gets lost. Photos on computers don't get backed up, and stay on the old computer until it's recycled.

Internet storage sites are, like all of the internet, temporary. How many photo storage websites have gone dark? How many others have gone to pay-for-storage and accounts deleted? Even FB, the industry juggernaut, will some day go the way of Kodak and K Mart. Poof. Images gone.

Hard copy- in the form of paper- has a chance to live forever. Print the most important photos and publications.

In the near-term (Vernon) sharing your images and publications online would be invaluable. Yes, many of your publications are online. Kudos! Perhaps your images would be of value as well.

As for me, last year I scanned all my printed film photos from the past 50 years. Boxes of them. I'm going through them one more time to take out important photos, and toss the rest. I went digital photography in 2001 and never took another film photo again. All digital images from my phone get downloaded to the computer about once a month, and all photos get moved when I get a new computer. I have redundant backup devices (really, in case one gets a virus.) If I pass tomorrow, my digital images will probably be ignored, and likely disappear. Perhaps though my family will retain the hardcopy photos and publications. I have used the online print-on-demand publishing resources to compile and print hardcopy books of key times and people in my life; I hope these are passed down.

wollastoni wrote: ↑Thu Sep 26, 2024 9:22 am Last year in Papua with a team of Naturalis, we had a lot of difficulties and lost several days due to non cooperative forestry guards, police, customs and so on... I could be wrong but I had the feeling it was a kind of "nationalism" and "revenge against the former colonialists".

This one is easy. Melanesian Papua is an occupied country controlled by Indonesians since 1945. The Indonesians are corrupt, oppressive, and rape Papua for resources (=$$) while investing nothing. It is illegal to show the Papuan flag, and the Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus) have no qualms about killing Papuans.

Talk about global politics! The Grasberg mine in Papua pays US$7,000,000 in taxes PER MONTH. Its ownership is half Indonesian, half US. Zero ownership by Papuans. Per Wikipedia: "the New York Times reported that between 1998 and 2004 Freeport [Grasberg] had given senior military and police officers and military units nearly $20 million." So no wonder US doesn't support freedom for Papua. Worse, US special forces train Kopassus.

So when you show up in Papua with a permit issued by government officials 4000km distant, and despised, what do you expect? This is Papuan land, has been for thousands of years. The Papuans see you as an emissary of Jakarta. What do the Papuans get from your visit? Did you stay in Papuan owned lodging or Indonesian? Were you accompanied by Papuan guides, or Indonesian overseers?

You weren't clear if the "forestry guards, police, customs" were Indonesians or Papuan. If they were Papuan, I hope it's clear now why they may have been uncooperative. If Indonesian, well they're looking for a payoff.

Being an occupied people, the Papuans must obey the Indonesian laws, many of which are simply to control and punish the Papuans. That doesn't mean they respect these laws. Too, as one gets more remote from the government centers, "laws" become less enforceable and more cultural; the Papuans like everyone have cultural taboos & rules which aren't written on paper, and they will enforce them.

This type of situation exists to varying degrees worldwide. The state of New York is ruled by politicians from New York City. The last three state governors have been booted from their position due to illegal activity, and the should-be Lt. governor is in prison. Corruption is rampant. Worse, these-NYC scum write laws simply to punish the Upstate people who vote against them- and who in many cases blatantly ignore their laws. So we have a population of millions who do not respect the laws, nor many of those who enforce them, but must grudgingly abide by them. Thus it's no surprise that people from NYC feel unwelcomed up north.

Jshuey wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2024 3:12 pm I don't disagree with anything you say here. And I've spent plenty of money traveling - rationalizing it as for the greater good even though I really do it because I love traveling in Latin America. But for the last 20+ years, I have tempered my collecting "urge" recognizing that if I don't have a permit - it's better to photograph. Plus, in Brasil at least - it's hard to imagine that "tourists" like me really add much when they have people who are aggressively sampling across the country and house university collections of South American bugs that put the holdings in the Northern hemisphere to shame. And - they fight the good fight - trying to temper the deforestation you speak of.

For me, this transition from a "mad collector of bugs" to someone who is a bit more rational (at least in my opinion) took some time and mental adjustment.

Here is a bug I covet - but at least I got a photo near Brasilia once - Sophista latifasciata

John

Very well said John, same for me... even if it is very hard once in the tropics.

I would add that even with permits, it can be very difficult in some countries. Last year in Papua with a team of Naturalis, we had a lot of difficulties and lost several days due to non cooperative forestry guards, police, customs and so on... I could be wrong but I had the feeling it was a kind of "nationalism" and "revenge against the former colonialists". We had the permits but they wanted to show that Indonesia is the current colonial power in Papua and they can decide that these permits worth nothing if they want to... maybe they wanted a bribe... maybe they wanted to show to "the whites" who the current boss is... anyway it was a mess, a loss of time, a loss of money... and a loss for entomology (but that's the last of their concern).

This topic was about Sri Lanka but I am afraid the whole "South" will soon turn as Sri Lanka. And yes, don't collect in Sri Lanka ! I hope this topic will avoid some issues for some collectors as Sri Lanka is more and more a touristic destination for Europeans (and maybe Americans, no idea).

Kallima knyvetti is still missing from my collection. That looks to be a great specimen.
I recently received two spectacular Kallima from Viet Nam. Believe they are forms of K inachus alboinachus.
The oriental leaf butterflies truly are "marvels"

Yes, let's avoid politics please as it often (always ?) ends in a very bad mood on the forum. We are a small community, let's keep it united as much as we can.
See our rules here.

Just to flag up that livingplanet3's response appeared before that from kevinkk, despite the latter having an earlier timestamp.

Trehopr1 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 2:13 am Any pepsis wasp in the 100 mm range (or more) these days will cost you in excess of $100+ in any modern auction. I've seen them go as high as $150 US.

The really big ones are seldom offered and generally come from Brazil or French Guiana because they prey upon the largest of tarantula species ---- those belonging to the genera Theraphosa, Lasiodora, Pamphobeteus and the like.

I doubt very much that any collector will gift you such a prize. So, you better save up your loose change for quite a while....

Oh I know, I’ve been learning and observing. I managed to get a 107mm in flawless condition for $80 USD. That will probably never ever happen again

I wouldn’t expect anyone to ever gift such massive specimens. I just hope acquiring one will not be a bank breaker. If I had the means and connections, I’d just travel there myself and try to collect one.

So my hope presently is that I will be able to make connections with folks who can find them and are reasonable with their prices.

Digital technologies for image capture and storage began in the late 1980s with the introduction of the first consumer digital cameras, and in 1990 the first version of Adobe Photoshop. I have used 35mm film cameras for over a decade before that. In reality, despite having the best 35mm macro lenses, and a full complement of attachments and gizmos, today's digital images are a significant improvement. Digital images can show us every missing or wayward scale and we have the ability to magnify our images ad infinitum. And using digital imaging editing software we can repair images of specimens with tears, rubs, dings etc.

The problems brought on by digital photography includes the ability to take gigantic amounts of images for pennies compared to the high cost of processing film photos. If we take and process thousands of film images, all those bad photos are a huge waste, but with digital we just have to press a button and "POOF!!' there gone. What does this cost the photographer, just one time $$ outlay in reusable storage discs and hard drives, lots of them. But, the downside if there is one is that today we take gigantic quantities of images that we keep. This leads to those $$ spent on film processing, now spent on image storage and a host of different photo editing software and PC's make all this work. But the resulting digital images can be manipulated for good or bad and allows any self taught individual to create and self-edit high quality unlimited size manuscripts with unlimited quantities of images ready for publication. But like all constantly evolving technologies, we are forced to purchase ever changing better versions of digital cameras (I now have 13 digital cameras), much much more digital storage (internal hard drives which today can be multiple Terabyte size - My new PC has about 50 Terabytes of internal and external hard drives attached -see jpg) and innumerable digital editing software programs.

Now, how do I extend my rapidly diminishing lifetime to use all this. These new technologies have allowed me to self create and publish over 470 novel entomological manuscripts in print format so far over the past 55-years. And I have an additional 600 manuscripts in various stages of completion/incompletion.

58chevy wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 12:20 am AggieEnto, I don't have extra Pepsis specimens at this time. Are you in college Station?

I used to be when I was getting my degree. I am in North Texas now

Cassidinae wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 6:40 pm <edited by admin, no politics, see our rules>

Now you just wait a minute. Politics is banned here buddy. Drop it.
I could see this topic was going political. This needs removed asap.
This really burns my ass. It's immature, it's uncalled for and you need to
stick to the hobby.
Looks like you probably offended some Germans as well. Good job.

Cassidinae wrote: ↑Wed Sep 25, 2024 6:29 pm

Trehopr1 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2024 6:09 pm
If an offending adventurer/collector disregards the details that they should be well aware of (which means disrespecting present laws) of a country you don't live in then if you are caught you deserve what they slap on you.

Really? And why don't they measure with the same meter? Or is it common for the US to fine foreign tourists 1000x more for the same offense than they would a US citizen? You're kidding right?

Well, I don't think it's always the case ... here in Thailand an old couple received 300+ years in prison for 'deforestation' ... their crime was picking mushrooms in a national park to eat.

Adam.