..., seemed a little obsessive, ... collector had what must have been thousands of Colias, ... I'm struggling to think of something significant that was accomplished by anyone who was NOT obsessive. As for a series of thousands... The North American Lycaenid guys did some genetic analysis, and turn...

Indeed, even a few kilometres can isolate species or subspecies, even for normally relatively strong fliers. I suppose they don't generally want to fly out to sea. Having said that, I seem to remember there are old records of 'migrations' over water for some species. Adam. Throughout the Pacific it...

Sadly, I suspect that the data is erroneous, for any one of many reasons. Adam. Occam's Razor would suggest that. That said, I did find a new ssp of Satyrid in Solomon Islands, separated by only a few KM from a larger island. And Bougainville's shoreline is nice low jungle, while the mountains rise...

Chuck this is what is on the data labels for each. P. t. straatmani Kieta, North Solomon Province, PNG P. t. toboroi Burka Island, North Solomon Province, PNG That's interesting! Very! It's "Buka" Island. "North Solomon Province" is the old name for Bougainville, Buka, and other...

My friend asked me to say thank you for replies. He also pointed out that Gardiner (1982 - A Silkmoth Rearer's Handbook, 3rd Edition) on p. 126 states the size of Coscinocera hercules as 250-360 mm, although Gardiner doesn't say how this was measured. If that is a maximum 360 mm wingspan it would b...

Short answer: don't bother. Yes, when importing into USA, even from Canada, one must declare at customs and submit a USFWS 3-177. You will also need a USFWS importers license. Note that if the origin of the specimens are Canada, you will probably also need Canadian export approvals. If the specimens...

Some more info on Chilasa toboroi https://forum.insectnet.com/viewtopic.php?p=3541&hilit=toboroi#p3541 Chris, do your data labels have more specific locations? AFAIK, nominate toboroi occurs only in Bougainville, which is now an autonomous area of PNG. C. toboroi straatmani occurs in the politic...

For professional publications, generally independent of the subject matter, white remains the background of choice. Why would this be the case? (If I were to use any of these images in a publication my intention would be to remove the background/fishing line/labels via photoshop or similar. I ackno...

In light bright enough to show the green/blue scaling the white background will typically tell the camera to auto-darken the photo, and the result is that the image is darker than real life. It's even worse when the image is printed and not backlit on a screen. This reflects on Tom's post which is r...

There's a discussion on the archived forum about black backgrounds. In my tests, some specimens pop out, some disappear. My opinion is that yes, a dark background does draw attention to some details, however, it's largely an easy work-around to the challenges of photography on a white background. Fo...

Middle picture S cambodia. All specimens from Kanchanaburi Thailand Perhaps the correct data is Chantaburi (similar sounding name, especially the shortened spoken Thai form "Kanburi" versus "Chanburi"). S. cambodia does not occur in Kanchanaburi, which is in WEST Thailand, it is...

Miami to Martinique (FDF) then Martinique (FDF) to French Guiana (CAY)

I did it on Expedia, but it wouldn't show up if I MIA -> CAY, I had to find FDF to CAY, then backtrack MIA to FDF

Sorry, I think in airport codes.

Thanks Adam, and congratulations on the paper! Two questions: "It may therefore be pertinent to note that although the butterflies were relatively abundant during the time of survey, their presence within the type locality should be considered transient." I assume this means the locus typi...

I was thinking that the disruptive pattern on Stichophthalma would be a real bear to track in broken sunlight; looked at a couple boobtube videos and yes, it's readily apparent that they'd pull the on-off disappearing act like morphos and ulysses, but also the disruptive pattern is also confusing be...

I vote French Guiana. As Wollastoni said, no permits, you have Lep-SME guides and places to stay. There's Thailand as well, no permits, with some prohibitions on species. Still an all-around spectacular place with a lot of non-insects things that are must-experience. I'm not a fan of Puerto Rico or ...

Dave I'm loving the morphological variation! Keep them coming, this is an amazing thread.

Most likely they were the property of a private collector (just like myself) who happened to have an eye for nice specimens and who probably purchased them. Even if he had caught them himself he would have been a mighty lucky individual but, it happens.... The only reason I don't harbor (much less ...

That's something else!

Certainly demonstrates that breeding programs can yield results- what's the chance of encountering that specimen in the field?

Outstanding chuck ! 🎉👏 Anyone can own beaters or specimens half as good but, getting your hands on specimens like that (these days) is expensive and unlikely to happen even if you wanted to try and catch your own. Fantastic species...☺️ Those specimens pictured are part of a well known institutiona...

A couple older specimens from Tamaulipas, Mexico. Not mine. These were "cherry picked" for the photo, being larger and with more expressive colors.