Search found 82 matches

by vabrou
Sat Mar 09, 2024 2:56 am
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: Light collecting
Replies: 22
Views: 1761

Re: Light collecting

FYI -- Answers to all of the questions asked about insects and attraction to all wavelengths of the light spectrum from X-rays to infrared bands is available to anyone on the world wide web, and if one searches for it, it is all free. If you are one of the fools who pay one of these pay-for-access ...
by vabrou
Tue Feb 20, 2024 3:21 pm
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: DIY CORNELL_SIZE glass top drawers - How to >>>
Replies: 2
Views: 296

DIY CORNELL_SIZE glass top drawers - How to >>>

I have fabricated these wooden glass top drawers for over a half century. Link to freely accessible detailed instructions to make high quality drawers: https://www.academia.edu/30703260/Do_it_yourself_Cornell_size_specimen_drawers Key to fabricating high quality drawers is using high quality wood. ...
by vabrou
Tue Feb 20, 2024 2:13 am
Forum: Show Your Favorite Specimen
Topic: White-M Hairstreak (Parrhasius m-album)
Replies: 14
Views: 11217

Re: White-M Hairstreak (Parrhasius m-album)

Here in SE Louisiana, USA this is a very common species. Most specimens were collected using ultraviolet light traps, the remainder utilizing fermenting bait traps, flight traps, and netting by hand. I have personally captured several thousand wild adults, the majority in automatic-capture mercury ...
by vabrou
Thu Feb 01, 2024 2:28 am
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: Insect collection cleaning
Replies: 6
Views: 857

Re: Insect collection cleaning

I have used the same procedure for degreasing for nearly a half century. Nearly all coleoptera, in varying percentages become greasy, The dust attaches to beetles because of the grease, which may or may not be visible to the naked eye. I use this same method for most all moths, even delicate small c...
by vabrou
Sun Dec 31, 2023 4:13 am
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: Clearwing moths
Replies: 2
Views: 4758

Clearwing moths

My species account on the tiny clearwing moth Synanthedon sapygaeformis newly reported to occur in the state of Louisiana, USA. Link to 9-page pdf https://independent.academia.edu/VernonAntoineBrouJr This article appeared in print December 29-2023. I have made a special effort to capture clearwing ...
by vabrou
Sat Dec 16, 2023 12:00 am
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: Citations of publications?
Replies: 7
Views: 5009

Re: Citations of publications?

[ i] "People don't format these by hand." [/i] I have been creating references ' only by hand' for the past 55 years. Like everything one learns during your life, once you do something a number of times, it is no big deal and one can spit these out as fast as one can type. Once you let sof...
by vabrou
Fri Dec 15, 2023 2:07 pm
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: Transportation of rare set butterflies
Replies: 5
Views: 2698

Re: Transportation of rare set butterflies

I have been shipping hundreds of thousands of pinned spread lepidoptera to countries across the world for the past 60 years. Each type and size of insect requires a different approach. Goal is to use your absolute best effort which usually turns out to be the most costly. Tiny, medium and large heav...
by vabrou
Tue Nov 07, 2023 9:20 pm
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: Introduction and issue with spreading wings
Replies: 4
Views: 2552

Re: Introduction and issue with spreading wings

Hi Box, Seems your problem is what anyone collecting and processing microlepidoptera deals with daily. Around 10 years ago I published a brief two pages on this subject including images and how to solve the problem you are having. Your methods of handling captured specimens needs to be fine tuned. ...
by vabrou
Thu Nov 02, 2023 11:46 am
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: Damn frogs, toads, lizards too....
Replies: 5
Views: 2548

Re: Damn frogs, toads, lizards too....

John, besides the frogs and lizards, here over the past half century I have battled many animals eating my captured specimens: deer, armadillos, possums, coons, foxes, skunks, weasels, blue lake crabs, fiddler crabs, crayfish, birds (even hummingbirds), cats, dogs, cattle, bobcats, squirrels, flyin...
by vabrou
Wed Nov 01, 2023 9:20 pm
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: Damn frogs, toads, lizards too....
Replies: 5
Views: 2548

Damn frogs, toads, lizards too....

Always a battle with the reptiles and amphibians at my clearwing moth traps. Relocating them is an exercise in futility. They return the next day on the same traps or on neighboring traps. The ones that fall in do me a favor; they won't be eating any more moths. All photos here at my home in Louisi...
by vabrou
Wed Nov 01, 2023 8:51 pm
Forum: Show Your Favorite Specimen
Topic: Hemileuca sp. (Buck Moths)
Replies: 10
Views: 5039

Re: Hemileuca sp. (Buck Moths)

Only one species in Louisiana, Hemileuca maia. Have taken several thousand over the past half century in my high-wattage light traps. Here are 60 taken December 6, usual annual peak of the one annual brood for this species. Most collectors collect this species mid-day using a hand net as it is both...
by vabrou
Sun Oct 29, 2023 6:14 pm
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: Halysidota tessellaris Smith 1797 in Louisiana
Replies: 0
Views: 6326

Halysidota tessellaris Smith 1797 in Louisiana

A large number of very variable morphotypes in a species described 226 years ago.. 33 adults are illustrated in color from the state of Louisiana.

https://www.academia.edu/90658692/Addit ... _Louisiana
by vabrou
Sun Oct 01, 2023 4:29 pm
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: Every year I say I'm going to AZ "next year"
Replies: 19
Views: 5963

Re: Every year I say I'm going to AZ "next year"

The heat and humidity in Louisiana is atrocious (usually around 100% day and night). I would usually have (4) box fans plugged inside of my tent. One year I even placed a small 110 volt electric window ac in my tent out in the field. But one must modify the water drain by connecting to a long tube ...
by vabrou
Sun Oct 01, 2023 3:30 pm
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: 53 feet (16 meters) above ground
Replies: 9
Views: 2281

Re: 53 feet (16 meters) above ground

Chuck, This was part of my experimentation with operating light traps at different heights. There have been several journal publications from the 1950s-1960s discussing this subject, even one publication where a Louisiana state record skipper species was captured in an entomological survey in North...
by vabrou
Wed Sep 27, 2023 8:53 pm
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: 53 feet (16 meters) above ground
Replies: 9
Views: 2281

Re: 53 feet (16 meters) above ground

John Yes I have had that vinegar issue happen to me on occasion. That seems to definitely occur when yeast was added, so I never added yeast after discovering that. My wife and I would prepare large quantities of bait each month or so, taking much of an entire day, sometimes making 20-30 gallon siz...
by vabrou
Wed Sep 27, 2023 2:25 pm
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: 53 feet (16 meters) above ground
Replies: 9
Views: 2281

Re: 53 feet (16 meters) above ground

Regarding bait recipes, use anything available to you fruitwise, but don't add any citrus to the various other fruits. One can make bait using citrus, but only use citrus. Same goes for melons (watermelon, cantelope, muskmelon, casaba, crenshaw, etc., etc.), these are much less productive and often...
by vabrou
Tue Sep 26, 2023 11:12 pm
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: 53 feet (16 meters) above ground
Replies: 9
Views: 2281

Re: 53 feet (16 meters) above ground

John, Our fermenting fruit bait traps operated only for about 1,270,000 trap-hours here in Louisiana. But, we never operated bait traps more than about 7-8 ft above ground level, mostly our bait traps operated at a height of near 6 feet above ground. There was a reason for this, all of our bait tra...
by vabrou
Sun Sep 24, 2023 2:33 pm
Forum: Open Topics
Topic: 53 feet (16 meters) above ground
Replies: 9
Views: 2281

53 feet (16 meters) above ground

Location Louisiana, USA

Over 54 years automatic-capture high-wattage light traps were operated for 1,390,000 light-trap hours.
by vabrou
Wed Sep 20, 2023 6:06 am
Forum: Field Reports
Topic: Catocala 2022
Replies: 25
Views: 8000

Re: Catocala 2022

I agree with Chuck, Bobw and John Hyatt. When I began my past 54 years of non-stop collecting I was employed working 70-80 per week for about 7-8 years. And I spent 15-20 hours each week driving to and from work. Despite this dilemma, this is what cause me to create my various automatic capture ins...