Read the latest Conservation Matters column in the News of the Lepidopterists Society. A really nice piece by Robert Pyle entitled - "Keep nets in the hands of kids - and others". As an aside - I still see plenty of young adults interested in leps - some with nets - but more often with cam...

Check also "Papillons de Guyane" website : http://papillons-de-guyane.fr/papillons/ssfamille/alt.php?id=2&ssfamille=19&alt=19 Tons of Hesperiidae there. A quick check just lists Damas clavus. Nick Grishin has sequenced the bug in question, and is pretty sure that it is new. john

So John, if he apparently has unidentifiable, possibly new species, what's next? You'd mentioned genitalia dissection. If he described them as new species, then at least the world sees them and it's open to argument; if they sit in a drawer with a few photos only here, what good is it? Well, first ...

Hello John, Was wondering if you collect skippers from here in the US ? Do you have much in the way of "holdings" from here in the US or have you specialized more on exotic skippers ? A friend of mine happens to be one of the co-authors of "a Field guide to the skippers of Illinois&q...

#1 and 2 - Definitely a Damas species so says Nick Grishin. Probably no name associated with it.

This is very interesting, though outside of my scope. If you can Stump The Shuey, you've done well. Good luck. It's not really that hard to stump me... All you have to do is take a look at my personal collection and see the drawers of random, little brown guys that I have yet to place into a proper...

1 and 2 - I looked through the relevant dead bugs I have - and nothing jumped out. I doubt that they have anything to do with Damas. All my female Damas clavus have a "purple sheen" on the ventral HWs, and the Damas horridus males I have are so black, I just can't imagine a female would lo...

1 and 2 Unknowns - these are a mystery. These are large bugs - right? Almost as large as the Calpodes? The pattering is odd. On the FW, you have a broad dash in Evans' space 1b, AND a long dash confined to the lower portion of the cell. This is almost the same as you see in female Damas clavus (but ...

If you believe the above cladogram and go the subgenus route - the cladogram would indicate that Prepona praeneste would also be a member of the Agrias subgenus. The alternative is that it would be one of 5 or six other subgenera within Prepona... Plus recognizing Agrias as a subgenus (while not reg...

I still find it hard to believe that people call these Prepona "Agrias", given how easily they hybridize (not to mention the morphological and genetic studies that originally synonymized the genus).

John

It happens - but they do not get thrown away. They go to other institutions. I haven't heard of this from an entomological perspective, but herbaria in the Midwest have been consolidating. Indiana University took in most of the smaller university collections here. Missouri Botanical Gardens took in ...

Well, I'm glad we put fear to bed with science. Interesting that John notes ticks pass over Permathrin and go to sleep, given that it killed the ants and yellowjackets. In the case of the latter, they'd fall from the nest twitching, then die. None flew off. The die-off and falling wasps covered two...

I find the thought of spraying ones clothing with any kind of chemical designed to kill smaller creatures disturbing ! If you spray your clothing and you are tramping around in natural habitats in warm weather then you are surely sweating and these chemical tainted clothes are rubbing against the s...

It's called being cautious.

john

Thank you all for such quick responses. I thought it was from that group but could never find a picture of the species that matched this one. I thought it may have been something unusual due to the time it was in flight, approx. 23.30 local. Indeed a marvellous place John. I had the good fortune to...

Hopefully Jshuey will be able to identify it. Adam. Indeed I can. The pointy FWs are reasonably diagnostic - Taygetis mermeria excavata. The location you took it at south of the Guacamayo Bridge is an amazing place to collect. Broadleaf forest on mostly limestone on the south side, pine / oak / gra...

Hi, Do you know if there is an impact on future DNA analysis if the material has been subjected to long term desiccation ( below 46 Celsius?) Best regards Emmanuel Yes. I used a drying oven early in my career, and then later had some of those bugs "barcoded". They failed dramatically - wh...

Is the vertical line an actual scent brand? I've never seen anything like that! How did you even think that? It would never have crossed my mind. Amazing. Well, male skippers are pretty vain when it come to how they smell. So anytime you see something wierd - it's probably a phermone delivery syste...

Is the vertical line an actual scent brand? I've never seen anything like that!

Jellybean, These were from a Latin American collector , shipped through the postal services to my home address. I was not even aware that they were coming, and FWS ended up with the bugs. They called me, I told then that I didn't know what most of the species were (true - these were un-IDed Hesperii...