I watched it from a ranch in south TX that was in the path of totality. The "ring of fire" was awesome. We plugged an iPhone into a 6" reflector telescope and got some great sequential pictures. The phone isn't mine, so I can't show the pictures until the photographer sends them to me.

Collectors like us should do more to encourage youngsters to become interested in our disappearing hobby. I got started at age 8 (I'll be 75 soon) because my uncle, with the help of my grandfather, made an insect collection for the 4-H Club. I always admired it and decided to start my own collection...

There are lots of houses for rent in the Tucson area, which is convenient to most of the major collecting spots. Many people live there during the winter and rent their houses out for the summer. I was lucky in 2019 to find one that was owned by the girlfriend of a friend. 3 of us collectors stayed ...

Call the Guinness Book of World Records!

Actually the Great Plains tiger beetle (Amblycheila cylindriformis) is not the biggest tiger beetle in N. America. A. hoversoni, native to south TX, is slightly bigger and is the largest tiger beetle in the Western Hemisphere. As the saying goes, "Everything is bigger in Texas". Here's one...

Here are a couple of female glaucus from the TX gulf coast. They are both very large. I assume they are not maynardi because they are not from Florida, but they closely resemble my maynardi specimens in size and appearance. I too would like to see a genetic comparison between glaucus & maynardi.

Nice drawer, Evra. Did you rear your specimens from eggs, larvae or pupae?

Excellent displays, Trehopr. I was hoping people would respond with drawers like that.

Sometimes drawers containing multiple families of insects rather than a single family or species can be interesting. Here are a few of mine. Let's see yours.

Very impressive, Dave!
Here's E. atala (male, upperside) for comparison:

Nice specimens, nice genus. Thanks for posting.

Very nice moths, Trehopr. I like the genus Saturnia also. Pictured below is Saturnia mendocino from California and a pair of Agapema homogena from Colorado, which look very similar to Saturnia species.

The moth sheet photo was taken July 18, 2000. I've been to SE AZ on 3 occasions (latest 2019) and my sheets typically looked like this. Timing is very important. Usually the best time is about 2 weeks after the monsoon rains begin in late July. Keep in touch with locals before you go.

If you look closely at this photo, taken at Pena Blanca in southeast Arizona, you can see numerous C. splendens (as well as E. oslari, the yellow moths).

I haven't noticed any reports from this year's monsoon season. Has anybody been out there? If so, how was the collecting?

I also have a problem posting pictures in the correct order. I usually have to post them in reverse order (last one first) in order to make them appear in the correct order. Adam, how do you swap them around?

Vernon,
Charlie Swank, who sometimes visits this forum, caught this several years ago near Houston, TX USA. We think it's E. apta. Is that correct?

I used a female P. glaucus maynardi specimen as a model for a painting I did (see Insect Art, "Butterflies & Bees" on this forum). The blue was just as extensive as on this photo. Not all females have this much blue, however.

Could be burrows of Sphecius grandis (western cicada killer)