Interesting request. Here is a quick photo of my drawer covering these two species. Any help? I can take close up pictures of individual specimens if you tell me which ones. I hope that I have the identifications correct. Since they're tiled and the HW spot in space 3 is often covered, it's difficu...

For the uninitiated... Papilio mechowi mechowi Males https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/42674730/original.jpeg https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/42674840/original.jpeg 11/XI/2017 Near Mbogi, Ituri (1°41'55"N, 30°07'35"E) 1250-1300m https://inaturalist...

Hey all, can I solicit some help with some amateur science and testing a hypothesis? After a recent visit to ABRI (African Butterfly Research Institute), and reorganizing the mechowi & gallienus boxes there, I think I've finally figured out a relatively certain way to separate the 2 species. I'm...

Is this an infrequently encoutered species ? Might be considered an "uncommon" species. Though I have a hunch that in the right place at the right time of the year, they'd be numerous enough. Are they drawn to bait ? Not that I'm aware. From my experience, Nymphalinae aren't fructivorous ...

First, a taxonomic note: This is neither a P r otogoniomorph a (note the spelling) nor is it a Salamis . Recent genetic studies have shown that it's correctly placed within Junonia , which makes sense to me. Here's one of my specimens: 19/iii/2016 Near Mbogi, Djugu Territory, Ituri (1°41'55"N, ...

As I understand it, it's become difficult to export material out of Madagascar.
If iNaturalist is any indication it's not rare.

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...

As silly as this sounds; are you able to collect butterflies much of the year or are there a few specific months when butterfly diversity is it a high point and those given months are the best times ? I collect whenever I can. My home province is, to put it bluntly, in chaos, so for the past few ye...

I've recently modified this set-up slightly. I'm now using a black background beneath the specimens which cuts down on the amount of light bouncing back into the camera. The benefit is an increased contrast and visibility of wing patterns and colours (the white background tended to overwhelm dark sp...

Does GBIF hold onto the data even after it's been pulled from iNat?

I hope you're not discouraged by the comments you're receiving, but see that this forum is full of passionate people who desire to see you succeed in the science/hobby and do it well. I'd recommend you directly imbed, into this thread, the photos (dorsal/ventral) of the specimens causing you the mos...

Either a giant Dynastes or a tiny Chameleon or maybe a bit of both? (I may have staged the photo...)

Another case supporting the appeal for more expert Identifiers. In many cases in developing countries, it's not experts on any particular class that takes the photos, it's someone with some volunteer/ Non-Governmental organization- and they really do get to remote places, and often for extended per...

I'm the most active identifier of Sub-Saharan butterflies on iNaturalist & probably among the top 5 butterfly observers north of South Africa (I haven't checked, so I'm not sure where I "rank.") Unfortunately, due to the 'majority vote is correct' policy, many experts do not want to co...

Back tracking a little, since I can't believe I had forgotten this... Day 9 - July 13 th (Bamokandi) So, in the morning, despite the rain I had set-up my two traps. I figured that maybe the sun would come out at some point, so what could it hurt? At the end of the day, I went back to check on the tr...

Tent? Doesn’t someone give you their home? It depended on the location, but yeah that's the usual thing that happens. Guests get the beds/house and the hosts find other sleeping arrangements. The tent helped minimize the inconvenience we caused and, frankly, gave me some measure of control over my ...

Day 10 - July 14 th (Bamokandi - Bima) Bima was the last congregation we planned to visit before turning around and heading back to Manonga to catch the plane (Day 15). From Bamokandi we needed to travel 16km: 8km along the main road and then veering north towards the river, 8km more through the fo...

Day 9 - July 13 th (Bamokandi) By this point of the trip, honestly, I was exhausted, so it was a good thing we planned for only minimal work activities in the late afternoon. In spite of the exhaustion, I had figured I'd get an early start and spend most of the morning leisurely strolling forest pa...

Do you bring an obligatory gift for the chief or church leaders? Not really. We'll give $10USD to the pastor to contribute to the cost of feeding us. If there's an obvious need and we can help in the moment, we'll do that too (we left behind a few tarps, I gave away some fishing lures and gave a pa...