Have no idea what happened with the criminal charges, but I can say that I have purchased butterflies from his company "Butterfly Planet" and have been pleased with what I received. I can't speak to the expensive birdwings listed on his site as I recently purchased some inexpensive western...

Thank you so much living planet for posting that video of a male O. alenandrae in the wild. It's incredible, I can only imagine what that guy in the video experienced. And to see it nectoring on a branch that he was holding, WOW. An experience of a lifetime. I had seen the second video of butterfly ...

I do recall the issue of criminal fraud charges laid against this fellow from Calgary a few years back, but never did hear if he was found guilty or innocent. In googling him I can see that in 2017 he and his family sued the Calgary police for malicious prosecution. That might indicate the charges w...

Beautiful video, thanks for posting. I was hoping to see O.Alexandra as there were many species in this video. I have never seen a video of a male O. Alexandra flying in the wild. There is of course the one of a newly emerged blue O. Alexandra male pumping its wings on a leaf that has been out there...

Love the Arhopala, and many other South American Lycaenidae.

Beautiful drawers Trehopr, the only problem for me is that with 85 drawers, if I mix things up I will never be able to find anything. And 85 is probably a small number for most.

You southerners are lucky, we just got 8 inches of snow in the Toronto area and won't see the first mourning cloaks until at least April (and those are the overwintered ones). I heard California got snow this week as well.

Never get tired of looking at O. Alexandrae, that would make a great wall poster.

I see a big one on eBay now at 28.2cm from Peru. That's getting pretty close to the 30cm beasts, but starting bid is $300 US.

That has to be the best deal for $20 I have ever seen. Very unique gynandromorph.

I remember the thysania agrippina from the John Powers collection (Ontario, Canada) was at the time listed by Guiness as the worlds biggest. It reportedly measured 308mm, a photo I found after goggling it. It was listed as 1934 Brazil, a female. He has since passed, but I believe his family still ha...

Love this species, thanks for sharing.

You have weeks of ID work in front of you to ID all 200. Last year I purchased a number of lycaenidae from a dealer in Peru, and what I did was start with google. I googled "lycaenidae of Peru", then clicked on images. From there, find an image that's looks like your item, and visit that s...

Have always used Bioquip adhesive for antennae and tails, but when it's gone I will go to white glue I expect. Even with Bioquip glue, it dries dark and shiny if you are just trying to mend a crack or slit. There must be a glue that is invisible when dry, I just haven't found it yet.

One of my favourite moths is the cross between Actias dubernardi and Graellsia isabellae.

For many of us, there was one inspirational book in our youth that was read many times and fed the desire to pursue this hobby. For me it was Moths of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter, 1912. As you can see by the binding, I have read this book numerous times and can still recall each of the mo...

A couple more.

The recent thread on catocala ilia forms inspired me to add a few more catocala forms. Whether forms are scientifically recognized or not, I don't care, I find it easier to differentiate among the species when there are recognized forms.

I am going to Kauai in late January, I will look for the black witch there.

The photo was likely just edited, no need for photoshop. Just turned up the brilliance/vibrance dial in editing and you get a beautiful brilliant photo, but sadly not what it really looked like. No doubt it was a beautiful, but the colours not quite what show in the photo. I see it all the time.