How to spread a pepsis tarantula hawk wasp ?

[58chevy]

Here is a Pepsis collection I found on the web. Don't know whose it is.

[Trehopr1]

Wow, 58chevy that is indeed a very impressive top drawer.
The bottom one (not so much) as the smaller ones in that drawer are all out of California and the much larger Scoliid wasp females are easily obtainable through dealers (I have three myself).

I realize that these are not yours but, whoever is the owner of that top drawer has a quite expensive undertaking there.

Thank you for posting the photograph.

[AggieEnto]

Here is a Pepsis collection I found on the web. Don't know whose it is.

That’s a really nice collection there. I hope to have something similar in due time.

[58chevy]

Here are some of my larger USA wasps, which are smaller than some of the S. American giants pictured earlier. The scoliid on the left is from the Lower Rio Grande Valley of TX.

[Trehopr1]

Those are quite the hymenoptera holdings that you have there 58chevy !

In that upper photograph you have more of that order pictured then I have in my entire collection.

[benihikage92]

As Christof said, I mount wasps upside down. You can put all antennae, legs, and wings of a wasp on one plane surface. All you need is a piece of styrofoam with a shallow groove.

1st picture
Vespa dybowskii Worker

2nd picture
Vespa mandarinia Queen
Vespa analis Queen
Vespa dybowskii Queens and Workers
Vespa crabro Worker

[vabrou]

benihikage92

I have noted over the 3 decades of the websites digital age that the persons that want to show others what a spiffy job they do in pinning out their specimens with the legs spread wide are most often new to collecting insects. I have only one question for you.

1. What are you going to do when your collection reaches 1 million to 2 million specimens in size?

I have collected here at my home 124 million insect specimens in a single day (24-hours) using hundreds of automatic capture insect traps. I cannot process but a tiny percentage of this massive quantity. So I pick and chose at most a few hundred daily, sometimes on rare occasions pinning and labeling +/- 700-800 insects per day. But these have to be dried for several days and I accelerate that in large batch amounts using a specially designed low temperature drying oven. I collect here every day of every year, and have done so for 55 consecutive years. Specimens are automatically collected but I pick up the results every day and process them every day.

The answer is you will need a warehouse to house them all with legs spread widely, or you will need to hire help to process them all, and even more help to keep this huge amount of storage drawers fumigated. And all of this will require even more costly temperature and humidity controls.

I offer you another opinion (an alternative method) about these matters. You eventually will find out the museums and university collections of present day house hundreds of millions of specimens worldwide. And some of these institutions will not accept any insect specimens with legs sticking out in all directions on pinned insects. Beetle collectors do these same detrimental things. I can also tell you that in 10-20 years the outstretched legs on the specimens in your photos will not be there then. They will have broken off long past. Once you sell or donate your collection, you no longer will have any say-so about it. Others will not pussyfoot around playing with going to extremes to prevent breakage on specimens they have no personal interest in, as specimens that you store with larger spaces between specimens in time will eventually be bunched up to shove more specimens into the same available storage areas.

Consider, the method I have used and illustrated for my collected hymenoptera in my 6 images provided here and in the next post. These six images are just handy examples of temporary storage boxes I use to transfer or ship pinned dried insects. Consider tucking all 6 legs against the thorax/abdomen areas.

[vabrou]

benihikage92

three more examples

Vernon

[Trehopr1]

Hello Vernon,

I think it can be said here that those of us who maintain our own collections have a great passion for the science and enjoy a certain level of field work. Yet, we are also mere hobbyists with differing levels of interest and time to give to this passion.

Some of us are aesthetic collectors (myself included). We very much appreciate the varied beauty found in insects. Whether we focus on just one order of insects or enjoy the broad palette of orders; we try to make them look as good or lifelike as we can present them.

I suppose aesthetic collectors are in a way insect "taxidermists". We are not necessarily interested in how many we can stuff in a drawer, or how extensive we can make our collections. We just appreciate choice specimens and their optimal presentation along with (of course) accurate data to lend them scientific importance.

It is what makes us happy in our hobby and although someday it may be out of our hands as to how our collections are treated; at least we know we enjoyed it OUR way and on another "level" of appreciation.

[benihikage92]

Vernon

Thank you for your advice. However, the environments we are in are very different. As a result, approaches to this hobby are different. Living in central Tokyo, my collection will never grow to 1 million. I haven't counted how many specimens I have, but it's less than thirty thousand. I collect much less than you do. I'm not as lucky as you are.

Also, as Trehopr1 put it nicely, there are aesthetic collectors. I'm also one of them. I spend more time per specimen.

By the way, I am probably as old as you are. I'm not new to this hobby. I have been collecting insects since I was 5 or 6 years old. I'm sure my collection size won't double before I breathe my last.

Kuni

Doliops, Pachyrrhynchus, and other weevils
My beetle specimens with legs sticking out in all directions!

[wollastoni]

As Christof said, I mount wasps upside down. You can put all antennae, legs, and wings of a wasp on one plane surface. All you need is a piece of styrofoam with a shallow groove.

1st picture
Vespa dybowskii Worker

2nd picture
Vespa mandarinia Queen
Vespa analis Queen
Vespa dybowskii Queens and Workers
Vespa crabro Worker

Very smart ! And great result!
Thank you for the tip ! I will try it on my Pepsis.

[benihikage92]

Vernon

Having said what I wanted to say, we still need to solve our problem of what to do with our collection after we are gone. I hear many people here are having a hard time finding places to house their collections after their death. Major museums don't have funds to make storage places for more insect collections. Passing on our collections to the next-generation enthusiasts would be one of the ways to solve this problem. Here, things are easier if the specimens have aesthetic values as well.

Kuni

[Trehopr1]

Hello benihikage92,

That is a stunning and beautifully presented selection of Curculionidae !

Also, just spaced enough to allow a clear view of each individual species and it's possible variation. All scientific data in place.

This is exactly what I'm talking about.

VERY well done indeed !