If you don't go out, you get nothing

[Chuck]

This isn't a field report per se, it's reflection on being in the field.

Looking back on my 2023 research, I went over a month afield chasing Tiger Swallowtails before I captured one. That's a lot of work with about zero payoff.

There's been days I think: it's cool and rainy, I don't want to go. But I go anyway.

There's been nights I think: it's cool and almost a full moon, why bother setting up the MV, checking it at 4:45am, and tear in down again?


And, not surprisingly, if I don't go afield, or don't set up the light, I get nothing.

HOWEVER, now and then, when I do suppress the excuses, I do get something good- even great. Two years ago it was a sphingid from outside our area; this year it was a long-tailed Tiger Swallowtail.

Thoughts? I can't be the only one with excuses. What have you found when you did it anyway?

[KKarns]

Right on Chuck! When someone comments on my sizable Coleoptera collection, I say it's not that I have better luck and find more beetles than anyone else, it's just that I probably work harder than most!

[Cabintom]

I believe that this philosophy can also apply to habitat (in addition to weather or time of day). Most of my most exciting records here in DRC were captured in degraded habitats. I think many collectors who come to the tropics aim to do their collecting in pristine habitats (and there's certainly logic to this) and naturally pass-by "less optimal" locations.

Back in the day, when you you could safely camp in the forest and travel around relatively freely, lots collectors would visit Mt. Hoyo, here in Ituri. A common staging point was Nyankunde, which had an airstrip, hospital and a significant ex-pat community given the size of the village. Nyankunde is not all that biogeographically interesting and so it seems very few bothered to do any collecting in the area.
I've collected the holotype of Neptis morosopsis and discovered a colony of Euchrysops kabrosae at the top of the hill directly behind the hospital.