More USA Phanaeus
Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2022 12:32 am
Top image: igneus floridensis
Lower image: adonis
Lower image: adonis
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Re: More USA Phanaeus
Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2022 3:01 pm
Odd specimen labels. Are they a code to the actual collecting data?
Re: More USA Phanaeus
Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2022 2:21 am
I probably found my first Phanaeus (a P. vindex) when I was around 11 years old. It was so intensely metallic - I was really amazed by it. Before that, I had only seen these beetles in books.
Re: More USA Phanaeus
Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2022 4:17 am
Many of the specimen labels are temporary. Pure laziness on my part. When I don't feel like making proper labels, I just pin on a number and record the data in a notebook. Replacing the temporary labels has become a major project. A friend of mine owns some property adjacent to a cow pasture. Last year we caught dozens of vindex and texensis in pitfall traps.
Re: More USA Phanaeus
Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2022 8:06 am
When the notebook becomes separated from the collection ... it WILL happen one day ... all those specimens will become scientifically useless. Please put labels on all of them, even if only hand printed.
Adam.
Adam.
Re: More USA Phanaeus
Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2022 3:08 pm
Yes, PLEASE put proper data labels on the specimens! I've had to deal with collections (including at major institutions) that had old labels referencing notebooks, and it's frightening.
I print labels on my laser printer using the XLS files provided by the old forum. And acid-free paper you can buy online or at any office supply store. For any given page of labels I just copy/ paste locations with the date [blank area] 2022, and fill in the month/day with Pigma Micron 005 "Archival Ink" which you can get cheap on Amazon. This makes filling out labels very fast and easy.
As for longevity, I've worked with labels printed on the earliest printers, and they're still fine, though some are 50 years old. Contrast that with labels by even noted fathers of Lepidoptery who sometimes were lax with both paper and ink and the labels are losing legibility. When we combine the fading/running labels with the notebooks, it has sometimes been impossible to read the entry pointing to the notebook, whereas even on aging labels one can often figure out place-date.
I print labels on my laser printer using the XLS files provided by the old forum. And acid-free paper you can buy online or at any office supply store. For any given page of labels I just copy/ paste locations with the date [blank area] 2022, and fill in the month/day with Pigma Micron 005 "Archival Ink" which you can get cheap on Amazon. This makes filling out labels very fast and easy.
As for longevity, I've worked with labels printed on the earliest printers, and they're still fine, though some are 50 years old. Contrast that with labels by even noted fathers of Lepidoptery who sometimes were lax with both paper and ink and the labels are losing legibility. When we combine the fading/running labels with the notebooks, it has sometimes been impossible to read the entry pointing to the notebook, whereas even on aging labels one can often figure out place-date.
Re: More USA Phanaeus
Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2022 4:17 pm
I'm working on it. Been fighting cancer for a few years, so my energy level is low. I plan to photograph my notebooks so I'll have a duplicate set of data.