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Self caught specimens

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 5:32 pm
by Yorky
While it's nice to buy the specimens of our dreams there is something special about specimens that we have taken ourselves while out collecting. So let's have a thread about our prized specimens that we have caught, condition is irrelevant as a beater can be more prized than an A1 bred ornithoptera. Let's limit it to specimens netted by ourselves or bred specimens that have been obtained from a self caught gravid female or ova/larvae/pupae found in the wild not livestock bought from a dealer. I'll start off with this female small copper Lycaena phlaeas ab antitransians that I took while out walking the dog locally. I'm so used to fieldwork that I could tell that it was different on the wing.

Re: Self caught specimens

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:34 pm
by daveuk
Visited Tropical North Australia in 2016 & caught this female Zodiac moth (Alcides zodiaca) with a long handled net early morning on the 26th June at a place where this species roosts near Aloomba in Queensland
Not used a long handled net before so this was definitely a case of beginners luck.

Re: Self caught specimens

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:47 pm
by Yorky
Lycaena phlaeas abs radiata and caeruleopunctata along with normal male, South Yorkshire.

Re: Self caught specimens

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:50 pm
by Yorky
Abs extensa

Re: Self caught specimens

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:56 pm
by daveuk
Lyceana phlaeas enjoying a good year here in my part of North Wales Dunc. Have seen good numbers out & about & even had a male in the garden yesterday (31st July.)

Re: Self caught specimens

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:04 pm
by Yorky
2 prized self caught specimens of the silver washed fritillary Argynnis paphia. The first one from Buckinghamshire the greenest (non valesina) female I have ever seen. The second specimen is the first record from my area for over 80 years.

Re: Self caught specimens

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:14 pm
by Papilio_indra
I'll add another small copper to the thread: a reared example from a gravid female I caught in southern Utah (USA) from 11,500 feet elevation. This population of Lycaena phlaeas was discovered in 1990. It has not yet been assigned a subspecies name.

Re: Self caught specimens

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:29 pm
by daveuk
Beautiful specimen. That's a much higher elevation than any that fly here in the U.K.

Re: Self caught specimens

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2022 11:45 pm
by Papilio_indra
Thanks, most L. phlaeas populations in the western U.S. are at high elevations. I believe all L. phlaeas in California are found above 9,000 feet.

Re: Self caught specimens

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2022 8:49 am
by Yorky
Phlaeas is a very variable species as is the ringlet butterfly Aphantopus hyperantus, the eye spots on the undersides vary in size immensely, one form is devoid of eyes altogether, this is ab arete, I figure a self caught specimen, again from South Yorkshire, England.

Re: Self caught specimens

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2022 9:45 am
by Yorky
Drawers of specimens caught in my local vicinity, a reference collection of specimens before they all disappear due to urbanisation, also one or 2 notable captures from further afield.

Re: Self caught specimens

Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2022 9:46 am
by Yorky
A few more, some of the lycaenids are in desperate need of resetting if I ever get the time.

Re: Self caught specimens

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2022 8:05 am
by daveuk
Picture of a self caught male Papilio ulysses joesa fromJune 28th 2016 at the edge of rainforest on the outskirts of Kuranda, Queensland, Australia. Pleased I netted this without damaging the tails. This male was lured down from the treetops with the wing of another male specimen pinned to foliage on the ground. You only get one swing of the net. If you miss they sail back to the treetops within seconds.