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I've viewed this Calgary, Alberta, Canadian collector/dealer's videos on & off for many years. His unbelievably huge, magnificent collection of the world's most beautiful & rare butterflies/leps/insects is truly a sight to behold. I am in no way associated or know this person personally & I am not specifically trying to promote his business. Some of you may already be familiar with this man... Check out his videos explaining craftworkers/artsy specimen fallacies & legal regulations he follows as an insect dealer (especially exporting to the U.SA.).

www.youtube.com/@anshulfernando3513/videos

John K.

You're right John an interesting character.
I have watched three of his birdwing videos. I would say he has connections to various birdwing breeders which is why the specimens in his drawers look so fresh. They also look to me as though they were spread (right away) after being dispatched. He probably has them prepared and receives the finished specimens which he then adds to his collection.

I briefly watched a video of him spreading and an O. goliath from a relaxer. It seemed to me like his skills were adequate for artwork endeavors as he went about his task as though we were just "dabbling" with some Red Admiral.

I know I am fastidious about my own preparation work and I am especially "tuned" whenever I'm handling something expensive. Yet, he banged out a male Goliath birdwing on the spreading board in like 5 minutes. He didn't seem any two "ginger" at times either in his manipulations of wings.

Perhaps, an individuals perspective (like mine) is different when you actually have to pay MORE for such a specimen then he ever will have to. Also, you only get one shot at doing it right the first time whereas he may have a couple dozen more to work with so most go into artwork and only the very best are kept by him !

So in short, I believe he does a lot of artwork preparations but, I believe he reserves his own personal (nice ) material for someone else to work up.

He is soft spoken and seems generally knowledgeable. He must have a bang up business to afford all those fine series of birdwings alone ! Or he is already independently wealthy....

These are of course just my takes on the short videos I've watched. I have NOT watched any of his videos regarding the butterfly trade or legal regulations that he claims to follow.

I have seen some of his videos too. I think most people only spend a few minutes spreading a specimen. Sometimes, that’s out of necessity because of the sheer volume of specimens one has to deal with. I only add a few specimens a year to my collection because they are essentially all reared. And since each one is several months or even a year’s worth of work and patience (for univoltine species), I am extremely careful setting each one. If I screw up, it’s another year to go from egg to adult, not to mention the time and luck it takes to find eggs of any particular species in the first place. I usually set aside at least a full hour per single specimen.

Trehopr1,

I believe this fellow definitely has deep pockets... all those cabinets, drawers, piles of the largest boughten, adjustable spreading boards ($$), books & all that space to house everything. He shows many entire drawers of a single or a few extremely rare/desirable species... most of us average collectors would be lucky to only acquire a few such specimens in a lifetime! This guy is obviously very well connected & apparently has set up (financed small independent butterfly farms) in tropical areas (Sri Lanka?)

It is obvious, at least to me, that he receives bulk shipments of reared A1 specimens, keeps the very, very best for his own private collection (like Lord Rothschild... ) & quickly sets & sells the more common species as fairly expensive artwork. Having said that don't we all, as collectors, rich or average income, almost always, keep the very best specimens for ourselves?... & trade or sell off inferior specimens? I am certainly not defending the guy, but you, yourself, Trehopr1, have said a few times, publicly on this forum, that you also do exactly just that... so can't really blame the guy... most of us serious collectors (including myself) are pretty obsessive about specimen quality & are always looking to trade up or buy better replacement specimens.

I doubt that he has them premounted & sent to him... if you properly rehydrate/relax bigger butterflies they are, most times, easier to spread than medium sized leps or tiny, dried blue or copper butterflies. I am also a very slow, careful, exacting, "perfectionist" butterfly spreader... I would certainly, in fact, spend 20 minutes minimum, to an hour, on a Goliath Birdwing/any birdwing/Agrias/Morpho etc.. I think, somewhere on one of his videos, he says his private collection is a half million specimens with 250,000 on hand for sale. Definitely the expensive specimens, for average collectors like you & I, deserve some time to spread, especially if you saved up or waited years to finally acquire them AND only have one go at spreading them! By the way we all have, in complete honesty, certainly myself included, & despite our best efforts, "screwed up" an odd+ rare/expensive specimen over the years!

He may, indeed, have the $$ & can afford to pay someone else to spread his A1 specimens... who knows... such speculation is just that... pure speculation.. I think one should watch more (than 3) of his technique/misc. videos before forming definite opinions on his ways/methods/motives. I seem to recall that a number of years ago he was involved in some kind of importing/exporting/selling problems. I personally have never done business with him... just posted this link for others who might want to see entire drawers of the the prettiest, perfect "cult" butterflies on earth....birdwings, Rare Swallowtails, Agrias, Preponas, Morphos etc.

Yes, indeed an interesting character...
https://archive.insectnet.com/thread/63 ... ae-charged
https://calgaryherald.com/news/crime/ca ... on-bribery

Well summed up John. You do make a lot of good valid points !

It is indeed just "stunning" to see the array of drawers dedicated to singular (great) species. He is certainly as passionate as any die hard I have ever met in the hobby.

As mentioned, he genuinely is a good host for his videos. I will make it a point to look at some of his other works and I'm happy that you brought this up so that others too may enjoy what they see....

Interesting thread. I need to have a look at his videos. I think this is the guy I saw a few years back with a drawer full of very fresh looking O alexandrae. If so I wonder how he " legally" came by those.

Hi Dave, well he does in fact have a video clip on that story. He shows four pairs of the butterfly which were apparently collected in 1967 by an Australian collector.

The collector passed away and his collection was subsequently sold to an art dealer. The art dealer then posted a video of the four pairs in a drawer offering it for sale.

Anshul (the man who purchased the collection from the art dealer) goes on in the video to explain how he was able to acquire them legally and have them imported to Canada. It certainly one of his better videos and I recommend seeing it !

Trehopr1 wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2023 4:19 pm Hi Dave, well he does in fact have a video clip on that story. He shows four pairs of the butterfly which were apparently collected in 1967 by an Australian collector.

The collector passed away and his collection was subsequently sold to an art dealer. The art dealer then posted a video of the four pairs in a drawer offering it for sale.

Anshul (the man who purchased the collection from the art dealer) goes on in the video to explain how he was able to acquire them legally and have them imported to Canada. It certainly one of his better videos and I recommend seeing it !

Thank You Trehopr. I need to see it again. I remember a conversation I had with Robert Goodden from Worldwide Butterflies here in the U.K. a few years back. The week before our conversation he told me he had been standing in a polytunnel in PNG surrounded by O alexandrae. Obviously being bred quite easily in fairly large numbers & a potentially viable source of income for the locals & a safety net for the species itself if things took a turn for the worst . There was absolutely no appetite or business know-how locally for such a venture apparently. No doubt the species still being classed as Cities 1 did not help. Have no idea what subsequently happened with said polytunnel or it's contents.

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 were dropped and he sued for the damage to his reputation, but I don't see any followup stories related to this. Anyone know how this all ended?

Borearctia... WHAT?? ALLEDGED criminal charges against this... "interesting character"? - so what's the real truth? He seems to have been found guilty?/or innocent?/or cleared of all wrongdoing? & all according to... haha... apparently some MISSING news article & another article that completely misidentified him & his family? No follow up either? Just the fact that he has posted videos only 1 & 2 years ago shows he must still be around & interested in collecting/dealing in butterflies, etc.. Anyone know more? I just hate to see innocent people smeared with no real evidence of wrongdoing... only hearsay & speculation that can wrongly ruin a person's reputation for life.

John K.

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 Canada species and delivery was prompt and the quality was good.