Dose all betterfly collector looks like this?

[lucanidae25]

I just came across this insurance ad in Australia about a betterfly collector. Dose the guy in this ad remind you of anyone you know?

Do you think this ad is trying to imply that all betterfly collectors are weirded??? It's good that it's alway betterfly but not beetles collectors. ;D ;D ;D

www.youi.com.au and click on butterfly catcher

[Rev. Redmond Farrier]

I prefer beetles myself, but I seem to find myself collecting more moths than anything else and a few butterflies as well. I am sure that is how I sound to my friends when I start talking about my insects though. (without that accent of course)

[saturniidave]

I have personally met more than a few who actually are like this guy! ;D

[starlightcriminal]

Ditto.

Rev, do you use a blacklight? I have a perpetual black light running, it's very unobtrusive and screens for mostly beetles and much fewer moths. In terms of numbers, that's about what you expect- more beetles than anything else with moths right behind and then a handful of butterflies for every hundred of the former that you find. You'll run out of local butterflies quickly but if you keep collecting little non-descript brown and gray moths (esp. micros) and black or brown beetles, also especially the small ones, you will never finish if you collect for three hundred years.

This time of year is great for looking in flowers during the day for beetles too. The bulk of fall flowers are yellow or pinkish-purple in our area and which indicates a specific pollinator preference that is seasonally dependent; check the fluffy centers of the various Asteraceae local to your region and you might find some colorful little beetle surprises.

[anthony]

Not necessarily wierd but dedicated to his hobby.

[Khalid Fadil]

I'm a butterfly collector. ;D I sure as HELL don't look like that guy!
Richmond's Birdwing butterfly...?

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[lucanidae25]

Yes, Ornithoptera richmendia the most southern Birdwing in the world and in Australia and the smallest one in the world. Only found in very small pockets of rainforest between NSW and QLD in Australia.

[saturniidave]

Indeed. Very hard top get and now protected. I got a pair many years ago but they are not A1.

[lucanidae25]

I've never even seen it from the wild but not that I was ever looking it anyway.

[downundermoths]

I have seen it flying at O'Reillys in Gold Coast hinterland on more than one occasion...

Barry

[cyane]

I've seen and/or netted O richmondia in several locations over the years in Southern Queensland and Northern NSW.
My first male I tempted down from the tree tops with a fake female that I had drawn on paper, cut out, and fluttered on the end of a stick. The male immediately came swooping down and I netted him. He was just about A1 and I was thrilled.
I was licenced by the Australian authorities to breed and export O richmondia, as well as other Aus butterflies, but my licence ran out and I did not renew it. I had no problem breeding richmondia here in Sydney, well South of its natural range. My flight cage was only 2 mts by 2 1/2 mts by 2 mts high. I sometimes hand paired them and usually had fake flowers with sugar water besides real flowers. One female laid 120+ eggs.
The pic is a male richmondia feeding at Pentas flowers in my flight cage.
David Hall
Sydney

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[johnnyboy]

I got my richmondia pair over ten years ago. The female's fore wing main veins have both split away from the body, it probably could be repaired but it doesn't look too bad.

Johnny

[lucanidae25]

I alway think Sydney is too cold to grow Aristolochia praevenosa vine, the frost will kill the vine over winter and the vine isn't that easy to grow. The larvae will eat faster than the grow of the vine and they only like to eat the growing tips, unless you have constant supply of food. It's very hard to feed 120 larvae.