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Post by admin on May 26, 2015 1:58:30 GMT -8
I'm not even going to list what I caught in it yesterday(5.23.15). It was a obscene amount of specimens. It took me over a hour just to log the collecting data. I'm running out of envelopes and it's not even June. When you start running out of envelopes, that's serious!
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2015 4:04:43 GMT -8
I've had to double and triple up until I get more. Not to mention I'm going to have to get more boards and drawers.
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Post by jshuey on May 26, 2015 4:40:24 GMT -8
Here's an inexpensive alternative that you may want to try if you are on a budget. Szabolcs Sáfián accidentally "invented" a very cheap and super efficient trap for fruit-feeding butterflies. "I visited an IKEA store with a friend of mine who had 4 children a week before I left for Ghana in 2005 and when I saw this toy storage net, I thought it would worth trying to trap butterflies. I made small modifications, covering the holes on its side and opening a new horizontal gap almost at the bottom, and I was most surprised when I found it unbelievable efficient. It is probably not the catch-rate higher than van Someren trap but the escape rate is much lower as the butterflies face difficulties to find the much smaller entrance gap. It is lightweight to carry in difficult terrain and far the cheapest option in the market, especially if you want to use hundreds of pieces for monitoring. Our Cameroon project uses 80 traps at the same time!!! In Cameroon we also tested in we can catch fruit-feeding moths for comparative analysis and yes, we were successful collecting a large amount of moths with it.
We tested it in extensively in Africa and last year I also tried in Hungary with ordinary wine-sugar bait and it caught Polygonia c-album, Vanessa atalanta and Pararge aegeria. Also quite a few moths, so it works in the temperate zone as well."________ Someone mentioned that these cost around 2 euros each! I have no personal experience with these but it has the potential to allow people to be able to afford to run 12 or more traps at a time and not worry about the cost of theft. In the photo, I think he is sliding the bait into the opening cut at the bottom. And you can see how the side "Toy holes" have been sealed up. I'm not too sure how you get the bugs out - I think I'd use a velcro-secured flap over one of the holes. John Attachments:
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2015 13:49:30 GMT -8
That's pretty cool. Would be a cheap way to put out dozens of traps
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Post by cabintom on May 26, 2015 14:10:19 GMT -8
Having had little experience using traps, I'm wondering if that trap is wide enough to avoid the larger butterflies damaging each other?
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2015 14:55:13 GMT -8
Tom,
That's a good point. I don't know much about African species but I'm willing to bet some of them get big.
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Post by trehopr1 on May 26, 2015 16:08:18 GMT -8
I can understand using bait traps in a tropical setting. After all, that's how all those wonderful agrias and prepona largely get collected. And they are showy items which are often worth money. However, they seem almost TOO efficient for collecting average species in your little piece of America. Sure their great for doing species surveys, catocala surveys etc. And if your looking to find a few particular hard to find species than I can see why they are useful. But, unless you start culling out the truely good species or specimens and leave the rest alone; than you will very quickly be overwhelmed by the resulting Biomass. I mean seriously what WILL you really do with all that common papered up fodder. You'll probably never prepare it up. No-one else will ever want to prepare it up. You could wind up with thousands upon thousands of common things that no real collector would even care about. So I suppose that should a tropical excursion come my way down the road I'll probably invest in 3 or 4 at least. But otherwise, I'd rather collect things only as fast as I can prepare em' up. Any boxed up papered stuff will probably just wind up in the trash can upon my passing.
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Post by admin on May 26, 2015 16:59:08 GMT -8
Old butterfly collectors never die, they just keep filling up the wife's freezer with dead bugs.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2015 17:11:55 GMT -8
Trehopr1,
I understand and agree with what you are saying. A bait trap is extremely effective. I have not been collecting for years like many people. At this point in time I am trying to build a collection of the native species here in my little piece of America as you referred to it. I don't buy specimens. I don't collect anything that I can't catch myself where I live. I have plenty of species here to last me the rest of my life and i'm not interested in anything else. The damaged specimens are released since the trap doesn't harm them. I don't collect anything that isn't perfect. Culling is how I don't end up with a insane amount of specimens. I don't care if they are common. None of them are fodder in my eyes. A tiger swallowtail is just as beautiful to me as a emerald birdwing. I don't expect my insect collection to be worth anything to anyone except my kid along with the memories of us making it. I'm in it for that not the $
Joe
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Post by trehopr1 on May 26, 2015 17:11:55 GMT -8
I love that thought Clark.
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Post by trehopr1 on May 26, 2015 17:31:25 GMT -8
Well jtaylor, you certainly sound like a responsible individual as well as someone with a general appreciation for all things entomological. My comments only reflect the sort of behavior that I've seen over my many years in the hobby. Your intentions are well founded and well taken. Oh' I should also mention that despite my sometimes jaded or negative remarks I am NOT involved in this hobby for the money. I have had the passion of this since age 5 and I am now 55 and my interest has never wavered.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2015 4:06:46 GMT -8
I hope that passion stays with you another 55 years
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Post by jshuey on May 27, 2015 7:02:30 GMT -8
Having had little experience using traps, I'm wondering if that trap is wide enough to avoid the larger butterflies damaging each other? I don't know... I thinks it's between 10-12" across. But at the price, it's worth trying. Most bugs just craw around until you start messing with the trap - so it's hard to say. My old, homemade traps were 12" across, and I never had problems in Central America. John
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Post by modjojojo on May 30, 2015 11:41:24 GMT -8
Here's an inexpensive alternative that you may want to try if you are on a budget. Szabolcs Sáfián accidentally "invented" a very cheap and super efficient trap for fruit-feeding butterflies. "I visited an IKEA store with a friend of mine who had 4 children a week before I left for Ghana in 2005 and when I saw this toy storage net, I thought it would worth trying to trap butterflies. I made small modifications, covering the holes on its side and opening a new horizontal gap almost at the bottom, and I was most surprised when I found it unbelievable efficient. It is probably not the catch-rate higher than van Someren trap but the escape rate is much lower as the butterflies face difficulties to find the much smaller entrance gap. It is lightweight to carry in difficult terrain and far the cheapest option in the market, especially if you want to use hundreds of pieces for monitoring. Our Cameroon project uses 80 traps at the same time!!! In Cameroon we also tested in we can catch fruit-feeding moths for comparative analysis and yes, we were successful collecting a large amount of moths with it.
Hi everybody, Incredible, it is exactly the same trap method I use in FG !!! I thought I was the first having this idea I began using it in 2009 using the IKEA toy storage net. I made some modifcations (covering the openings and putting a heavy vinyle bottom) and left just a small opening at the base to let the butterfly enter. And it works quite well, it is harder for butterflies to enter but also to escape. Usally I got several moths (noctuelidae) in each trap and also a few coleoptera and cerambycidae. It is very light as it weight 250 gr (in the ultimate version) and I used to carry 20 or more when going into the forrest, I was putting them when going and getting them when coming back in the afternoon. My tip : I had a perch to put it at 7 m high with a hook. Placing the trap needs 3 minutes and taking it back the same ! and you cannot be stolen ! here i photo of my first version trap.
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Post by modjojojo on May 30, 2015 12:24:26 GMT -8
Here is the photo. I have calculated it was no more than 2,5 euros each trap, but you needed arroud 1h30 per trap to fix it. Also after two years, I had to replace the traps. But I must say after 4 years using them, I have just bought a few traps with a cone inside. The big advantage, in this last trap, is that shy butterflies manage to enter easier (I have observed many times butterflies looking for the entrance for minutes and then flying away... what a pity when thi buterfly you see is an Agrias !).
Mohamed
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