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Post by saturniidave on Oct 15, 2013 8:21:56 GMT -8
I had a look through this book at the recent London Insect Fair. To say I was disappointed is an understatement! I have had part one and three for many years and looked forward with anticipation to part two. It is garbage. As Thierry says above there are so many mistakes! I would guess conservatively that he covers maybe 60% of the ramaining species of Saturniidae not covered in the other two volumes. The African moths are a joke, gaping holes everywhere, and the Asian Antheraeas, well, I reckon he missed 75% of those out. I did notice the usual 'sermon' but did not read it, I was too busy laughing at all the mistakes and missing species. Suffice to say that is £200 I will not be spending! If one day in the future I can get a cheap damaged copy I shall, purely to make up the set.
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Post by saturniidave on Jul 1, 2013 17:16:43 GMT -8
I think the label reads 'Tasker' not Tucker. Tasker was a well known Kentish collector but was very gullible to the delight of the scammers that lived even then. Certain people would tell of a certain rarity to be found in such and such a place, and when the collector arrived a captive bred specimen would be surreptitiously released for the collector to catch. It could be genuine, but keep an open mind!
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Post by saturniidave on Jun 10, 2013 17:37:07 GMT -8
I too have heard many stories of people being refused access to various museum collections, and not just the B.M. Having worked in a large museum and also having been witness to various political and financial restrictions I can give you a good answer. When I was curator of insects I was allowed to take members of the public to view the museums many collections, likewise with the molluscs even though I was technically 'just a volunteer'. I did work and completely renovated and curated the insect and mollusc collections. At that time I worked under the Curator of Natural History, one of several curators in charge of the collections. There was quite a good team of volunteers in all the departments and we all made sure any public enquiries were seen, to leave the curators to do the daily work they did. One fine day we were informed we were not to be allowed to use the staff car park, which was always a squeeze but we managed. Instead we had to use a car park attached to a local shopping mall at £8.50 per day (if it was not full when you arrived that is). The museum did give a small allowance to cover petrol costs but that is all it did, there was none left to pay for parking fees. The outcome of this is that almost all the volunteers left, very few could afford to stay and those were mainly older people who had free bus passes. Personally I think this was all part of a plan to get rid of us and save money.
Later on they decided to cut back on staff, instead of curators of natural history, archaeology, ethnography and fine art they decided on one Collections Manager. As a consequence of this the collections were left unattended for pests to run riot among the insects and others, with many types and paratypes there to eat. The collections manager is too busy dealing with organising exhibitions, kiddies fun days and loans to spend time showing a member of public around the collections so that is why there was (in Dunc's case) a 28 day waiting period. If you had waited Dunc no doubt you would have had a half hour whistle-stop tour and promptly asked to leave after. It is all down to financial cuts, especially in council-run, regional museums such as the one I worked at. So if you are told there is a long wait, you know why. It is so the '12 year old' can find a window in her tight schedule to be pestered by a member of the public to see a butterfly.
As an aside I need to visit that museum to research some mollusc specimens, I wonder how I will do?
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Post by saturniidave on Jun 10, 2013 17:04:33 GMT -8
It is protected and he should not be selling it. Note he doesn't use the proper name in case it pings up on their list of restricted species. It is damned expensive too!
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Post by saturniidave on May 17, 2013 17:46:36 GMT -8
"I have another friend who collects womens panties! That is a very expensive hobby" New or used? From stores or washing lines ?
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Post by saturniidave on May 8, 2013 17:38:03 GMT -8
That is from Vadim Touriguyne, he is in the U.S. and I bet he is now in trouble!
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Post by saturniidave on Apr 30, 2013 16:09:54 GMT -8
At the moment here in the U.K many are trying to get a ban implemented. It is common knowledge now that these pesticides contribute to the honey bee population problems, but farmers are fighting to keep it. They are now trying to blackmail us by saying if they ban this pesticide they will go back to old ones that were more harmful.
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Post by saturniidave on Apr 29, 2013 17:10:23 GMT -8
Oddly enough a lot of scotch whiskeys are aged in old bourbon casks.
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Post by saturniidave on Apr 23, 2013 16:15:22 GMT -8
It has to be cabinets (wooden) and storeboxes for me. As long as the light and beasties are kept out I don't care what condition they are in. I currently have 15 cabinets of various sizes and around 40 storeboxes. Most are full, none are perfect!
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Post by saturniidave on Apr 20, 2013 17:06:08 GMT -8
Or they take several dozen specimens and sell most as 'Paratypes' to get more money.
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attacus
Apr 20, 2013 17:00:14 GMT -8
Post by saturniidave on Apr 20, 2013 17:00:14 GMT -8
Attacus erebus is not from Burma, it is from Sulawesi.
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Post by saturniidave on Apr 20, 2013 16:48:18 GMT -8
Bob, you need to speak to Dave Moore, he has spent a lot of time collecting all over Spain and has a few contacts there also.
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Post by saturniidave on Apr 20, 2013 16:39:59 GMT -8
The males come up regularly enough (but not cheaply!) But females always go for big bucks. I wish someone would try and get eggs from a female, it would be awesome to breed this. Nice acquisition Bill!
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Post by saturniidave on Apr 14, 2013 17:38:45 GMT -8
Peter, the place I saw them was north of Trinafour, near Rannoch. It ia superb place for several species and you can drive there! I took several males that time from within a few feet of the car. tullia scotica can be common there also if you hit the right week, as can A. aglaia and B. selene. Coire na Ciste on Cairngorm is also a good place for tullia and many high altitude moths. I shall be off there again next year all being well.
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Post by saturniidave on Apr 10, 2013 18:19:50 GMT -8
Peter, interesting your observations on epiphron. When I have collected in Scotland I find C. tullia behave in this way, catching the wind and disappearing. But when I went for epiphron two things struck me. One was how common they were in the locality I went to, and two how damn fast they can fly when chased, and there was very little wind that day. We were lucky in that we actually had a warmish day with patchy cloud, so we could see for ourselves their habit of disappearing when a cloud covered the sun. But they did not just 'drop down into the grass' they actually gradually fluttered down and did fly for a short time after the sun went in. We got there just as the males were emerging and they were in pristine condition, but too damn quick and wary to photograph. I got one lousy shot of a battered one later! Too early for females obviously, otherwise I would have tried for eggs.
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