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Post by jackblack on Aug 22, 2011 2:37:54 GMT -8
Having commercially bred butterflies for many years I think it is well above one in a 1,000 is a gynandromorph.Maybe more like one in 10,000. Out of the many of thousands of butterflies I have bred only two Gynandromorphs emerged , one Hypolimnas bolina and one Papilio aegeus intersex form beatrix one quarter male three quarter female , both could fly very well. I also recently found a gynandro stick insect it was very intersting in the fact it was trying to mate with a female , the male half of the brain was telling it to mate with the female but the half and half body was not allowing it to physically mate , a lost cause for a species .
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Post by jackblack on Aug 16, 2011 14:31:23 GMT -8
yep sounds pretty risky. There is a distinct difference betwwen commercial and scientific , usually the scientific specimens can only be sent between scientific institutions and registered researchers and they are each allocated an export number which must be on parcel . I find you can talk to 3 different people in customs and each will give you a different reply , they are not even sure of correct procedure at times so it better to triple or quadruple check, rather than risk some hefty fines eventually.
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Post by jackblack on Aug 16, 2011 3:02:04 GMT -8
I think peoples sagging abdomens comes with age . As for insects yes cross pinning is the go .
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Post by jackblack on Aug 16, 2011 2:51:29 GMT -8
You are thinking too far ahead , worry about today and what you can do about habitat protection now if it makes you sad thinking about the future that far ahead . We will all be dead and gone long before then anyway . Maybe humans will disappear like the dinosaurs did long ago and the world can revert to normality ?
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Post by jackblack on Aug 14, 2011 2:25:52 GMT -8
Seems I`m stiring up a little bees nest , but provoking some interesting conversation /conservation. We can`t be thought of as working illegally by not reporting things . Thats not our job , the fact it`s all available on the net and public it`s up to the depts to enforce their own laws .Its all out there for them .Talk about being handed something on a plate. As I mention some are really ridiculous laws as I agree with others Some laws by extremists are also being produced by self centered researchers very sad indeed , they support protection of species because they get government funding then to keep them in a job ! But most real researchers I know don`t support that and have told me about the self centered few . Our government has supported my buisness and does recognise true conservation , I could have cleared my undisturbed rainforest for farming years ago but applied to farm it`s rescources instead and after much politics my buisiness was recognised as sustainable , I still have the right to log my forest but choose not to as I know I can make more out of sustainably using insects from the forest than destroying it ,so get to enjoy living here and seeing all the wonderful fauna on a daily basis .Besides animals its nice to have a pair of birdwings flying around in front of your nose during their courtship ritual . People that don`t like killing things should think twice , as a majority most are not vegetarian , so whats the difference between killing ranched beef or ranched insects. More food for thought . Suppose we all have our own ideals toward a perfect world , but lets be realistic. I`m still sadended at land clearing here
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Post by jackblack on Aug 11, 2011 3:25:23 GMT -8
PS;Hope you didn`t waste all that baby food !
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Post by jackblack on Aug 11, 2011 3:23:13 GMT -8
Yes collecting and rearing is great stuff and we can learn much to prepare to go to the next stage of breeding . I think Cerambycids is much more difficult than the Lucanids . Seeing the freshly emerged imago in it`s pristine conditon can be much more appreciated than collecting a worn adult at the light ,well done.
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Post by jackblack on Aug 11, 2011 3:06:28 GMT -8
Chis is unfamiliar with species and laws of other countries , so not familiar with some dealers adds on insect net. I can`t mention names , do some homework . Re Bill , well ignore it and it gets more and more difficult , I know from what you say you do your best like me , but it`s a money orientated world sadly . All remember these first threads now. My late friend Ross Storey died recently a well respected world Coleopterist said to me not long ago, Life will get more difficult with insect collections its just the start less than 12 months later his predictions are becoming more reality ever day . Somehow everyone needs to adress the issues in discussion , I don`t know how ? I wish I never started this discussion but its out there , how long can you put the blinkers on . A lot of people out there reading this , only a few willing to put an effort in , I admire the guys to willing at least to have some sort of discussion about it .Like I said else where , if it were elephants being offered , tiger bones or bear spleens you would most likely be upset . How about the rest of you come out of the shell and say how you feel really. See no weevil hear no weevil , speak no weevil, doesn`t mean that weevils don`t exist .Excuse the pun but I like it.
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Post by jackblack on Aug 11, 2011 2:44:59 GMT -8
Most interesting . Not just overboard by the Govt depts , illegal operators are causing these situations , problem is the Govt depts don`t have the expertise to determine the species , for them to do that will cost more in employing staff and experts , easiest to simply stop the trade . Am seeing it more and more in Australia . I have just been informed about more excessive paperwork and permits and payment I have to go through , every parcel I export now will be tracked by customs , even though I`m legally permited to export , all because of one or two people who export and supply big dealers like one in France for instance , no names mentioned who is selling protected West Australian jewel beetles , but not only him,as I mentioned in a post earlier , some people don`t care about conservation only the hip pocket and the $`s. There will be more and more of it , get used to it , don`t blame the depts I think , blame the guys who endure in the illegal trade . Not an easy subject , I think we have opened a can of worms that has been ignored neglelected too long , if it were elephant tusks or Rhino horns you would be appalled , well , should we be supporting the illegal trade making elephants and rhino`s out of other more innocent insects we have enjoyed to collect and breed so long , better sit back and think more deeply .Times are changing environment is shrinking so is some peoples logic.
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Post by jackblack on Aug 10, 2011 3:26:30 GMT -8
yes but my back yard is 80 acres of lowland rainforest , bit more than would fit the family album I`m afraid.
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Post by jackblack on Aug 10, 2011 3:17:43 GMT -8
Nice beetles even the non Cetoniinae I better get my camera out and show some down under beetles
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Post by jackblack on Aug 10, 2011 3:00:19 GMT -8
great stuff , more beetles Someone has moved the Coleopterists into action at last
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Post by jackblack on Aug 10, 2011 2:43:30 GMT -8
Hey at last some beetles are appearing , I thought for a while Coleopterists were rare and maybe becoming endangered from what Iv`e seen of late. Still a lot to be learnt about beetles /insects uncommon one place common the next.Or considered extremly rare as was the case with Phalacrognathus muelleri lucanidae ,27 years ago when large specimens fetched up to $15,000 + in Japan for a large pair , Talk was soon starting about protections , so a couple keen coleopterists hunted for it ,once the life history was discovered it turned up in rainforests all over nth Qld and soon breeders were producing thousands , ;)now regularly bred all over the world .Another feather in the cap for conservation and breeding .
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Post by jackblack on Aug 10, 2011 2:25:39 GMT -8
interesting views and can agree with a few , in Australia if species is being targeted commercially a dept can jump on it to protect it , a classic example years ago an old guy was framing Buprestidae and selling them to tourists , Dept jumps on it and protects all the jewel beetle species in that state WA common or not, yet allows huge tracts of the habitat to be destroyed for wheat farming , not much logic there .These protected Buprestidae are regularly appearing on big dealers websites in recent times. Then another state an anti collector says to someone I don`t like Ornithoptera and Ulyses to be caught for framing , the other guys says you can`t have them protected , he says you just watch , and in no time protected .Depts say reviews will be done on the conservation status of a species , but nothing happens , it`s not really endangered , it`s just to stop exploitation , but it has incited butterfly farming great conservation aspect , good for breeders . Then the recent one was Lyphra moth butterfly an Aussie dealer now in UK paid collectors to bring him specimens , brave collectors to tear apart an ants nest to find the larva and rear , this butterfly was soon declared rare and protected with a distribution of most of east coast of queensland coastal NT and a small area in WA I feel cannot be considered rare , but departments listen to the whims of a couple anti butterfly collectors and it`s all soon protected .Yet when the bulldozer comes and pushes down the rainforest next to my place not one dept says a peep about the protected animals and endangered Cassowary that lives there let alone the insects that have all become instantly extinct on that 20 acress .Yet I`m sure these decision makers don`t hesitate to set up a bug zapper in summer or pull out the can of spray to kill anything on their plants . We need a bit more logic and understanding when it comes to insect conservation , one person collecting on a hilltop all day for years in prime rainforest can have no impact on insects only the bulldozer can though .
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Post by jackblack on Aug 9, 2011 15:51:40 GMT -8
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