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Post by lucanidae25 on May 8, 2011 22:08:52 GMT -8
I know a lot of people here would prefer collecting their own specimens but how much is too much when it comes to collecting your own?  Just during easter I went collecting that invoided flights, car hireing, motel, petrol, food......... but I only found one female Rhyssonotus within Australia. This one female end up costing me quite a few hundred of dollars. I'm starting to ask myself is it worth it all for just one female? ?? |
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Post by Khalid Fadil on May 8, 2011 22:44:28 GMT -8
If its a rarity or its worth a lot on the collectors' market, then yes. If not... Well... Nope.
Luckily for me, all my collecting trips have provided good yields. No cash involved at all sometimes.
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Post by Chris Grinter on May 8, 2011 22:56:38 GMT -8
But don't you get any joy out of traveling and collecting the insects yourself? And don't you have targets beyond one species? Even if I don't find the exact thing I'm looking for I always have a plan B and come back with lots of other stuff.
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Post by lucanidae25 on May 8, 2011 23:15:39 GMT -8
I do like traveling but the whole point of my trip is to find that one sp and there're nothing else out at this time, this Rhyssonotus sp is the last sp that can be find just before winter here in Australia. My question is at what point the specimen is becoming too expensive for a collector? There has to be a point when the specimen is becoming too expensive for some one? |
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blasto
Junior Member
Posts: 32
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Post by blasto on May 11, 2011 13:37:53 GMT -8
It's not what you collect, but it's the experience. That lasts forever. I have made several collecting trips to South and Central America, and these trips are very expansive and sometimes I really don't get to "harvest" too much. Just like in everyday life we need to enjoy the process of achieving our goals.  |
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Post by dertodesking on May 11, 2011 14:02:08 GMT -8
My question is at what point the specimen is becoming too expensive for a collector? There has to be a point when the specimen is becoming too expensive for some one? Well I suppose from a purely financial point of view it's when the cost of the trip is more than you can comfortably afford...but I'm with Chris and Blasto on this - memories are priceless. I've spent money, not to mention time, travelling about looking for insects and sometimes come back empty handed. It wouldn't stop me doing it though as I have wonderful memories of days in the field, with some good friends, enjoying some beautiful scenery and countryside. I can look at the commonest specimen in my collection and be taken back in time to where and when I collected it... Simon |
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Post by prillbug2 on May 11, 2011 14:56:37 GMT -8
Broaden your collecting to include more specimens. Don't be so specific, or you will end being as disappointed as you were after this trip. Alot of times you don't always find what you are after, so include other options.
Jeff Prill
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Post by lucanidae25 on May 11, 2011 17:05:33 GMT -8
Well, when it comes to collecting I don't think any one would have unlimited financial resource and I do collect just about everything I came across but it's all to do with timeing. It is very late in our collecting season here, the only other specimens I managed to found were only one scorpion and one female king cricket Australostma opacum.
That's what makes this Rhyssonotus sp so rare is because it comes out so late in the season just before winter and there's nothing else out there. No one goes out there to collect in April in Australia. The specimens have to out inorder to be found, except the sp that's all year round.
I guess I'm not really a sentimenal person, I don't normally take any photos from any of my trip in Australia. It's just not that important for me. All my trips are specimen driven, not driven by traveling.
Raymond
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Post by lepidofrance on May 12, 2011 1:16:57 GMT -8
1. I leave in Paris, France. If I spend some time in a country where the standard of living is much lower than in France (Indonesia, Thailand, China, Bolivia, etc..), That, even with the price of the flight ticket, coming back to me cheaper than if I spent my holidays on the Riviera or Brittany! Of course, this does not work for Australia! 2. In my case, I buy little butterflies. I prefer to collect myself. What interests me, besides the pleasure of traveling, is being able to relate a species and its natural environment, to see how it evolves in this habitat. A butterfly that I've never seen flying loses its charm and interest! 
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Post by wollastoni on May 12, 2011 4:00:09 GMT -8
Yes but no country is more beautiful than Brittany ! I buy many leps but I never spend crazy amounts for them. But like Jean-Marc, I can pay large sum to travel and catch some specimens myself (let's say 3000 € for a one month trip to Papua). |
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Post by lepidofrance on May 12, 2011 5:31:36 GMT -8
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Post by wollastoni on May 12, 2011 6:28:07 GMT -8
True. You make some eternal souvenir when collecting in an exceptionnal locality. Here I was making some good friends near a Delias collecting spot in Papua.  Attachments:
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Post by lucanidae25 on May 12, 2011 11:36:33 GMT -8
I don't get this same feeling when I'm traveling and collecting in my own country, there's not much difference culturely in my own country but I do understand how you feel when I'm traveling to overseas.
This is why I'm trying draw a line some where for collecting in my own country, so I can save up more money to travel overseas. I have to cut right down on my collecting here (this is my only collecting trip in Australia this year) inorder for me to have enough money to travel overseas.
Raymond
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poisonarrow
Full Member
Looking for fellow entomologists in the SF Bay area
Posts: 109
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Post by poisonarrow on May 12, 2011 20:38:23 GMT -8
I think the hunt itself, including the contiuous frustration of having gone again to he wrong place, or in the wrong time, makes the feeling of finding the actual specimen so much better. I have been seraching for certain Lucanidae for years, spent fortunes on travelling to places again and again, got depressed seeing how nature continuously decreases and how difficult it is to actually find a pristine spot. Then, once I had a positive spot, I sweated for days, got eaten by land leeches, was scared of elephants, which would be very nasty if you walk into them, lost my way. Nature though was amazing. When I finally found my first specimen, I couldn't even believe it was that. The happyness that time, really outweight the previous frustration.
I have decided a few things though, I am most probably not going to part with any of the specimen that took a lot of blood and sweat to collect. Especialy for Lucanidae the Japanese have managed to breed everything in bigger size and better quality, so if I take the total cost and was in it only for money, well, these trips would have been a financial disaster. However, I would not want to miss these memories. As was said before, seeing the specimen transpots me back to this amaying experience :-)
I cannot recollect how many times I just wanted to be interested in something common, like cars and life would be so much easier, hahaha.
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Post by downundermoths on May 12, 2011 23:02:01 GMT -8
I too have been there...and done that...etc. Unlike you lot, I am now deliriously happy to sit at my computer and bid for/buy or swap nice specimens that I 'need'. When they arrive and are placed in their specific drawers, I am just as happy with them as any that I have lost blood, or risked my life for, in foreign climes... Perhaps this sweet euphoria comes with age Barry |
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