Suggest names of species to photograph

[nomihoudai]

Hi, I will be heading to the natural history museum tomorrow and I can take pictures of Lepidoptera. I want to use these pictures as rewards in a little game that I am currently working on and I wanted to ask what butterfly species the other insectnet users would enjoy to see in a well resolved picture? The collection does of course not have every species, but a large amount of expensive and showy species from tropical regions.

Rgds Claude

[Deleted]

I would enjoy seeing homerus.

[simosg]

Papilio elphenor and godefroyii.

Hannes

[africaone]

argema besanti, Actias isabellae
urania ripheus
charaxes lydiae or fournierae
Ornithoptera alexandrae or paradisea
Buthanitis
Agrias

[nomihoudai]

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't think that there will be a Papilio elphenor, but maybe a Papilio godeffroyi, I will see about that. Buthanitis is also a great suggestion, I will check which species they have. I think I will also have a go at Ornithoptera paradisea, there should be plenty of those in the collection, I can't imagine that they don't have a series. I'm not sure if they have a homerus, but if they do so I will take a pic of it.

Further suggestions welcome, I will only have a few hours in the museum and want to make the best out of the time.

For example, what is the rarest Troides species? I would check if they have that one.

[simosg]

Troides darsius, which only occurs at Sri Lanka. Troides minos from India is very rare also. Which museum are you going to?

Hannes

[Deleted]

Nymphalis cyanomelas would be good.

[nomad]

Gosh, you are going to be busy with your camera, I presume it is the Paris museum that you are visiting. Any specimens of any species discovered by A.S. Meek would be nice. Enjoy your day.

[nomihoudai]

Two guesses for a museum, two times wrong I will not go that far, only to the museum in Karlsruhe, nevertheless one of the largest collections in Germany and well over 2 million specimen.

I wrote down all your suggestions and will see how successful I can be, I hope to see at least a few of them. Nymphalis cyanomelas is actually a nice species and I wonder if any of the numerous Nymphalis collectors was able to get it. The museum also has an extensive Parnassius collection, perhaps there is a good one in there.

I already know it will be a busy day, every time I visit one I hurt my back as I keep standing for several hours above the drawers with my camera.

[creobroter]

any actias, attacus, anisota, citheronia, papillio glaucus, antheraea, darapsa, hyles, or samia are good

[nomihoudai]

It was a great day. I didn't take any pictures of moth, but I may do this for an updated version of the game I am working on.

I saw several special and rare specimen, I wonder who knows what this butterfly is:

[gauthier]

Maybe a hybrid O. priamus poseidon x T. oblongomaculatus ?

[Adam Cotton]

Yes, definitely a Troides x Ornithoptera hybrid.

Adam.

[nomihoudai]

Gauthier is very close to the answer written on the label in the museum. The label said T. oblongomaculatus x O. priamus priamus, and it said that it was a natural hybrid. I don't know if this is possible as I don't know the ranges of both species. Furthermore I don't know where this specimen came from as it was not possible to me to decipher the hand written label.

[Adam Cotton]

If it is a natural hybrid T. oblongomaculatus x O. priamus priamus then it would come from Ceram or Ambon.

There have been many artificial hybrids made between Troides and Ornithoptera in the past years, I think many were made by Detani in Bali.

Adam.