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Post by Adam Cotton on Feb 16, 2011 14:21:20 GMT -8
Maurizio, I am 4 years younger than you, but remember that I was introduced to butterflies on holiday in Bournmouth, when I found a small tortoiseshell on the curtains of the tea room at the hotel. I must have been about 6 too then. My mother got me really interested in insects about that time by taking me out on the disused railway line behind my home in Birmingham to collect grasshoppers and anything else we could find. At first I started a general butterfly collection, but remember deciding at about 11 or 12 that it would be impossible to learn much about butterflies in general and chose to concentrate on Papilionidae. I've come a long way since then (spatially too, since I now live in Thailand), as you can see here: picasaweb.google.com/thaibaggie/StudyCollectionRoom?authkey=Gv1sRgCNytkM3s65WduwEAdam.
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Post by saturniidave on Feb 16, 2011 16:49:53 GMT -8
Jeez Adam, I would detach my right testicle with a blunt instrument for that much space and so many cabinets! I am green with envy. And you live in Thailand! Have you been to any of the U.K. shows in recent years? I am sure we have met.
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Post by downundermoths on Feb 16, 2011 21:37:10 GMT -8
Now that's funny, Davo...We all know you haven't got a right testicle... LOL
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Post by papilio28570 on Feb 16, 2011 21:43:03 GMT -8
53 years ago at age 10
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Post by Alexander N on Feb 16, 2011 23:24:15 GMT -8
I started around age 6 when my dad introduced me to various preservation techniques with alcohol. At around age 12 I started seriously collecting with a bit of scientific knowledge. I am 17 now and looking forward to a career in entomology.
I never grew out of my bug phase.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Feb 17, 2011 0:38:04 GMT -8
Jeez Adam, I would detach my right testicle with a blunt instrument for that much space and so many cabinets! I am green with envy. And you live in Thailand! Have you been to any of the U.K. shows in recent years? I am sure we have met. I think the last time I went to a UK show was about 1986 at a guess, possibly a couple of years after that. The last time I was in the UK was summer 2006, when I spent some weeks studying the NHM Papilionidae collection in Wandsworth (it's back in South Kensington now). Adam.
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Post by lucanidae25 on Feb 17, 2011 1:03:40 GMT -8
I started when I was only 3 year old, by the age of 6. I already worked out how to kill them and pinned them all by myself with out any help from other people. I worked it all out by experiment around and I've already had a collection by 12. It was not untill in my 20's I can afford to travel around in Asia and now I'm totally hooked on traveling and collecting.
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Post by africaone on Feb 17, 2011 1:19:04 GMT -8
my first insect, in the garden of a friend around 9 old (a big colorful african cricket). Not well appreciated by my parents ! at 12 old I started really collecting with permission of my parents to go in the bush (what they believed !!! ;D) and the help of a schoolteacher . My first net was a plastic bag, my first jeweel a Salamis parrhassus, first Charaxes Charaxes (now Viridixes) eupale in the house garden on the dung of the dog, first eclosion Gynanisa ata in an old bird cage i used for it, first big coleo Fornasinius fornasiini netted (at that time a real rarity), first description Lobobunaea dallastai. I will never forget any of this youth events of more than 30 years ago (and so much more) Thierry
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Post by bobw on Feb 17, 2011 1:47:21 GMT -8
Bob - 4-H is a youth education program that came out of the American Country Life movement in the early 20th century. The program promoted agricultural (and nature) education in rural communities (so that kids would develop an early appreciation for farm living and not move to cities). It was organized nationally under the land-grant university agricultural extension programs (1914) and continues to be a popular way for kids to get early exposure to nature and agriculture. The four "H"s stand for Head, Hands, Heart, and Health. I never participated, but I'm writing a thesis on the Country Life movement and Conservation, so I'm familiar with the history. Travis Thanks Travis Bob
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Post by anthony on Feb 17, 2011 4:39:36 GMT -8
I was about 8 when I started
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Post by jhowens on Feb 17, 2011 13:06:01 GMT -8
Started when I was 5 or 6. Used PDB for killing and straight pins, like a seamstress or tailor would use, for mounting in cigar boxes. I was on and off several times with collecting. Had hundred or so specimens which I turned in as my Biology project in High School. After bombing out of college, I started again. Got a couple hundred specimens, more or less. Bought a bunch of beetles from the Butterfly Company in New York. I loved beetles, so I ignored the Alexandre which they were selling at ~$200, I think it was. DUMB MOVE! Stopped collecting when I got married. Just started again about 3-4 years ago. Haven't added much, but this year will be different! Or so I keep telling myself. Turned 60 last December, have leg and knee problems, so I'm gonna be a real treat to watch as I go out collecting! Joe.
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Post by panzerman on Feb 17, 2011 13:21:11 GMT -8
Gee, I guess I am a late bloomer! I started at 27. How? Its a neat story, I was reading a "Guns and ammo" magazine, noticed in the back ads, someone actually selling butterflies, moths! The ad was from Complete Scientific. So, I ordered some specimens, botched up the mounting, here I am today, never regretted that decision. I started collecting mostly everything, plus cheap stuff that first yr., now I have specialized, added cethosia group, to big five(saturnidae, papilionidae, charaxes, polyura, prepona) Hate to admit, rare coins are still #1)
John
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Post by boghaunter1 on Feb 17, 2011 14:44:17 GMT -8
Ah yes...the famous Butterfly Company out of Far Rockaway, New York mentioned by jhowens... brings back more great memories... their beautiful, glossy, full-colour brochures were truly inspirational to me in my teens (I still have a number of them..somewhere!). I also bought my 1st ever tropical "bugs" from them & well remember the 1st time I relaxed & spread the wings of a morpho rhetenor... . Very interesting thread...
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Post by cicindela on Feb 18, 2011 3:10:27 GMT -8
I was twelve, 60 years ago. First finds were June Beetles, a Luna Moth and a prionid. I bought the Golden Book on insects with carefully-saved allowance and was hooked for life.
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diddy
New Member
Posts: 16
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Post by diddy on Feb 18, 2011 10:59:13 GMT -8
Hello, when I was a little boy, 50 years ago, butterflies were always in our house. My father collected since the 1930s and he did it till he died, 1989. Therefore I cannot say when I started, I grew up with butterflies. But I remember some funny things. One winter in the beginning 1960s he reared an Automeris or Rothschildia species. The only food in winter was primrose (cowslip). So we went to all the gardeners around and bought all the plants. One summer we went out every day with our van and an axe to take hawthorne, oak and others for some hundreds of larvae (A. selene, luna, R. jaccobaea...). Exotic lifematerial was not easy to get at this time. My father had good connections to France at this time and his partner´s name was Chaminade or so. In 1964 we were very proud to get 4 pupae of Agrema mittrei. 2 males and one female hatched. At this time we did not know the foodplants of mittrei. This was my beginning. Now I rear only Arctiids and some selected Bombyces and Diuranae.
Regards Dietmar
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