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Post by tv on May 20, 2021 15:08:55 GMT -8
Based on some of the discussion about insect pins that have been going on lately, I started to think about how large that market would be. That led me to think about how many pins the average person might use in a year, so I thought I would set up a poll to see what kind of numbers some of the folks on the board are putting up. I assume we have everything from the most casual hobbyist to people that do this for a living, but I really don't have a feel for how many the average person collects.
At any rate, I look forward to hearing some of the crazy numbers people have.
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Post by kevinkk on May 20, 2021 19:04:19 GMT -8
Average? I didn't know there was such a thing. I voted 0-100, clearly more than 0, but less than 100. Perhaps when I finally give up going to work, I'll get out more.
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Post by thejsonboss on May 20, 2021 19:48:16 GMT -8
Waiting for an absolute monster to vote 100k
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Post by tv on May 20, 2021 21:15:23 GMT -8
Waiting for an absolute monster to vote 100k I know, I put that on there hoping to hear about the person pinning 300 per day on average.
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Post by wollastoni on May 21, 2021 6:29:39 GMT -8
As I collect Delias only today, not as many as in the past.
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Post by thejsonboss on May 21, 2021 7:11:19 GMT -8
For me, I take relatively small series of like 5 fresh butterfly specimens of each species and tack on a few more if I get a different ssp, form or county record. Even less for moths (3 or so). I find spreading pretty cumbersome even just doing ~15 specimens a week (0 in winter), though I'm a perfectionist and take my sweet time doing it so I hopefully don't need to replace the specimen.
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Post by yorky on May 21, 2021 7:58:22 GMT -8
Depends on the weather and other factors, in a poor year probably less than 100, in a good year maybe 1000, as your wants list becomes smaller the less you collect.
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Post by nomihoudai on May 21, 2021 8:47:05 GMT -8
In the years when I collected Hadeninae and microlepidoptera it was easily 2000 per year. A good summer night would produce 100 interesting specimen and I would mount 30 a day without being overburdened. (I also worked professionally in a museum during my studies and would mount 1000 specimen a week.) Nowadays, let me count,... 0 The only person I know of that says that they mount 300 a day and might reach 100k a year is from Louisiana.
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Post by jshuey on May 22, 2021 9:00:28 GMT -8
I add between 1,000 and 2,000 per year, but this is a research-oriented collection. Even when working with mostly smaller leps (skippers, hairstreaks and metalmarks), that means I need find space for 8-16 drawers worth of bugs per year, and I am very space limited. I currently have cabinets that will hold exactly 332 drawers, about 75% occupied. And I estimate that I can squeeze in another 48 drawers into my space. And them I'm done! (or I convivence my wife that I can spill out into another room, which is pretty unlikely). That's why I recently offloaded all my non-skipper North American bugs - not that I didn't want them, but I needed the space more than I needed those particular bugs.
I go though bursts of spreading, where I will mount a spreading board per day (14-18 bugs) for a month or two, and then take time off to curate those bugs into the collection. I'd guess that I have 3-4,000 papered bugs in waiting that I'd really like to see in the collection. Some from pretty interesting areas of the Neotropics. The hairstreaks and metalmarks are really just eye-candy, and I suppose I could let parts of them go at some point... but that would really hurt!
John
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Post by jhyatt on May 22, 2021 13:05:37 GMT -8
I add between 1,000 and 2,000 per year, but this is a research-oriented collection. Even when working with mostly smaller leps (skippers, hairstreaks and metalmarks), that means I need find space for 8-16 drawers worth of bugs per year, and I am very space limited. I currently have cabinets that will hold exactly 332 drawers, about 75% occupied. And I estimate that I can squeeze in another 48 drawers into my space. And them I'm done! (or I convivence my wife that I can spill out into another room, which is pretty unlikely). That's why I recently offloaded all my non-skipper North American bugs - not that I didn't want them, but I needed the space more than I needed those particular bugs. I go though bursts of spreading, where I will mount a spreading board per day (14-18 bugs) for a month or two, and then take time off to curate those bugs into the collection. I'd guess that I have 3-4,000 papered bugs in waiting that I'd really like to see in the collection. Some from pretty interesting areas of the Neotropics. The hairstreaks and metalmarks are really just eye-candy, and I suppose I could let parts of them go at some point... but that would really hurt! John I clicked the "100-500" bracket, but I did so assuming that this refers to new specimens personally collected in an average year. (The total sadly goes down each year, as my knee and ankle problems increase each year!) If I included specimens spread from the freezer or otherwise acquired, and pinned and spread, the number would be closer to the 1000 area. I try to spread a board-full per day (4-12 specimens, typically per board) when I'm spreading, which is probably 60% of the time. Jshuey's note quoted above reminds me of a comment my wife once made. We were in a previous house where I had filled a bedroom and closet with cabinets, plus one in the dining room. I was poking around the house one day with a measuring tape and she asked what I was doing. I said I was wondering where my next cabinet was going to fit, and she said "Perhaps in your next wife's house". Fortunately it never came to that; we've since moved to a different house with a huge (and dry) basement that is only 1/4 filled by my desk, tables, bookcases, and cabinets holding about 550 drawers. Cheers, JH
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Post by bandrow on May 22, 2021 15:20:44 GMT -8
Greetings,
I guess I better 'fess up - I clicked on the '5,000 to 10,000', as I average somewhere in the 8,000 specimens/year range.
This is a cumulative number from a variety of sources. The largest chunk involves bycatch from the Lindgren trap samples I screen through our bark beetle contract work - a diverse mix of Coleoptera, and a huge number of pointed scolytines. Additional preps consist of field-pinned Lepidoptera from my personal collecting that are deposited into the Carnegie Museum collections. Then I prepare a fair number of Cerambycidae and Scarabaeoidea for my personal interests each year.
Finally, I've been preparing around 2,000 specimens per year of beetles from light trap residues for an ongoing effort to create a species-list of Coleoptera from Sapelo Island, Georgia. This is made possible thanks to the efforts and generosity of two lepidopterists in particular, John Hyatt and James Adams.
The combination of work-related preparation, project-related prep and prep of personal stuff really adds up. The vast majority of the prepared specimens end up in the CMNH, but since I'm not technically paid to be a 'Scientific Preparator', I'll consider the prep I do as "personal" effort! Especially since it all happens in my dining room-turned-lab thanks to the pandemic!
Cheers! Bandrow
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Post by wingedwishes on May 24, 2021 13:12:26 GMT -8
I do a good number since I resell. With my travel plans to Belize next week, I anticipate that number rising.
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oslari
Junior Member
My profile is of the great Hemileuca electra clio. Teenage lepidoptera hobbyist.
Posts: 43
Country: USA
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Post by oslari on May 24, 2021 13:41:13 GMT -8
Man... Some of you collectors seem to be the G.O.A.T in collecting! Must be really expensive...
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Post by tv on May 24, 2021 13:54:34 GMT -8
Thank you to everyone that's voted so far. This has been really interesting. I'm actually a little surprised that we haven't seen someone break 10,000. My first design for the poll had 10,000+ as the top option, but I was thinking that there had to be someone out there who is taking in more. 10,000 only works out to around 30 specimens pinned a day and I know there are folks pulling in hundreds (or thousands) of specimens in traps. Still very cool to hear all the variety of collectors on here doing their own thing.
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Post by tv on May 24, 2021 13:56:51 GMT -8
I do a good number since I resell. With my travel plans to Belize next week, I anticipate that number rising. Just wondering, about how many specimens would you collect on a trip like this? I'm assuming you don't pin them all but paper some/most?
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