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Post by nomad on Oct 17, 2016 8:43:14 GMT
I can view Tom's picture now. Hope it works now for you Jim. I am looking forward to seeing those images from the May Museum.
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jedgar
Junior Aurelian
Posts: 73
Country: U.S.A.
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Post by jedgar on Oct 17, 2016 13:13:41 GMT
Uh-oh. Gee is my face red. My only excuse is I really shouldn't try and post when I'm as tired as I was yesterday evening. I can't believe I made such a dumb mistake. Thanks for pointing it out to me. Jim
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jedgar
Junior Aurelian
Posts: 73
Country: U.S.A.
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Post by jedgar on Oct 17, 2016 13:15:10 GMT
I can view Tom's picture now. Hope it works now for you Jim. I am looking forward to seeing those images from the May Museum. Good grief. I sure made an elementary mistake. I was partially right, it was a coding problem, mine, it was also the loose nut on the keyboard, me. oops!
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Post by nomad on Oct 17, 2016 13:16:15 GMT
I was bought up in a non computer age and I am afraid the workings of many websites are always very strange to me.
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jedgar
Junior Aurelian
Posts: 73
Country: U.S.A.
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Post by jedgar on Oct 17, 2016 13:48:20 GMT
I was bought up in a non computer age and I am afraid the workings of many websites are always very strange to me. Sometimes I think I almost know what I'm doing on a computer, then reality strikes and I realize I was dreaming.
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jedgar
Junior Aurelian
Posts: 73
Country: U.S.A.
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Post by jedgar on Oct 17, 2016 14:14:45 GMT
I'm glad the PDF file that I created about Jack May and his amazing collection works. Thanks for the feedback. I'm embarrassed to admit the sole issue with getting my photos to show up on previous efforts to post this was me. I left the .jpg extension off the files I was trying to link. At any rate, thanks to cabintom for pointing out my elementary error. Working with the May collection is very rewarding. I love getting to carefully examine rare insects first hand. Here's some photos of one in the collection that certainly qualifies as rare. I imagine that this species, The Lord Howe Island Stick Insect, Dryococelus australis, is well known to most everyone in the group on this forum. In case someone is unfamilar with this species here's a brief history of this interesting insect. In 1918 Lord Howe Island had been infested with black rats from a shipwreck. In just a few years the rats wiped out the world's only known population of these stick insects and the curious looking creatures were thought extinct from 1920 until 2001 when 24 individuals were rediscovered under a single bush on Ball's Pyramid, an erosional remnant of a shield volcano and caldera which is the tallest volcanic stack in the world and not too far from Lord Howe Island. The single bush was wiped out by a landslide but live specimens had been collected and bred successfully at the Melbourne, Australia zoo. Once the rats are exterminated from Lord Howe Island re-introduction of the species to it's native habitat is expected to occur. One of Jack May's grand-daughters told me the insect was given to Mr. May by a museum curator who wanted to be sure examples of this unusual insect were in museums. I'll be posting more photos of insects in the May collection as time permits. (Assuming I don't suffer another brain fart and forget a file extension!) Jim
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Post by nomad on Oct 17, 2016 14:41:45 GMT
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jedgar
Junior Aurelian
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Post by jedgar on Oct 18, 2016 1:58:58 GMT
Thanks for the link. I really enjoyed reading the story and the images with it.
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jedgar
Junior Aurelian
Posts: 73
Country: U.S.A.
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Post by jedgar on Oct 21, 2016 3:32:59 GMT
I wanted to post this while it was all still fresh in my mind. During an inventory today I found another pair of O. alexandrae listed as being in the May Natural History Museum's collection. Before long the case was located and the most cursory examination told me that the female O. alexandrae was another Meek specimen. Close examination showed that the abdomen was stuffed with cotton, the tag read "Janson & Sons, Great Russell St." on one side and "Kumarsi R., N.E. Brit. N. Guin., low elev., V.-IX." The males abdomen is also stuffed with cotton, but there are no tags with the specimen unfortunately. Yep, it was an exciting day.
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Post by nomad on Oct 21, 2016 6:06:19 GMT
What a find. I wish I had surprises like that. Thanks for sharing.
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jedgar
Junior Aurelian
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Country: U.S.A.
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Post by jedgar on May 1, 2017 2:07:00 GMT
Specimen in the May Museum of Natural History, Colorado Springs, CO. Labeled Taenaris schonberip (correct spelling "schoenbergi"), male, and shown as having been collected 9/11/1928 on the Fly River in New Guinea. It is certainly of the genus Taenaris, but I believe it to be a subspecies of schoenbergi, but which one? I've exhausted my resources looking for a correct i.d. on this one. Experts, please weigh in on this I welcome your input. www.grafixnpix.com/insects/16_9_22-1.jpgwww.grafixnpix.com/insects/16_9_22-2.jpg
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Post by deliasfanatic on May 1, 2017 5:34:51 GMT
It appears to be T. s. vanheurni, which is found in western PNG and the central-to-eastern part of Indonesian Papua. "Butterflies of PNG" shows that specimens from various parts of PNG are extremely variable and considers most of the named ssp to be synonyms of the nominate race, found in eastern PNG, keeping only vanheurni as a valid PNG ssp. Since this specimen is from the Fly River, that would fit into the range of vanheurni.
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Post by phantom-lepidopterist on Jun 2, 2017 5:17:31 GMT
In the Colorado Springs area on business, I had a chance to visit the May Museum. A quaint little museum, but very much worth the detour because there are some very rare bugs indeed (Urania Sloanus is most probably extinct, and they have 4!). Unfortunately Jim was not there and the Alexandrae were not on display. But I much enjoyed the visit nevertheless... While in Colorado Springs, I highly recommend a visit to Garden of the Gods park, and the WWII Airforce Museum.
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jedgar
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Post by jedgar on Jun 2, 2017 15:01:03 GMT
In the Colorado Springs area on business, I had a chance to visit the May Museum. A quaint little museum, but very much worth the detour because there are some very rare bugs indeed (Urania Sloanus is most probably extinct, and they have 4!). Unfortunately Jim was not there and the Alexandrae were not on display. But I much enjoyed the visit nevertheless... While in Colorado Springs, I highly recommend a visit to Garden of the Gods park, and the WWII Airforce Museum. Thanks for stopping by the May Natural History Museum. I apologize for not having been there. I'm really looking forward to returning. I've been back in Florida packing for the big, permanent move to Colorado to resume work at the Museum. Packing and prepping for the move has been a lot of work. I teeter on the fine line between hoarder and collector, yuk-yuk, and I've been living in Florida since 1971 when I moved here from Texas to work on my undergraduate degree in Biology. Graduated in 1975, attended grad school in 1978-79 and been in Fla ever since. Been in the same house since 1981. Amazing how much one can accumulate in that time. The home is mostly packed now and we're very close to leaving and heading west. It will be good to return. There are good changes ahead for the Museum. One of them will be a special display for the O. alexandrae. Thanks again for visiting. Jim
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jedgar
Junior Aurelian
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Country: U.S.A.
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Post by jedgar on Aug 28, 2017 1:15:41 GMT
I am happy to report that I have made the move back to Colorado and am once again working at the May Natural History Museum near Colorado Springs. It is wonderful to be back and I'm very excited about the big changes that are being worked on the improve the museum and make more of the incredible collection ready for viewing. It was a long 8 months in Florida trying to get things squared away to move. I made it back to Colorado, but my wife and our dog are still in Florida. Hopefully not for much longer. I'm looking forward to many fruitful years working at this fine museum and hope that everyone reading this has a chance to come and visit it at some time.
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