Me, my father's, and my grandfather's collection

[Kaspar]

Hi!
This collection is almost entirely caught by myself (except the Comet moth, baught as a puppae by a local seller), every single insect on the pictures were collected in Madagascar. After collecting, the insects were mounted partly by my father, the rest by myself. This is about 3/4 of the entire collection, some of whats left just isn't mounted yet or stored someplace elsewhere. Most of the arachnids and some of the beetles are stored in ethanol, as you can see below. The heavy oak frames (broad, light coloured frame) was handmade by my grandfather before he passed away last year. The frames were his last project as a craftsman, so the collection has become priceless for me and especially my father. We have been working on the collection a lot lately, mounting the dried butterflies, identifying them and framing them in the remaining oak frames. We are proud of our project, and it has been a great experience between me and my father. We do not know all the names of the different species, neither their rarity other than their local rarity around where we lived. Some of the insects are poorly mounted, so we are rehydrating some of them to remount them later on. If you have information on some of the insects, i am glad for answers

Kaspar, amateur collector.

[Paul K]

Kaspar

Your collection looks great and is very nice displayed in those oak frames made by your grandfather.
But please do not let them hang on the walls in the room with windows. The sunlight will ruin all specimens faster than you think, they all will lose their natural colours.
In the past I had cases/drawers hang on the walls for display but I have arranged room without windows.
If you have no other place to store your insects at least cover the windows very good with playwood or some other heavy drapes so as less light as possible would penetrate inside your room

Cheers
Paul

[Kaspar]

Oh i had no clue, thank you for the tip. I will move them as fast as i can.

[mcheki]

The specimens in the first box of seven Acraeadae are as follows. Starting from the top and working down.

Acraea strattipocles. Oberthur. Male.
Acraea zitja, Boisduval. Male.
Acraea ranavalona, Boisduval. Male.
Acraea mahela., Boisduval. ??sex.
Acraea ranavalona, Boisduval. Female.
Acraea encedon. Linne. Possibly male.
Acraea igati, Boisduval. Female.

Hope I have typed that correctly!

[Kaspar]

Thank you a lot! I have tried identifying them before without luck. Written down:)

[mcheki]

Apr 22, 2017 19:05:49 GMT Kaspar said:

Thank you a lot! I have tried identifying them before without luck. Written down:)

If that was helpful are there any species in the other two pictures of butterflies (only) that I could possibly help you with?

[Kaspar]

Most of the butterflies (in those frames) are identified, but we are curious about a few.

    In the largest frame, if you can see the four butterflies which looks like monarchs, we dont know other than the plain tiger in the middle.

    If it doesn't take too much time, the couple of smaller orange butterflies situated underneath the giant swallowtail is yet to be identified, (they are identical as far as i know).

    We are curious about the small black and white striped butterfly above the giant swallowtail (on the left of its front wing).                   

We are working on this a lot, none of us have any knowledge about the insects, sorry if any are obvious. Thank you for the help so far

[mygos]

I cannot see any of the pictures

A+, Michel

[Kaspar]

Same problem again... What method do you use for uploading pictures? I think the problem origin is from the way i have uploaded them.

[mygos]

I personaly use www.hostingpics.net/

A+, Michel

[mcheki]

Apr 23, 2017 21:03:21 GMT Kaspar said:

Most of the butterflies (in those frames) are identified, but we are curious about a few.

    In the largest frame, if you can see the four butterflies which looks like monarchs, we dont know other than the plain tiger in the middle.

    If it doesn't take too much time, the couple of smaller orange butterflies situated underneath the giant swallowtail is yet to be identified, (they are identical as far as i know).

    We are curious about the small black and white striped butterfly above the giant swallowtail (on the left of its front wing).                   

We are working on this a lot, none of us have any knowledge about the insects, sorry if any are obvious. Thank you for the help so far

Three “Monarch mimics” are:-
Left: Hypolimnas misippus --- nominate female
Right: Hypolimnas misippus female form alcippoides.
Bottom: Hypolimnas misippus female form inaria.
Centre is Danaus chrysippus (male) or plain tiger.
This is a model/ mimic relationship. Hypolimnas is a Nymphalidae group butterfly.

The two orange ones under the Antenor swallowtail (Pharmacophagus antenor) are Byblia species. The photo does not allow me to be certain of the species. However probably B anvatara as they come from Madagascar.

The black and white one beside the left wing tip of the Antenor swallowtail I think is Neptis kikedeli.

PS I can not see the photos in your post now but had taken a copy onto my hard drive earlier so I could check some out for you. Lucky move!!