Variety is the spice of life...

[trehopr1]

During this past winter I decided to pull together 4 drawers of Lepidopteran "variety" so I could show any friends or extended family some of the diversity present in this most magnificent order of insects. Like most dedicated lifelong collectors I try to categorize everything I collect or receive into respective drawers (which are labelled according to topic).

Now that is all very fine from the standpoint of the serious minded however, visitors whose enthusiasm is not on the same level likely don't want to peruse through 20 drawers to get their curiosity fix. So, with my wife's suggestion and input I present two of the drawers which I pulled together for time savings sake.

In the 1st drawer yellow "dots" placed below specimens indicate some of my "genuine" British specimens culled from 2 different collections. The Regal Fritillary (female) is a personal capture whilst the rest have been culled from various sold collections being parted out; along with about 10% from ebay.

My second drawer photo has a little less variety present due to the fact that I just could not bring myself to break-up the bulk of my Arctia caja and Catocala fraxini holdings. Anyway, they are both attractive moth species so who can complain.

Also, I had to stay away from most of the bigger things like Saturniids, Morpho's, Caligos, etc. (they just take up too much space) ! I'd need 10 drawers for that and then I'd be robbing other organized drawers for the stock.

So, as the saying goes "Variety is the spice of life" and to me Lepidoptera best sum up that meaning...

[trehopr1]

I've decided to show yet another one of my "variety" drawers for your viewing pleasure. This one hosts a few larger butterflies. Of the lot 6 of them are personal captures made in Bolivia in 1989. The M.helena and T.brookiana are special to me also, as these were acquired in the spring of 1976 from the New York based "Butterfly Company".

I was but, a mere sophomore in High school and yet my preparation skills were well refined. Back then, the helena set me back $10 and the brookiana was $2. Believe me, I had my heart in my throat setting that helena because 10 bucks back in the day was a lot of "wampum" for a kid to spend on much of anything...

I collected the pair of "Queen" monarchs while on a week long trip in Florida. The Catocala and Nessus sphinx were collected locally these last few years. I basically love em' all as none of them have ever come "easy" for me to own or collect. As the saying goes "champagne taste/beer money"....

[Alexander]

Very beautiful specimens and varied. But, in my opinion, it was possible to form boxes by families. That would be clearer. Or by region. I think for ordinary people this would be more informative.
And many thanks for showing off your awesome designs!

[trehopr1]

Hello Alexander, these drawers were pulled together with the "theme" of "Variety of Lepidoptera" in mind. I only have 4 drawers like this. They are what I tend to show ordinary guests or extended family whenever they come over for a visit. This is not the manner in which I present the rest of my collection. These are only intended for that "WOW" factor...

I have 100 other drawers of entomological specimens which are categorized by family or group. So, I do curate all my acquired specimens in some semblance of scientific order (as other collectors do).

Thank you for your kind comments !

[luehdorfia]

It’s a nice idea to have such a variety drawer to show to friends, easier to show and explain. I showed some of my subspecies drawers of burnet moths with neatly arranged blocks of about 15-20 specimens per subspecies and not many people get it, that you need more than one specimen per subspecies, to make a scientific valuable collection.

[nomad]

Sept 23, 2019 11:09:49 GMT luehdorfia said:

It’s a nice idea to have such a variety drawer to show to friends, easier to show and explain. I showed some of my subspecies drawers of burnet moths with neatly arranged blocks of about 15-20 specimens per subspecies and not many people get it, that you need more than one specimen per subspecies, to make a scientific valuable collection.

I certainly would like to see some of your Burnet moths drawers here, when you have the time.

[trehopr1]

Indeed, that would be a delight to see. Those are fantastic moths and I could easily see an enthusiast having several drawers easily.

[trehopr1]

Recently, I was going thru the collection admiring things and decided to post this photograph of just one of my 5 Ecuador drawers. Way back in 1988 at the age of 27 I joined up with a group of avid insect enthusiasts for a Tom Emmel trip to the tropics. We would spend 1 week collecting in Western Ecuador. Back in the late 80's and all thru the 1990's the eminent Lepidopterist Tom Emmel led "group trips" to exotic locales for those "seriously" minded enthusiast collectors.

During, that time period of 10-11 years several countries in South America were visited at very reasonable cost... Pricier trips for those with deeper pockets went to parts of Africa as well as some visits to Southeast Asia (including at least 1 trip to the Solomon Islands). These were still good times for avid enthusiasts here in the U.S. as far as travel goes. Going thru the airports was pretty much a breeze without much of the scrutiny and bother experienced nowadays. Dr.Emmel secured all the necessary permits to leave with your "goods" from those places visited; and U.S. customs showed no interest to speak of.

For me, Western Ecuador would be my very 1st trip out of country as well as my first real "experience" at exotic collecting of Insecta. Ecuador would NOT disappoint as early May there proved to be very rich+diverse in Lepidoptera (especially moths). Many other kinds of insects of all types were also present especially after dusk. Only the largest beetle species and a few of the larger Saturniids were absent; as these were things found during the months of Nov. thru Feb. as mentioned by the locals...

I would come to have such a BLAST collecting in Ecuador that week that it would serve as THE catalyst for subsequent trips to Bolivia and the Dominican Republic. The camaraderie I shared with all the many "like minded" enthusiasts I met was marvelous... From my stand point everything was fair game so if it walked, crawled, or flied there was a killing bottle for it !

So, what you see here is just a sampling of the marvelous insect diversity encountered by me while there. And I still have 4 other drawers something like this with very little "overlap" of represented species.