ren
Aurelian
Natural History Fan
Posts: 100
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Post by ren on Oct 12, 2018 13:41:48 GMT
What percentage of butterflies for sale are farmed? Anyone have a clue about this?
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Post by exoticimports on Oct 21, 2018 14:03:17 GMT
Overall 99%. This takes into account the common commercial material.
Wild caught A+ specimens might be 1% of what field collectors encounter particularly with rare and hard to capture species
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Post by africaone on Oct 21, 2018 20:10:02 GMT
Overall 99%. This takes into account the common commercial material. Wild caught A+ specimens might be 1% of what field collectors encounter particularly with rare and hard to capture species I don't know what kind of butterflies you are buying …. no more than than some percents are farmed ! even the Ornithoptera (that must be be farmed to be commercialised) are caught in the wild. Morpho, Troides, Ornithoptera, some Papilio that are the most farmed represent only a small part of the total of the commercial material.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Oct 21, 2018 20:28:53 GMT
It's dependent on location and species, but certainly the majority of specimens offered are wild caught, not farmed. Birdwings, some Morphos, and many Saturniidae are a major exception to the latter.
Think about the large number of common Indonesian Papilionidae offered in quantity, for example: Papilio ulysses, Graphium androcles, many other Papilio and Graphium, many common Pieridae, etc. You'll notice a similarity: the large quantities are always males. Females are few and far between, and sold at much higher prices. If these were reared, females would be equally common. With species that don't "puddle", such as Nymphalidae, you'll find a closer sex ratio, but even with those, females will be scarcer and more expensive because they're more difficult to obtain in the wild.
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Post by exoticimports on Oct 22, 2018 17:37:57 GMT
Overall 99%. This takes into account the common commercial material. Wild caught A+ specimens might be 1% of what field collectors encounter particularly with rare and hard to capture species I don't know what kind of butterflies you are buying …. no more than than some percents are farmed ! even the Ornithoptera (that must be be farmed to be commercialised) are caught in the wild. Morpho, Troides, Ornithoptera, some Papilio that are the most farmed represent only a small part of the total of the commercial material.
I very rarely buy butterflies, and then only for educational displays.
Take Solomon Islands. All of the ornithoptera, papilio, and nymphalids in the commercial trade are farmed/ ranched. Also some delias and others. That's why it's almost impossible to get something from Solomon Islands that is not on the short list of farmed species. PNG is no different.
Looking at the global trade in butterflies, there are probably 50 species that make up 80% of ALL sales. Plexippus, ulysses, ripheus, etc. They make up the bulk of commerical sales. They are all farmed or ranched. Most people here don't think of this, since the last time they purchased one of these "commoner's" species it was when they were 12 years old. But these are the wholesale, low-cost/ high volume species that sell on Ebay, Etsy, etc.
Chuck
Chuck
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Post by deliasfanatic on Oct 22, 2018 18:14:12 GMT
Just for curiosity, I checked the Ebay listings for P. ulysses. There were 5 females offered. I didn't count the males, but there must have been at least 50-60.
Sure, ripheus (and some other Madagascar stuff such as Argema mittrei) are definitely being bred in quantity. But it's a small fraction of the number of species offered on dealer lists...by dealer lists, I mean lists of everything offered, not just the few things that are sold in large wholesale quantities.
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Post by africaone on Oct 24, 2018 6:23:33 GMT
Just for curiosity, I checked the Ebay listings for P. ulysses. There were 5 females offered. I didn't count the males, but there must have been at least 50-60. Sure, ripheus (and some other Madagascar stuff such as Argema mittrei) are definitely being bred in quantity. But it's a small fraction of the number of species offered on dealer lists...by dealer lists, I mean lists of everything offered, not just the few things that are sold in large wholesale quantities. You can recognise breeding specimens by the ratio of females available (1/1). ulysses is well known to be caught in large numbers in the wild. the problem is that you count only the specimens sold on listing. There is an incredible ammount of insect sold directly and wild caught. The main part of trading of insect is invisible ... and this part includes very few breeding specimens. |
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