"One man's trash can be another man's treasure"

[trehopr1]

We have all heard this proverb before so here is my case in point....

Below, is a photo of a species of Band-winged grasshopper which I can easily collect up
in fair numbers on any given August day at a particular field I visit for swallowtails.



Now, this little red and black number is actually a bit more red than my photo appears. Quite eye catching.
Anyway, I could probably catch a dozen of them in an hour if really wanted to put forth the effort. However, 
grasshoppers are not my thing and all they do is get it the way of my good butterfly hunting !

Yes, that's right they are constantly taking off or landing just in front of me, landing on or in vegetation where 
it seems my butterflies want to nectar, and they can be somewhat distracting with their noisy "fluttery" flight.

There is also another species which is similar in size and general markings but, it is a bright yellow/black number !
I've nicknamed these two kinds the "cracker hoppers" because when they take flight they make a loud "crackling"
noise as they leave the ground. Could probably catch about 6-8 of those yellow/black jobs in an hour -- if I wanted.

Never seen either species in any other field I haunt so I don't know what's so special about that one. Couple these 2
species with yet another one which looks like it has 3 different color forms (grey, dirty white, and red); and you wind
up with a rather diverse population of hoppers that for me are a bother with all their activity.

Trying to snag beautiful nectaring swallowtails with all these clumsy hoppers flapping about can try ones patience.
Sometimes, it's all I can do to crush em' underfoot just to permanently get them out of the way of my butterfly catching...

Anyway, this colorful "trash" of mine would no doubt be some Orthopterists treasure if the option was available to them.

Do you have a similar story?

[bandrow]

Greetings,

I must admit that I've been on the "treasure" end of this phenomenon many times - by working on a group often perceived as junk! While my primary interest is the Cerambycidae, I also work with the Scarabaeoidea, and have a particular interest in the Melolonthinae - the so-called 'May beetles' or 'June bugs'. The melolonthines are in general (save a few genera like Polyphylla or Dichelonyx) one of the more dull scarab groups, but what they lack in color and ornamentation like horns, they make up for in sheer number of species. Nearly 300 species of Phyllophaga occur in the U.S., nearly 100 Serica, probably 200+ Diplotaxis, etc., etc.

When blacklighting, I never quite know what I've collected in these groups until I prepare them - nearly always requiring the dissection of genitalia of both males and females. A single night at the sheet can produce what appear to be 3-4 morphospecies, but when ID'd, can actually be as many as 12 species in a single sample. So if one is interested in this group, they can be a joy to see pinging into the sheet in droves. HOWEVER - as any of you moth collectors will attest to - they are a nuisance in a bucket trap - big, gangling beetles crawling around in circles processing your moths like a butter churn. Their size, numbers and ubiquity make them a given in any spring to mid-summer blacklighting event.  

Over the years, I have built a wonderful collection of these, representing nearly all of the Nearctic species, not only from my own collecting efforts, but from donations of residues from many moth collectors' trap samples. I have found most folks are happy to give these away, as an alternative to just throwing this bycatch into the trash, as so many do. I have also discovered that beetle enthusiasts also toss a lot of these, assuming they are too difficult to ID or too boring to bother with. But when offered a synoptic set of authoritatively determined specimens returned from a bulk sample given away - lots of folks become more interested in seeing what they've collected. Like so many groups, the more one knows about them, the more interesting they become.

I am always willing to accept such "trash" and also willing to prepare and return a synoptic set of specimens to anyone sending material. I prefer unprepared specimens, either from frozen samples or in alcohol, as it makes the dissecting easier - dried specimens are tougher to do. I am particularly interested in Serica samples from the western states, in particular California. While I do have material to exchange for other identified species, I do not exchange for bulk samples, as I have no guarantee that they will hold anything new for me. However, I will supply whirlpaks and information on shipping samples and reimburse folks for shipping costs as well. Also - a lot of material that I receive and do not need for my personal collection is prepared, labeled, ID'd and placed in the collection at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh - I try to put to use as much of the sample's contents as possible.

Additionally, I am currently working on the description of a new species of Phyllophaga from the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas - samples from this and surrounding areas would be especially valuable.

So, as your processing your summer catches, if you have such "junk", feel free to PM me and see if we can work something out...

Cheers!
Bandrow

[Ed]

It’s funny that you mention these as a nuisance. In China there is a species that is very bright greeen and yellow. They tend to cover the bamboo forest and when I’m hunting in bamboo forest usually for stichophalma, and bump into the bamboo they rain and it is a very uncomfortable feeling to have a cascade of grasshoppers raining down on you. Fortunately this population explosion usually lasts for a short while. If one walks along the road where these grasshoppers inhabit there can be hundreds squished by the cars, if enough numbers accumulate the Polyura, Charaxes, Hestina and other such species will begin to land on them, usually accompanied by a large number of other bugs.

[exoticimports]

When I was a kid the family went to Disney, and on a side trip we found a natural history store. I was ecstatic to walk out of there with a xylotrupes gideon in a plastic box! Later, in my late teens, I bought several pair of gideon to add to my collection. How neat, a "dynastes" I could (barely) afford!

Thirty some years later in Solomon Islands I told a local I'd give him five bucks for some gideon. He returned five minutes later with a five gallon pail half full of them. I selected a few dozen and we tossed the rest.

Chuck