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Post by deliasfanatic on Dec 23, 2019 21:02:26 GMT
I've spotted quite a few fraudulent listings from a well-known dealer too (perhaps the same one) - things that cannot be from the locations listed, and subspecies that were not what they were claimed to be.
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Post by mothylator on Dec 26, 2019 12:10:15 GMT
I saw a Papilio polyxenes dark form in a curated collection being offered for sale very recently, labelled in drawer as melanic British machaon but no data on pin. Ummmm.
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Post by mothylator on Dec 26, 2019 12:23:40 GMT
A decade or so ago I unfortunately wound up with specimens of some South American Colias sp., papered and with "Islas Malvinas" data (i.e., the Falkland Islands). Turns out there are no Colias known from the Falklands... in fact, I don't think there are any butterflies there at all... jh I think Yramea / Argynnis / Issoria cytheris cytheris (Drury, 1773) (The Queen of the Falklands fritillary) could well be a Falklands endemic butterfly: January flight season, oviposits of yellow violets (Viola maculata)? And also there's a migratory vanessid as expected. And some few moths perhpas 30spp., some of which are most likeley human accidental importations. Agreed, not a great butterfly habitat for sure.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Dec 26, 2019 13:44:39 GMT
I saw a Papilio polyxenes dark form in a curated collection being offered for sale very recently, labelled in drawer as melanic British machaon but no data on pin. Ummmm. One sees fakes offered all the time, sad to say, and I think it's safe to say that the sellers are the "creators". Just to make one example, I've seen Papilio dardanus "flavicornis" offered on Ebay by someone who's well known for his "creations", and again on the website of a popular dealer. In both cases, they were obviously not genuine flavicornis, despite the faked data of "Mt Kulal, Kenya". They're hoping that buyers don't know, and in many cases I suppose that's correct, that genuine flavicornis always have orange antennae and not black, hence the name.
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