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Post by Paul K on Jul 18, 2020 13:30:03 GMT
Thanks to both Johns and Trehopr1 for posting photos. All these specimens make me want to search for some skippers. Recently I try to more focus on this family but there is always some distraction on the field. John, how do you dispatch skippers, do you pinch them like other butterflies or do you use a killing jar. I tried to pinch them in the net but most of the time they would get ruined as they move so quickly and It’s almost impossible to corner them.
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Post by jshuey on Jul 18, 2020 15:19:44 GMT
In 2010, he took part in a field guide to "The Skipper Butterflies of Illinois There are some great bugs in there. I have never seen cellus in Indiana, and arogos doesn't make it in our state. John
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Post by trehopr1 on Jul 18, 2020 23:28:59 GMT
I have always put them directly into the kill bottle Paul once I have netted them. I think trying to stun them as one would most ordinary butterflies will result in too much scale loss or wing damage from the netting.
I have gotten around 20 specimens in pristine shape just using the ole' kill bottle.
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Post by jshuey on Jul 19, 2020 0:40:18 GMT
Thanks to both Johns and Trehopr1 for posting photos. All these specimens make me want to search for some skippers. Recently I try to more focus on this family but there is always some distraction on the field. John, how do you dispatch skippers, do you pinch them like other butterflies or do you use a killing jar. I tried to pinch them in the net but most of the time they would get ruined as they move so quickly and It’s almost impossible to corner them. John S's answer: I use a kill jar on almost every small bug I collect (rios, hairstreaks and skippers). That way the body is intact, especially the palps which are often removed during pinching. I loved cyanide back in the day as it dropped the bugs in less than a second. But I use ethyl acetate now. It's a little slower, and you end up with occasional rubbed wingtips on bigger skippers. And you have to hold the bugs a lot longer in the kill jar. But most of the bugs that come my way from other collectors are pinched - sometimes it looks like they used a vice or maybe a hammer! Depending on their skill level, there can be lots of wing damage on really active bugs in the net, scalped thoraxes, smashed bodies and of course missing palps. john
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jhyatt
Aurelian
Posts: 224
Country: U.S.A.
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Post by jhyatt on Jul 19, 2020 14:48:07 GMT
I generally do a very light pinch, just enough to stop them flying, then (with forceps if necessary) move them into an envelope(wings folded over thorax!)and drop the envelope into a largish ethyl acetate killing jar. That way I can put several things into the jar without them rubbing each other. If the collecting is hot and heavy and I'm in a hurry, I may slip several envelopes into my shirt pocket and kill them later, but it's better, I think, to get them into the EtOAc vapor ASAP.
jh
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Post by jshuey on Aug 3, 2020 16:49:33 GMT
Here's a new image of that hell mentioned above - papered bugs as they come off the spreading boards. Mostly from Brazilian Amazon, but also scattered locals such as Hispaniola, Peru, and even the good ol' USA. There are lots of really nice bugs in here, if you're into skippers. John
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Post by trehopr1 on Aug 3, 2020 18:08:51 GMT
WOW ! Now, that's amazing to me... Where do you find the time for all that preparation ? They are certainly well done. Shows us how someone who specializes on a group can even make "difficult to work with things" seem like no issue.
I have never been any good with preparing skippers or microleps in general. Even Lycaenids and the like still can pose issues. I only now in these last 5 years have had better success by preparing things up whilst absolutely still fresh from the field. Seems like once rigor sets-in and the wings fold up like they are already in an envelope -- I've lost my window. Trash em' every time... Hence, I collect very few and have little to show for my efforts. Just one of your trays represents my entire holdings of personal caught and kept skippers !
Anyway, wonderful to see John.
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Post by jshuey on Aug 3, 2020 20:41:40 GMT
WOW ! Now, that's amazing to me... Where do you find the time for all that preparation ? They are certainly well done. Shows us how someone who specializes on a group can even make "difficult to work with things" seem like no issue. I have never been any good with preparing skippers or microleps in general. Even Lycaenids and the like still can pose issues. I only now in these last 5 years have had better success by preparing things up whilst absolutely still fresh from the field. Seems like once rigor sets-in and the wings fold up like they are already in an envelope -- I've lost my window. Trash em' every time... Hence, I collect very few and have little to show for my efforts. Just one of your trays represents my entire holdings of personal caught and kept skippers ! Anyway, wonderful to see John. First, I'm working from home for the last few months - so I get up a couple of hours before work and work on bugs. Word just came down, that I'll be doing this until at least November 1st. I'm really tired of 2020... Second, I relax bugs using a method I developed for skippers and other similar small bugs. It's really simple, but bugs have to get spread the next day or they become waterlogged (some big skippers may take 2 days in cooler weather.). So, you need a large (1 gallon) ziplock bag, a small plastic tray that fits into the ziplock bag, two (or more) paper towels, and two (or more) facial tissues (just plain - no moisturizer or anything like that in the tissues). 1- Take the paper towels (cut to fit your tray) and wet them. Then ring out the water as best as you can - you literally want them as dry as possible. 2- Spread one moist paper towel out on your tray, and cover it with a dry tissue. 3- Lay your bugs out on the tissue (take them out of the envelope - this is where having lots of bugs with the same data is nice) 4- Cover the bugs with another dry tissue, and then a moist paper towel or two on top of that. (you can create as many layers as you want in order to keep your localities and dates separated) 5- Seal it up in the ziplock bag and wait 24 hours.
With a typical hairstreak or small skipper, a bead of water will squeeze out of the thorax the next day as you pin the bugs. They are often like fresh dead bugs. In the summer - it really works well. In the winter, it takes a little longer. And like I said, a big skipper or nymphalid may take an extra day.
Here are the downsides to this method. - On Pierids, you can get green water spots on the wings if things get too moist in there. The tissue paper mostly eliminates this problem.
- If you forget about the bugs for more than three days, they are probably ruined
- On really muscular skipper genera, the wings get a bit softer than you want, and they sometimes rip along a vein if you try and overspread them.
- And if one of your bugs has a case of "rot" in the envelope, it will likely just fall apart after this (I just had a really cool Drephalys species that I've never seen disintegrate before my eyes). This heartbreak is fairly rare.
john
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jhyatt
Aurelian
Posts: 224
Country: U.S.A.
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Post by jhyatt on Aug 4, 2020 12:45:14 GMT
Beautiful work, John!
What's the yellow-orange one (2 specimens) in the lower left unit tray? Looks like it might be a Geometrid moth mimic...
Cheers, John H.
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Post by jshuey on Aug 4, 2020 13:34:34 GMT
Beautiful work, John! What's the yellow-orange one (2 specimens) in the lower left unit tray? Looks like it might be a Geometrid moth mimic... Cheers, John H. They are a Entheus species, possibly E. bombus. I will probably have to dissect these to be sure. There is another dark species of Entheus right next to the lower one. j
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Post by joachim on Aug 6, 2020 21:17:20 GMT
Thanks for shaaring. Great collection!
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Post by xavm (Xavier) on Aug 17, 2020 9:50:00 GMT
Well done John, thanks for sharing, what a fab collection!
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