Share your favorite Lycaenidae !

[trehopr1]

Exceptional species as well as specimens ! A real treat for the eyes....

[jshuey]

I thought that I would share the genus I find most frustrating - Calycopis.  Actually, most of the genus is fun, easy enough to identify, and rare enough that you are happy when you catch them.  Many of these are also subtly beautiful as you can see in drawer 1.  They are like one-centimeter Morphos! 

All told there are 12 species known from Belize - and I bet there are at least three others that are hiding out there somewhere!

It is the detritovores that make you crazy - these are the very common "red banded hairstreaks" of Latin America.  They all look alike in the field (actually in the collection as well!). The larvae eat the fungi that decompose leaf litter in tropical forests - so they can be abundant, and if you actually look for them - very common along deeply shaded trails.  In Belize there should be four detritovore species - despite all those bugs in drawer two (and the last row in drawer 1), I have only three - quintana, drusilla and origo.  You can not separate females of origo and drusilla reliably - except at one spot in Belize where just males origo occur (where I assume that associated females are also origo). The two large unit trays on the right half of drawer 2 are unassociated females that will probably never be identified!

C. isobeon should also be in Belize and I have three odd males from ~1,000m that are probably origo, but I will dissect them to be sure.  The search for isobeon underpins the number of specimens in my collection.

I thought that I'd show these drawers because they are perhaps different than what most of you have in your collections.  The bugs are mostly field collected, pretty beat up, and the presentation is pretty rough. I use unit trays because the collection is always growing in directions that I cannot predict - they allow me to shuffle bugs without handling every specimen.The tags are geographic identifiers - pink for Belize, red is south America (mostly Brazil and Peru), green is southern Central America and blue is Mexico. That lets me scan drawers quickly to find bugs when I am curating the collection. 

The collection serves my purposes - which mostly revolve around understanding distributions in Belize and species identification in general.  Like my entire collection, I caught about 80% of the bugs you see.

John

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[Paul K]

I don't know why bioquip or other company don't start production of plastic unit trays. They would be perfectly rectangle or square and the drawer appearance could improve greatly. I am sure that many people would start to use them. I would for some drawers.
Plastic  should be of course tested for chemicals we use against the pests ( some plastics simply melts when in contact with fumes of PDB ).

Paul

[jshuey]

in the sprit of posting "attractive" hairstreaks - here are the first three drawers from my collection. Like most of the collection - the curation is a bit of a mess, but you get the point... . Perhaps this summer I'll add another case of drawers, and get things spread out more!

John

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[trehopr1]

I'd say that you have done quite well in finding all those brilliant little gems. I've always found lycaenids the most unlikely group encountered when out collecting. I have collected in Ecuador, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic and between all 3 trips I have no more than 15 specimens representing 7 or 8 species ! I suppose they are just so easy to overlook when there is so much else catching ones attention. If one perhaps specializes on just looking for these little fellows than perhaps more things are seen. Wonderful variety you have.

[jshuey]

Mar 13, 2016 7:14:47 GMT trehopr1 said:

I'd say that you have done quite well in finding all those brilliant little gems. I've always found lycaenids the most unlikely group encountered when out collecting. I have collected in Ecuador, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic and between all 3 trips I have no more than 15 specimens representing 7 or 8 species ! I suppose they are just so easy to overlook when there is so much else catching ones attention. If one perhaps specializes on just looking for these little fellows than perhaps more things are seen. Wonderful variety you have.

To be honest - I cheat a bit. Most of these are from Brazil and Belize - work related. I usually hire 1 or 2 students or volunteers to sample along side me.   Hairstreaks are often just "dumb luck" - you are at the right place at the right time.   That makes me 2-3 time more lucky - right?   Plus - this really is work - and we are out from dawn to dusk every day.  We are out in the early morning, when some species are closer to the ground.

Plus, in Belize, I know what I'm doing.  We spend 3-4 days at each spot.  If I find some short flowering trees - I hit them a couple of times a day for several days.    There are a couple of hill tops that we always try and hit because these always have great leps on them - hairstreaks included.  We did a poster about one of these at www.researchgate.net/publication/276119544_The_Outlier_Peak_in_Cockscomb_Basin_Belize_-_Small_mountain_large_contribution_to_the_fauna_of_Belize.

We spend most of our time in the forest - and there are often lots of hairstreaks in the low vegetation along shaded trails.  The majority of these are Calycopis, so most people ignore them after a while, but lots of other species are hidden away in there as well. 

One last factor - we don't really chase down too many swallowtails or morphos.  The interns try to, but I just sight ID them and record the data.  That creates more time for the smaller species - and our motto for them is - if it flies, it dies.

John

[wollastoni]

Mar 13, 2016 15:23:48 GMT jshuey said:

I usually hire 1 or 2 students or volunteers to sample along side me

That's a best practice. When planning a collecting trip in tropical areas, always bring 2 or 3 additional nets. Your guides or some locals will be happy to help you collecting... and sometimes they can catch some species you would have missed.

[Deleted]

Liphyra brassolis major - male - 70mm across wingtips - Larva lives and pupates in nest of the Green tree Ant in tropical north Queensland - Rarely seen - This specimen came to MV light at Yorkeys Knob and was very kindly donated to my collection by Dominic Funnell... 

 
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[wollastoni]

Fantastic species ! Looks like a dinosaur Lycaenidae...

I heard it is extremely rare in collection, how come ?

[nomad]

Mar 13, 2016 23:50:17 GMT @bazhammer said:

This specimen came to MV light at Yorkeys Knob and was very kindly donated to my collection by Dominic Funnell... 

What is a Lycaenid doing visiting a moth trap.      I once had a Vanessa cardui at light at midnight. 

[africaone]

In Africa some genera come somtimes to light
specifically (probably because of behaviour, repeated records) Pseudaletis (of the "antimachus group") and Iridana sp (espoacially those of incredibilis group)
and time to time, probably disturbed during the night and landed on the light trap, Charaxes, Pierid, Sallya, Lybethaea, etc...

[cabintom]

Hesperiidae are also quite common visitors to lights.

Strangely, early yesterday morning (5:30am) I saw a Junonia oenone sitting right next to out security light. I would guess that with enough observation you'd see all kinds of oddball visitors.

[Paul K]

Newly emerged butterflies at evening will come to light also. All evening flying species come to light as well, some Morphinae, Saturinae , and Hesperiidae are more active at dusk .

Paul

[nomihoudai]

New additions to my collection, another Chrysozephyrus ataxus from Japan. They light green is one of the most beautiful and you can never have enough of these:

[nomihoudai]

And the big price of the fair, Howarthia caelestis from China. It is missing a tail, but I don't care too much about that, it is a great addition to my collection and looks otherwise ex pupa.