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Post by wollastoni on Dec 12, 2014 22:54:25 GMT
Entomology is a strange passion : It hooked you one day and you are addicted for life ! Even if the whole world tells you to do something else (like watching TV, eating junk food and making shopping)
How and when have you been personally hooked by entomology ?
Personally I was 8 years old, it was during summer and in my parent garden in Brittany, there was a splendid peer-tree. The fruits were attracting many wasps and my parents have bought a wasp trap and put it on the tree. Of course the wasp tree filled with beer attracted many wasps, but one day there was a splendid moth inside, black and red, a Catocala !
I had never seen something as beautiful. My mother who was a biology teacher taught me how to spread it. I was so fascinated that she bought me a butterfly net few days after. Since then, I was spending all my free time to play football and catch butterflies. In that time, even in the center of Rennes you could catch some Colias crocea and Anthocharis cardamines. I had also the luck to have the "Silex" entomology shop at 5 mn from my home. I remember seeing those Papilio ulysses from New Guinea who appeared to me like the Holy Grail.
25 years later I was myself in New Guinea and saw them flying. I have remembered the child I was when I saw them.
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Post by nomad on Dec 13, 2014 7:41:29 GMT
Nice to see that you started young I find these posts very interesting, as I have always wondered why and when my Entomological friends began their interest in Entomology, but even more than that how and when they began to specialize in their chosen fields. So how did your passion in Delias begin and why. Hope to hear more from our members here.
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Post by mygos on Dec 13, 2014 8:57:53 GMT
Never heard of that "Silex" shop ! But I agree Catocala are fascinating as they hide theit most beautiful colors ... Ounce you got the virus, it is difficult to cure it Rennes is the famous Charles Oberthür city ! A+, Michel
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Post by wollastoni on Dec 13, 2014 10:05:56 GMT
Yes Rennes is the famous Oberthür city and I lived 5 mn by foot from the Oberthür Villa. I used to hunt butterflies in the lovely Oberthür parc and I remember me catching some treasures like a female Colias crocea f. helice that is still in my collection. "Silex" shop was a nice mineral and entomology shop located Rue de Paris in Rennes. Breton entomologists and geologists knows it well. Like all kids collecting butterflies, I felt a bit alone in Rennes (in those times, there were no internet and no forum to share your passion. And outside of Paris, it was hard to find an entomologic society). A friend of my father introduced me to the first real entomologist I have met : Jérôme Pages. Some of you must know him (he is a specialist of Afghan, Pakistanese rhopalocera). I remember having been very impressed by his collection and his stories about Afghanistan. This must have been an important moment for me. About Delias, I was about 18 years old I think, when I first bought a lot of unidentified Delias from West Papua on Ebay (about 10 different species) from Benny de Groof, if I remember well. Trying to identify them, I discovered Les Day's fantastic website about Delias (which is now my website but it's another story). I have been inpressed by the size and the beauty of this genus. But I think I have been hooked by Delias trying to understand if one of my specimen was a Delias aroae, a Delias pheres or a Delias subapicalis. It is the Delias complexity and variations that touched and hooked me. I have been collecting Delias for 15 years now, and it made me encounter some great persons (hunting Delias with Bernard Turlin and Jacques Marquet in Papua is a nice adventure for example) and discover many beautiful parts of the world (the Pass Valley in Papua, Biak island, Puncak Palopo in Sulawesi, the northern lakes in Bali, Chiang Mai in Thailand and many others...). I thing the strength and the passion of the Delias community also makes Delias collecting a very interesting passion. As we all know that a complete Delias collection is impossible to do, there is no competition between us, only some "congrats" when someone find the missing Delias ! So what about your first entomological moment ?
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Post by wollastoni on Dec 13, 2014 15:09:22 GMT
It seems Silex shop still exist, but he is now installed in Nantes. For those who wants to have a look : www.entomo-silex.com/
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2014 16:53:01 GMT
It may be only my opinion but I don't think you choose entomology, it chooses you. Where I grew up natural history was studied more than it is now, since electronic gadgets took over, most of my friends spent nearly every spring and summers day outdoors in the country, they all saw the beautiful butterflies but only I took it to the next level, as soon as I saw my first inachis io I was hooked, io was not as common then as it is here now but the next year I went to Chatsworth house, aged 7, and saw an entire collection of British butterflies, bought the observers book of butterflies and with the help of some crude, home made equipment set off on a lifetime of undiluted pleasure of fieldwork and collecting.
I had the same experience of being isolated from most of the countries collectors and only got to meet others interested in lepidoptera in my 30's, however I have made up for lost time since.
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Post by wollastoni on Dec 13, 2014 17:09:36 GMT
Great story Duncan ! I agree it chooses us! True that Inachis io must have "hooked" many of us !
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2014 17:35:13 GMT
Imagine if io was rare how collectors who scramble to obtain a specimen, what a prize it would be.
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Post by mygos on Dec 13, 2014 17:39:47 GMT
Quite true Duncan !
A+, Michel
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mantisboy
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Post by mantisboy on Dec 13, 2014 17:46:09 GMT
I agree that Inachus io is very beautiful. I was able to go on a band trip to Europe this summer, but unfortunately, had only my hands (no net) to obtain specimens. I was still able to collect a few insects, including three Inachis io.
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mantisboy
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Post by mantisboy on Dec 13, 2014 17:50:47 GMT
Here is an interesting picture I took, with a Maniola attempting to chase off an Inachis.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 14, 2014 13:00:56 GMT
Where I live, at the time io flies all of the browns and most of the blues are well faded, it just blows everything else out of the water, when fresh it rivals any butterfly found in Europe in my opinion.
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Post by cosmin on Dec 14, 2014 14:46:58 GMT
I have "started" as very young (4-5 years) to be a "biologist" ... and some of the first and "best" scars are from that period. And the "best" scar is because of an Papilio machaon . My passion was not welcomed by my father at all, and at a point I had to move all my butterfly collection in the basement of the biliding ... in around a month was completely destroyed because of the humidity and slugs. Stopped to collect for a while and started again in '90, but mostly with Lepidoptera and didn't care to much about what my father is saying. Stopped again and started much more actively when more or less started to have own place 6-7 years back. Cosmin
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Post by nomad on Dec 14, 2014 16:37:28 GMT
My story would probably be similar to many others in the U.K. that have collected butterflies or moths and today are around my age. My interest started as a young boy when I read a book on butterflies. As I was a avid reader or enjoyed looking at the pictures of my books and I soon exhausted my small collection it was time to start on the books held by the local lending Library. Saturday was shopping day and hidden among the bags of food my parents bought home were my loaned treasures. I remember I liked the big World animal and bird books. This is why I believe I have had a wide interest in Natural History. I have at times studied British botany and ornithology but I guess my first love has always been lepidoptera. Among one handful of books my dear mother had picked up was a volume in the New Naturalist series called simply' Butterflies' by E.B. Ford. I was too young to understand a number of the chapters in this great work but those colour plates showing set British butterflies lit a flame. I wanted to make a collection. So around six years old with a crude but efficient home made net I set forth on my adventure. My first captures were made on waste land ( Once a marsh ) opposite my home by a stream, here I captured my first butterflies the two then common Satyrids Lasiommata megera and Coenonympha pamphilus.
As I grew a kite net replaced my old one and papered setting boards were bought. I have always loved books so enjoyed getting new butterfly or moth ones for birthdays. I was taken to the famous Natural History supplier Watkins and Doncaster in London where I met the owner Richard Ford, a very talented field entomologist who had previously worked at the British Museum. I became very interested in moths and operated the powerful Robinson Mercury Vapour Moth Trap in my parents garden and in a local forest. I was also very lucky to have met the great lepidopterist Hugh Newman. By the 1970s I was interested in Ornithoptera and during that period I read the great collector Albert Stewart Meek's book and became fascinated by historical collectors. Their adventures amazed me. The halcyon days of British collecting may have gone but in the 1980's the British Insect fairs were the largest in the World with a really impressive range of specimens for collectors. My head spins when I think of the rarities I could have obtained back then. I used to go with my two younger brothers who were both avid collectors of British lepidoptera. I remember the best tables with many great rarities were those of the dealer Paul Smart who had a World renown collection at his Saruman Museum. On one visit Paul once pulled out a drawer of beautiful Delias. Because of my interest in New Guinea I have always thought it would be good to collect them, however it was not to be until a few years ago than I began collecting Delias. Being middle aged now, that pleasure should continue to the end of my days. Today, I spent every moment of the Spring and Summer I can in the field with my camera searching Britain for its lepidoptera. I can imagine nothing more pleasant than being in a peaceful meadow or on a down surrounded by butterflies in the summer' hot sunshine. The joy it brings is immense.
Peter.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2014 16:24:02 GMT
This very ordinary looking disused railway line and its surrounding fields in West Yorkshire have provided me with many years of pleasure since I was 7 years old, around 23 species of butterfly can be seen through the year, mostly common but were it not for this place I would never have had the drive to spend a lifetime in this hobby, I also saw my first inachis io on the wing here in 1975. Attachments:
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