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Post by wollastoni on Dec 18, 2014 17:03:55 GMT
Good to see the places where you have started entomology Duncan !
Unfortunately some of the fields where I was hunting Colias crocea in Rennes when I was a kid has been transformed in a useless concrete way now. No wonder, there are less kids with butterfly nets nowadays... there is no more butterfly in city gardens of NW Europe...
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Post by Adam Cotton on Dec 18, 2014 18:06:12 GMT
When I was a small boy we had a railway line running behind our house in Birmingham leading to Bristol, but it was abandoned in the big shake-up of British Rail in the early 1960s. Soon after it was left to grow wild my mother used to take me down there catching grasshoppers and the suchlike to take home and keep in milk bottles. I guess I was about 5 years old then. I also remember going on summer holiday at about the same time to Bournemouth and finding a beautiful scarlet butterfly on the curtains of the hotel tea room one afternoon (you can guess what that was). I am sure that was what started my fascination with butterflies, which was further encouraged by my mother.
Anyway, by the age of 8 I had already started my own butterfly collection, and maybe 3 years later decided that since there were way too many butterflies in the world I would concentrate on Papilionidae only. Let's just say that things progressed from there ... somewhat.
Adam.
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Post by Paul K on Jan 16, 2015 6:09:56 GMT
There are not too many butterflies in the city gardens in the large metropolitan areas but also this days kids don't have a chance to look for any insects or nature . They are stuck in front of TV sets with PS4 controlers in their hands ( forget the net-boring) for most of their free time. That is the live style for now and "passion ". I guess we are the last generation that can really appreciate wonders of nature and those few that can direct their kids against today's society and mass are very lucky. My passion starts when I was about 12. As many kids those days try to collect many different things. But then I found heliconius butterfly on display in my aunt's apartment. I really like to have that butterfly but that was the gift and my aunt said I can come and look at it anytime. And then I started to look around and try to find my butterfly . For my first heliconius to see flying i had to wait for the next 20 years , but soon I found first Vanessa urticae and very beautiful and common those days in southern Poland Inachis io. To get any supplies those days was almost impossible so with help of my father I had to fix my self first net and spreading board. Instead of insect pins I have to use tailor pins for the first specimens ( I still have few in my collection) and to get professional insect pins was the dream.
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Post by nomad on Jan 16, 2015 17:12:01 GMT
That is an interesting point Paul. Many collectors in Western Europe seem to be of the older generation, maybe among the last to have this hobby. If there are only a few collectors compared to earlier times in Europe, how many will there be in the future. Today, the younger generation in the U.K, if they are at all interested in Natural History, take up photography.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Jan 16, 2015 17:26:12 GMT
I don't think it's all gloom and doom - I personally know 4 young collectors (3 in early 20s, 1 in late teens) who are very active.
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Post by cabintom on Jan 16, 2015 18:45:30 GMT
I'm in my mid 20s... not sure if that puts me in the "younger generation" or not. Though, I'd guess that if we took a survey of all the forums members there'd only be a handful near my age...
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Post by deliasfanatic on Jan 16, 2015 19:53:16 GMT
I've had so many 39th birthdays that I've lost count
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Post by wollastoni on Jan 16, 2015 20:11:49 GMT
I am 32 so not that old too and I know plenty collectors of my age.
I think the contrary of many "old" members. I think that thanks to internet, forums, blogs, facebook, it is far more easy to be "contaminated" by the entomological passion. I am sure there will be more collectors in the future.
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Post by xavm (Xavier) on Feb 4, 2015 13:35:38 GMT
I do not recall exactely when I collected my first Butterfly... I was 7 or 8 yrs old ?
It just started with one of my friend of the same age... But as child I also shared during years the passion of my Dad: fossils.
During years I was hoping to discover a butterfly fossil, my Dad did it with a Moth (cf. my avatar) !
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entity
New Aurelian
Posts: 16
Country: USA
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Post by entity on Feb 14, 2015 17:55:25 GMT
Wow. I feel a little out of place. I just started the collecting hobby about a month ago. I am laid off from work and have been mezmerized by all of this. I bought myself a Tarantula. And ordered some specimens online to practice one. So far I have spread a whip spider and a fiddle beetle. But i am loving it!
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Post by wollastoni on Feb 14, 2015 17:59:59 GMT
Welcome here, entity !
Entomology is a great passion. I advise you to collect also butterflies or coleoptera.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Feb 14, 2015 21:07:04 GMT
Olivier, Don't ask entity to run before he can walk Let him start with what initially interests him, and as he learns more he will gravitate to whatever he feels happiest with. Welcome from me too! Adam.
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entity
New Aurelian
Posts: 16
Country: USA
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Post by entity on Feb 14, 2015 21:13:11 GMT
Olivier, Don't ask entity to run before he can walk Let him start with what initially interests him, and as he learns more he will gravitate to whatever he feels happiest with. Welcome from me too! Adam. Thanks for the welcome guys! Im sure Ill be a thorn in ur side before long. It seems The more i read the more questions i have. lol But i am leaning more toward coleptera right now. many because they less delicate.
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Post by insectomology on Feb 24, 2015 12:43:46 GMT
When I was 9 years old, our teacher assigned everyone of us to collect butterflies and pin it on a box. The next morning while I'm chasing some butterflies in the backyard, I saw a bat and I thought it is also butterfly. I pinned it on a box and submitted it the next morning. My "butterfly" stink very badly. My classmates laughed at me as if I am crazy. But instead of scolding me for bringing in wrong specimen, my teacher gently explain to me and the whole class what is an insect and what is not. I just can't forget that moment. From that time I developed a passion in insects especially butterflies. Ten years later I took up Bachelor of Science in Agriculture major in Entomology. Four years after I was hired as a professor of entomology in a university here in the Philippines. Last month I launched a website about insect and you can visit it here: typesofinsects.com/For me, entomology is not just a passion, is my way of life! Carlo
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homard
New Aurelian
Posts: 19
Country: Russia
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Post by homard on Apr 27, 2015 14:02:57 GMT
I'm even cannot say - when! Sometimes from the year 5 I believe We spent summers in Ukraine those days, there was a clover field nearbye, with lots of butterflies - C. cardui and others. In the evenings at Khar'kov city I hunted Sphingids - Hyles of course, on the bunch of Phloxes, here came Euphorbiae and Livornica. What a happy time it was! Now my loved Ukraine is bleeding
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