Insect Collection (pinned)

Greasylake

Arachnoprince
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Jul 23, 2017
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Here is an underside of one of my Agraulis vanillae (Gulf Fritillary)
We get tons of those here. I have one of their food plants in my yard and ever spring I collect some caterpillars, raise them and release. I must raise dozens every year.
 

Inverts4life1

Arachnosquire
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Dec 25, 2014
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142
Some of my Pieridae species. I'll post more photos later of some of the specimens in better light so you can really see the colors

DSC01203.JPG
 

Inverts4life1

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Dec 25, 2014
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142
Here is a post specifically showing most of my Phoebis sennae, the unit tray is in bad light but the single specimen is more true to the color of the specimens.

Unit Tray:
DSC01204.JPG

Single Specimen....you can see how much of a difference proper lighting gives the appearence of the specimens in the photos:

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Greasylake

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Here is a post specifically showing most of my Phoebis sennae, the unit tray is in bad light but the single specimen is more true to the color of the specimens.


Unit Tray:
View attachment 293025

Single Specimen....you can see how much of a difference proper lighting gives the appearence of the specimens in the photos:

View attachment 293026
I used to see dozens of those in the summers, but lately I haven't seen as many. I wonder what's happening to them.

Here's a Papilio cresphontes I pinned a few weeks back.

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Inverts4life1

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Dec 25, 2014
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@Greasylake ...I traveled to Texas and Miami a couple times since August and did only see a handful of the sulphurs the whole time....a couple years ago in Arkansas they were everywhere, in Texas though the most abundant butterfly I saw was Papilio palamedes as well as various long-tailed skippers, which was kind of surprising (granted I'm down down south enough to know the flight times of the species down there)....I also saw very very few P. cresphontes which was a little different. I'll compare for when I travel down there again next year (I'll be going there a lot more now for work so I'll have plenty of time to record numbers)

Here's a look at another one of my Pierids with a bad lighting shot and a close up shot with good lighting...this species is Zerene cesonia (Southern Dogface)..one of two species in the genus found in the U.S...it gets it's name from the pattern on the fore-wing that is shaped like a dogs head.

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Here is the shot under good lighting showing how bright and beautiful this species really is

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Inverts4life1

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Joined
Dec 25, 2014
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142
To take a break from all the Leps I've been posting....here is perhaps my favorite specimen I collected this past year....this absolutely beautiful major male dung beetle.....Phanaeus difformis. Collected this in Rockport, TX in September.

DSC01881.JPG DSC01882.JPG DSC01883.JPG
 

pannaking22

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Nov 25, 2011
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Beautiful difformis! I got a major male, minor male, and female out of deer dung about 3 weeks ago. It's a stunning species.
 

Greasylake

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Wait, you're telling me I can collect those right here where I live? I paid for a pair of them a few years ago, and I feel kind of dumb now.
 

The Mantis Menagerie

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 17, 2018
Messages
355
image.jpeg
Here is part of my collection. I have added a few more specimens since I took this picture, such as a huge comet moth, but they still need to be pinned.
 

Dennis Nedry

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Joined
Oct 21, 2017
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672
I’ve got a Goliathus orientalis and a brown form garden mantis and had a pinned MM Beregama cordata. Can’t be bothered getting the mantis out to take a pic and the cordata is reduced to legs so here’s the Goliath beetle
797B3595-0D14-4119-9A3C-06A079C4FFD5.jpeg
Will probably soon be adding some large wasps, beetles and ants to the collection
 

pannaking22

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Nov 25, 2011
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Wait, you're telling me I can collect those right here where I live? I paid for a pair of them a few years ago, and I feel kind of dumb now.
The BugGuide data is pretty spotty, but I'm betting you can get them up near where you are.
https://bugguide.net/adv_search/bgsearch.php?user=&taxon=155481&description=&location[]=TX&county=&city_location=&adult=&immature=&male=&female=&representative=

https://bugguide.net/node/view/155481

I think they're more common as you head down into the RGV though.
 

Greasylake

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I think they're more common as you head down into the RGV though.
I believe I'm going to be heading down there soon to visit family. Maybe I'll be able to extend my visit by a few days. My family also doesn't live too far from some ranchers, so there's plenty of manure to poke around in.
 

pannaking22

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I believe I'm going to be heading down there soon to visit family. Maybe I'll be able to extend my visit by a few days. My family also doesn't live too far from some ranchers, so there's plenty of manure to poke around in.
Yeah I would definitely try to poke around a bit. If it's warm enough you may even see them flying. That's how I picked up on mine initially, they were flying and they were a hell of a lot bigger than the Canthon that I always see buzzing about. I could even see the horn on the major male in flight, so that was pretty cool. Roadsides can be decent places to find them since they get hit fairly frequently when they fly across. I got a nice female that way in the spring. Not in the best of condition (small crack on an elytra), but they're a robust enough beetle that they can take car strikes pretty well.
 
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BenLeeKing

Arachnoknight
Joined
Nov 23, 2017
Messages
239
View attachment 294388
Here is part of my collection. I have added a few more specimens since I took this picture, such as a huge comet moth, but they still need to be pinned.
That lepidopteran wing spread slightly bothers meo_O To minimize obstruction entomologists usually stretch the front wings till the back edge forms a right angle with the body.
This probably isn't really that important in this case, but this is sort of a pet peeve of mine:rofl:
 

The Mantis Menagerie

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 17, 2018
Messages
355
I have already been told that several times, @BenLeeKing. The problem is that I got most of my Lepidoptera a long time ago when I didn't know anything about proper pinning, and now they are so old and brittle I don't want to risk breaking them.
 

Dragondrool

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jan 20, 2018
Messages
125
I figured I'd start a thread where I would post insect species I have in my collection for others to see. If you want to share what you have in your collection feel free to post some pics.

The first few I'm posting are the species of stage beetles I have. I currently have three of the four species in the genus Lucanus in the U.S. These are large and impressive beetles that always attract attention.

I've started getting into bug taxidermy, right now I'm collecting and pinning and practicing. This summer I will be collecting different species and plants and recreating scenes I see in nature. Last summer I pinned a bunch of the same species of butterfly to see how evolution will change it each year.
 
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