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Post by nomad on Mar 1, 2013 13:38:12 GMT -8
Hi Wollastoni thank you for the information on the Ray Straatman Delias image. The photo is the copyright of the California Academy of Sciences, just E-mail, Kelly at manzanita@calacademy.org, and mention [ slide no T119539] they almost certainly will let you use the image if you contact them. I am afraid there was no information with the photo, just Papua.
Peter.
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Post by nomad on Mar 8, 2013 10:06:09 GMT -8
Raymond Straatman could speak many languages including Russian and quite a bit of Japanese. When in Europe he would often visit a number of well known French Collectors and where he liked to be called ' Ramon ' Here is a rough drawing he made of one of them  . [and his name and the collector he was visiting written in Russian] A nice little piece of history and no doubt treasured by the French collector. Attachments:
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Post by nomad on Mar 20, 2013 11:06:00 GMT -8
Ray Straatman was a expert at breeding Papiliondae especially the Birdwings. In 1986 he managed to cross O. victoriae x euphorion and produced for the first a very lovely golden form of allottei. Here is a very beautiful photograph that Ray took of this lovely hybrid at his home near Kuranda in North Queensland. This photograph was kindly sent to me by Jan Pasternak and is used here with his permission and remains his copyright. Peter. Attachments:
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Post by bartekgoldyn on Mar 20, 2013 11:40:21 GMT -8
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Post by jackblack on May 9, 2013 0:26:01 GMT -8
Just found the info on Ray Staatman well done, nice to know more about the man.I met Ray in Kuranda about 1986 and when he was making some hybrids came for a visit one morning and there was a freshly emerged male O.p.euphorion hanging near a vine in my garden , Ray said I need this for my breeding and coaxed the butterfly onto his finger , I said watch it will fly away , he laughed and said don`t be silly its too fresh to fly , then it flew away , it was a hilarious moment. Ray was always a jovial fellow when we knew him in Kuranda, accompanied him on a few local collecting trips his humour was endless , he had monkey skulls on his cupboard and introduced them as his past children , I was surprised to get a call from the executor to Rays last will and testament one morning to tell me Ray left me some insects , a nice collection of rare beetles , which I greatly treasure.Ray was a great inspiration in my early years of collecting.
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Post by jackblack on May 9, 2013 0:34:31 GMT -8
Just another note on Ray.
He was always trying to cross breed Papilio ulysses and P.aegeus in Kuranda.
One day he came and told us he finally had larva , but they eventually died.
He hand paired the butterflies , he said he probably used the wrong food plant for the larva maybe why they died.
He said if he reared them through he would name it Uleageus.
Has anyone else tried this rearing hybridising of these species ?
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Post by nomad on May 10, 2013 10:28:03 GMT -8
 Thank you blackjack for adding your personal reminiscences of Ray Straatman. It must have been great to have gone on collecting trips with him and it is good to know he had a great sense of humour which has been mentioned by others that knew him. Peter.
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Post by nomad on Oct 15, 2014 11:08:40 GMT -8
Very nice photograph of Ray Straatman with Takashi Ohya and reproduced in the latter's book - ' Birdwing Butterflies ' 1983. Photograph courtesy of Marcin Gajewski.  |
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. [and his name and the collector he was visiting written in Russian] A nice little piece of history and no doubt treasured by the French collector.
Thank you blackjack for adding your personal reminiscences of Ray Straatman. It must have been great to have gone on collecting trips with him and it is good to know he had a great sense of humour which has been mentioned by others that knew him.