Post by Adam Cotton on Apr 15, 2013 8:38:18 GMT -8
I decided I could no longer sit by and watch without making some comments here.
For the past few weeks Timo & Berndt Liese have been offering specimens from John Kamps' very fine collection for sale in the Insectnet classifieds. While many specimens are genuine with correct data, there are a number of specimens offered with fake data, and often non-existant subspecies names.
John was duped into buying specimens of so called "new subspecies" at high prices by a totally unscrupulous Japanese who used to advertise in Insectnet classifieds a few years ago. What he did was select slightly different specimens of butterflies from Japanese dealers (I was personally told by one dealer how every so often he would sort through his material and select a few to buy) then change the data to claim they came from a place that the butterfly really doesn't occur at all and invent a subspecies name for them. There was a thread in the old Insectnet forum about this some years ago, which some of you may remember. I told John then to ask M*ts*ta to send copies of the "new subspecies" original descriptions, but he replied that they were all in Japanese, so no point to send them. As you will probably know, Japanese always at least have an English summary included in an original description of a new subspecies.
Now I see some of these fakes are being advertised for sale. While I have no personal complaint with Timo & Berndt Liese (they won't know what is correct and what is fake) or John Kamps I would like to warn potential buyers that they should be careful. I actually sent an e-mail to the Liese's telling them about the problem and warning them that it could give them a bad reputation long term.
Some examples of fakes offered recently are:
Papilio paris(tamilana) aurora A1 M Middle Andaman is.
P. dialis lushanai M A1+ (Chittalong/Myanmar)
Atrop. polla ihokasakulensis A1
Chilasa clytia mitrai A1 M Sir Henry Lawrence
Graphium codrus lawlencei
P. forbesi from Nicobar
Here are some fake subspecies names that John Kamps sent me some time ago, although I haven't seen these offered yet:
Losaria coon mergui (Great Western Torres Is.)
Losaria neptunus egeria (Great Western Torres Is.)
Atrop. sycorax weiliangi (Great Western Torres Is.)
Atrop. nox trudenari (Great Western Torres Is.)
Byasa aidoneus lauretianus (Great Western Torres Is.)
Byasa polla nerchasis (Great Western Torres Is.)
Atrop. priapus soneharai (Great Western Torres Is.)
Meandrusa lachinus masakiae (Kunthi Kyun Is.)
Papilio polyctor iris (Bentinck Is.)
P. polyctor similianus (Zadetyki Is)
P. mahadeva sissania (Great Western Torres Is.)
Byasa adamsoni arayae (Ko Payang, S. Thailand)
Chilasa paradoxa nynims (South Andaman Is.)
C. paradoxa nicobariensis (Car Nicobar Is.)
C. paradoxa neoaenigmai (Kanmau Kyun Is., Mergui Archipelago)
Adam.
For the past few weeks Timo & Berndt Liese have been offering specimens from John Kamps' very fine collection for sale in the Insectnet classifieds. While many specimens are genuine with correct data, there are a number of specimens offered with fake data, and often non-existant subspecies names.
John was duped into buying specimens of so called "new subspecies" at high prices by a totally unscrupulous Japanese who used to advertise in Insectnet classifieds a few years ago. What he did was select slightly different specimens of butterflies from Japanese dealers (I was personally told by one dealer how every so often he would sort through his material and select a few to buy) then change the data to claim they came from a place that the butterfly really doesn't occur at all and invent a subspecies name for them. There was a thread in the old Insectnet forum about this some years ago, which some of you may remember. I told John then to ask M*ts*ta to send copies of the "new subspecies" original descriptions, but he replied that they were all in Japanese, so no point to send them. As you will probably know, Japanese always at least have an English summary included in an original description of a new subspecies.
Now I see some of these fakes are being advertised for sale. While I have no personal complaint with Timo & Berndt Liese (they won't know what is correct and what is fake) or John Kamps I would like to warn potential buyers that they should be careful. I actually sent an e-mail to the Liese's telling them about the problem and warning them that it could give them a bad reputation long term.
Some examples of fakes offered recently are:
Papilio paris(tamilana) aurora A1 M Middle Andaman is.
P. dialis lushanai M A1+ (Chittalong/Myanmar)
Atrop. polla ihokasakulensis A1
Chilasa clytia mitrai A1 M Sir Henry Lawrence
Graphium codrus lawlencei
P. forbesi from Nicobar
Here are some fake subspecies names that John Kamps sent me some time ago, although I haven't seen these offered yet:
Losaria coon mergui (Great Western Torres Is.)
Losaria neptunus egeria (Great Western Torres Is.)
Atrop. sycorax weiliangi (Great Western Torres Is.)
Atrop. nox trudenari (Great Western Torres Is.)
Byasa aidoneus lauretianus (Great Western Torres Is.)
Byasa polla nerchasis (Great Western Torres Is.)
Atrop. priapus soneharai (Great Western Torres Is.)
Meandrusa lachinus masakiae (Kunthi Kyun Is.)
Papilio polyctor iris (Bentinck Is.)
P. polyctor similianus (Zadetyki Is)
P. mahadeva sissania (Great Western Torres Is.)
Byasa adamsoni arayae (Ko Payang, S. Thailand)
Chilasa paradoxa nynims (South Andaman Is.)
C. paradoxa nicobariensis (Car Nicobar Is.)
C. paradoxa neoaenigmai (Kanmau Kyun Is., Mergui Archipelago)
Adam.
