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Post by damoose on Mar 31, 2014 20:32:17 GMT -8
I am looking at doing some business with Rainer Marx of Germany. Anyone out there have any feedback regarding him as an insect supplier? Thank you for your time.
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terry2014
Junior Member
Birthday April 14 1938
Posts: 33 
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Post by terry2014 on Apr 1, 2014 2:21:20 GMT -8
I bought quite a lot of lepidoptera material from Rainier about ten years ago,from my experience, I would recommend him as a reliable supplier however you must remember he is a field lepidopterist so there is some fluctuation in the quality if you buy large quantities. As you would expect data is first class. If I remember correctly he is also prepared to send specimens in advance of payment. Terry
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Post by bobw on Apr 1, 2014 2:55:33 GMT -8
I've had material from Rainer Marx a long time ago. As far as I'm aware he only sells in bulk and as Terry says, the quality is variable but perfectly acceptable as far as I'm concerned. My problem with his material was that I didn't trust the data as there often appeared to be different subspecies in a batch from one locality. Other people have also told me they didn't trust his data. I believe he has several collectors ranging over quite a large area and everything is pooled with the same locality data. I decided I couldn't take the risk of putting any of his material into my collection.
Bob
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Post by jshuey on Apr 1, 2014 4:58:41 GMT -8
I purchased some bulk material a few years ago. It was cheap. It was not at all diverse so I ended up paying quite a bit for the few interesting things. It was not very high quality. And the data sucked. I ended up giving about 90% of it away. The little material I retained has a second data lable attached that says "data suspect".
This is pure speculation, but I think he is buying from "local collectors" along mountain roads, and then lumping all the material together under generic locality labels (and no dates at all).
John
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terry2014
Junior Member
Birthday April 14 1938
Posts: 33
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Post by terry2014 on Apr 1, 2014 5:05:29 GMT -8
Hello Bob. It is interesting that you have a differing opinion to me regarding data. In my correspondence with him he would mention that he was off or back from a collecting trip so I assumed the data was from his own collecting. You may well be correct about the pooling of data and he may have other collectors working with him but if they are in a collecting area some considerable distance away from him what is the point in pooling the data bearing in mind he seems quite scientific in his approach to collecting ?
If you had your doubts about his data did you question him on it ? He always seemed happy to correspond, always friendly and happy to help. Terry.
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Post by bobw on Apr 1, 2014 6:03:19 GMT -8
Hello Bob. It is interesting that you have a differing opinion to me regarding data. In my correspondence with him he would mention that he was off or back from a collecting trip so I assumed the data was from his own collecting. You may well be correct about the pooling of data and he may have other collectors working with him but if they are in a collecting area some considerable distance away from him what is the point in pooling the data bearing in mind he seems quite scientific in his approach to collecting ? If you had your doubts about his data did you question him on it ? He always seemed happy to correspond, always friendly and happy to help. Terry. No, I didn't ask him about it as other people had told me the same thing and he had told them that the data was accurate. You can see above that John had the same suspicions. This nasty habit of pooling of data is nothing new - I guess it's due to laziness. There are many well-known examples of it from some of the prolific collectors of the past such as the Ruckbeils, Haberhauer etc.; in their cases a lot of their material was used for describing new species and it's caused taxonomic havoc. Bob |
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terry2014
Junior Member
Birthday April 14 1938
Posts: 33
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Post by terry2014 on Apr 1, 2014 8:21:43 GMT -8
Bob, I realise that the pooling of data has been a practice for many years and in the earlier years there may have been good reasons for this but I would not know.
Its still going on today all over the world usually because there is a central collection point with a major dealer who the locals bring there captures to. I would imagine the locals never document there captures they are just interested in earning money to live on however, in the case of Rainer Marks you have said that other collectors asked him if his data is correct and he said ''yes" which means he is not telling the truth .I have to say in my correspondence with him he did not seem to be that sort of person. Terry.
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Post by damoose on Apr 24, 2014 7:24:03 GMT -8
Parcel arrived from Rainer in good order. Specimens are as described. A good transaction. Thanks for all of the feedback.
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