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Post by takahe on May 29, 2014 20:07:19 GMT -8
Are there any serious collectors or specialists of Castniids here? I've always found them to be an interesting group, but I only have a very few in my collection. I've never seen any literature on them, or very many offered for sale on eBay and other sites. Dealers (at least the USA ones) seem to only have a few at any given time. A lot of the ones I've seen on eBay were not identified to species. In searches for pictures of some of the species online, it even seems that there is confusion with the names.
Divana diva is one of the really beautiful ones I always thought would be nice to have. Is it extremely rare, or found only in areas where collecting is prohibited? Has anyone ever seen the larvae, or know what the foodplant is?
Bradleigh
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Post by wollastoni on May 30, 2014 3:04:01 GMT -8
Castniidae are fascinating. I disagree with you there are many Castniidae for sale on Ebay. See on the link. |
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Post by takahe on May 30, 2014 3:43:31 GMT -8
There does seem to be pretty many now. In the past when I looked there were just a few. Most are outside the US but still it's nice to see that many.
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Post by bobw on May 30, 2014 7:12:02 GMT -8
Castniidae does seem to be a rather poorly studied family and there is a dearth of recent literature on them. I've tried to gather what information I can and have built up a small collection (about 400 specimens of about 60 species) but it's not easy. There only seem to be a handful of specialists but there must be quite a few people who collect them - I always seem to get outbid on eBay on any unusual species even though I bid far more than I think they're worth.
Unfortunately many species seem to be impossible to obtain and all but the most common ones seem to command high prices. Most research into the family seems to be where they're a pest on crops, e.g. Telchin licus on sugar cane. There is certainly plenty of scope for research; several new species have been described in the last 10 years or so, and many species that haven't been found for many years have recently become available as people go collecting in different parts of Latin America.
Bob
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