|
|
Post by jildertraul on Mar 6, 2015 8:55:56 GMT -8
As I newcomer in the butterfly collecting world I am asking myself why females are mostly worth much more (mostly 1,5/2 x price of male) than males of the same species? From a personal point of view the males are sometimes more beautiful...
Or is the sex of butterflies uneven rated in nature?
|
|
|
|
Post by monasteria on Mar 6, 2015 10:29:34 GMT -8
That is a question I asked myself also, when I began participating in the hobby. First of all, the sex of butterflies is not uneven in nature, they are about 50/50. Females are often much harder to find because they are carrying the eggs and nature has found a way to protect them: They often stay "in the background" near the host plants where they will lay the eggs. They are often less pretty than their male counterparts because they wear a "camouflage". The males have to be pretty to attract possible partners.
And that leads to the answer of your question: As they are harder to find, females don't show up that often on the market and are sometimes much more expensive than the males.
If I have told you something wrong, I am sorry and hope that other forum members who know it better will correct me.
|
|
|
|
Post by cabintom on Mar 6, 2015 10:30:08 GMT -8
Males of many species are far more easily caught, due to their habits of mud-puddling, etc.
|
|
|
|
Post by Adam Cotton on Mar 6, 2015 11:50:50 GMT -8
Males of many species are far more easily caught, due to their habits of mud-puddling, etc. That is exactly why most commercial wild caught specimens are males. Mud-puddling also offers an opportunity to collect many fresh A1 quality males, since that is pretty much the first thing males do after emerging and drying their wings. In general it is very difficult to catch A1 quality wild females, particularly of tropical species, and most of those on the market are either farmed or ranched (raised from wild collected larvae or pupae), but sometimes you can get lucky and catch good quality specimens at flowers or when they visit the food plant to lay eggs. In reality the sex ratio is indeed normally about 50:50 male to female, but females are generally elusive due to their behaviour, so they appear to be much rarer than males. Adam. |
|
|
|
Post by africaone on Mar 7, 2015 1:33:45 GMT -8
to answer to the price question, it simply answers the law of supply and demand. To proove it, they are cases where the males are more expensive than females because it is most wanted than female, with no relation to availability in catchings, (in many beetles families such as Cetoniinae, Lucanidae, Dynastinae, Prioninae and some lepidoptera too). In the law of supply and demand, of course in some attractive groups (Charaxes , Papilio, Graphium, etc...) what is uncommon is more demanded and then have more chance to be more priced (as female zalmoxis  ) |
|
|
|
Post by jildertraul on Mar 9, 2015 7:15:35 GMT -8
Guys, many thanks for the clear answer!
|
|
)