|
|
Post by trehopr1 on Nov 23, 2021 9:49:37 GMT -8
I am with you on those thoughts John about Riodinids. I encountered very few of them personally on my two South American trips. I returned to indeed find them very tough customers to work with. Kept six or seven and trashed at least three.
Skippers, are john's specialty so if you can work with that material papered (which is equally difficult); then you can probably work with riodinids as you have probably developed the skill-set.
Personally, I am only able to work with such small stuff after being freshly dispatched.
|
|
|
|
Post by exoticimports on Nov 23, 2021 10:18:15 GMT -8
The key to Rios, skippers, and some Lycaenids is to give them away ASAP. Want to look at some? Get a book. Life is much simpler when they are somebody else's problem.
Chuck
|
|
|
|
Post by jshuey on Nov 23, 2021 10:29:17 GMT -8
I love Riodinids, insofar as they are sort of honorary Lycaenids... but am I the only one who finds papered/relaxed Riodinids incredibly tough to spread without tearing wing tissue? They always seem a lot more fragile than Lycaenids to me; my Rio drawers offer ample evidence. Is it me, or is it the bugs? John Shuey seems to get around the problem OK, if indeed the problem isn't just me! Cheers, jh I find them very easy to spread - but I relax bugs differently than do most people. I take the bugs out of their envelopes, and place them directly between two layers of moist paper towels. The key is the moisture content in the towels. I would call them damp (but not wet). I use the spray from a laboratory wash bottle to moisten them, and then squeeze the towels as hard as possible in my fist. It water drips when you squeeze them, then they are way too wet. But if they are "moist" through and through, then they are perfect for small bugs (the squeezing redistributes the moisture throughout the paper towel. The layers of smoothed-out paper towels + bugs, slide into a large zip-lock bag over night. Within 16 hours, they are ready to spread. Then the other key thing is that most of my spreading boards have very narrow center slots, such that bugs this small are a nice fit. And I do things that are sacrilegious to most butterfly collectors - I don't hesitate to pin through the wings. Once the bug is on the board, I use #2 pins to pull the HWs up so that the anal angles are at around 45 os. Only then do I put paper strips over the wings, pull the strip tight and remove the HW pin, and pull the FW up using the same #2 pin. Then that side gets nailed down further with pins around the wings before the other side is spread. I find that the holes produced by the #2 pins are small enough that they close up under pressure of the paper strip. Some wings tear of course, but life is short (and I have a closet full of dead bugs). I get frustrated if a bug takes more than 4 minutes to spread. This is how I handle all leps, but most of what I spread are skippers, hairstreaks and rios. Of the three groups, I think rios are the easiest because they generally have the weakest muscles. For larger bugs, like Prepona or papilionids, I use multiple layers of towels that are little more moist. And they get 24 to 48 hours of relaxing time. John |
|
|
|
Post by jhyatt on Nov 23, 2021 13:45:34 GMT -8
jshuey and trehopr,
I work pretty much the way John Shuey describes, save that I don't have a layer of moist towel on top of the bugs... but I do turn them a time or two whilst they relax. I spread with pins thru the wings, just as John describes. The weak muscles on Rios are nice, but my problem is that I get tears through the costa when raising the wings -- the veins seem to be weak too. And that's after at least 24 hrs of relaxing. Next time I get a batch, I'll try sandwiching them between damp towels.
Trehopr, I'm a pretty energetic collector of US skippers and spread a lot of them after relaxing. Oddly enough, I don't have much problem spreading them at all. The muscles are strong, but so are the wings, and I almost never get the rips I do with Rios.
Guess we all have different talents.
Tks,
jh
|
|
|
|
Post by jshuey on Nov 24, 2021 5:48:55 GMT -8
jshuey and trehopr, my problem is that I get tears through the costa when raising the wings -- the veins seem to be weak too. I go deeper into the HW - typically the Median M 1 - vein on everything I spread. You are right that the costa (and even the Radius) veins tear very easily. John |
|
