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Post by foxxdoc on Oct 29, 2020 6:13:00 GMT -8
To collect immature larvae of marine invertebrates in the Sargasso Sea at night with a full moon ?
TOM |
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Post by exoticimports on Oct 29, 2020 7:28:45 GMT -8
I've knocked a lot off my list over the years: discover a new butterfly, catch a wild Ornithoptera, have a sheet loaded with hundreds of moths in Pena Blanca, be the first to survey a remote island, attend bug fairs, observe the threatened Hemileuca maia complex "Bog Buckmoth" in the wild, meet a few famous entomologists.
Now I have two items on my list: (1) figure out what the #*)&# is going on with Tiger Swallowtails in the "Funny Zone" in New York, and (2) write a book like Pasternak's.
I'd like to get all of my friends here together to meet face-to-face. I'm guessing it will have to be in Chang Mai, so get your passports.
Chuck
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Post by Paul K on Oct 29, 2020 14:27:58 GMT -8
I'd like to get all of my friends here together to meet face-to-face. I'm guessing it will have to be in Chang Mai, so get your passports. Chuck Chiang Mai sounds good! |
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Post by eurytides on Oct 29, 2020 19:14:10 GMT -8
If we are flying half way across the world, let’s go all the way and meet at Popondetta PNG.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Oct 30, 2020 0:05:01 GMT -8
I'd like to get all of my friends here together to meet face-to-face. I'm guessing it will have to be in Chang Mai, so get your passports. Chuck Chiang Mai sounds good! Sounds good to me too, but you'll all have to wait until things open up again. Currently Thailand is not open for visitors. Adam. |
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Post by exoticimports on Oct 30, 2020 8:27:56 GMT -8
If we are flying half way across the world, let’s go all the way and meet at Popondetta PNG. Have you been to PNG? It's not for those concerned with crime and violence. Chang Mai we can hang out and have beer with elephants on the label, and cool off in the mountains. Or we can go up and get kicked out of the park near the military facility (oops, different story.) So anyway...story time. I'm somewhere north of Chang Mai, and the work elephants are coming back down the trail after a hard day. Behind me is a large bunch of bananas. As each elephant is coming along I grab a banana and hold it out. The elephant reaches up and gently takes the banana, stuffing it in the big pink mouth as it trundles down the trail. One bigger elephant slows a bit more on approach. I hold out the banana. He reaches for it, and then quickly uses his tree-sized trunk to push me out of the way and grab the entire bunch of bananas. What burns me isn't that he stole my bananas, it's that the SOB deceived me. Chuck |
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Post by eurytides on Oct 30, 2020 11:25:56 GMT -8
You are full of entertaining stories Chuck. I have never been to PNG and I have heard stories. However, are there not local guides for hire and such? A lot of places can be dangerous without local guides, not just PNG. Seeing some birdwings in the wild on PNG is probably on the bucket list for many...?
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Post by Paul K on Oct 30, 2020 17:08:00 GMT -8
You are full of entertaining stories Chuck. I have never been to PNG and I have heard stories. However, are there not local guides for hire and such? A lot of places can be dangerous without local guides, not just PNG. Seeing some birdwings in the wild on PNG is probably on the bucket list for many...? Yes!!! To see birdwing in flight is in my bucket list as well. I have seen Troides but Ornithoptera that’s a level up 😎 . |
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Post by exoticimports on Oct 31, 2020 5:04:02 GMT -8
To observe Ornithoptera, NW Australia is clean, relatively safe (be wary of snakes, spiders, and crocs) and offer western-style accommodations.
How and what we see is often translated to our brain incorrectly. For example, a male Papilio troilus on the wing is black, exhibiting none of the submarginal whitish scallops or expanses of green. At the other extreme, a female Papilio bridgei appears as massive expanses of white, blue, and red while in fact it's mostly black.
Female Ornithoptera often drop below the canopy into the dark forest, and are unimpressive- they appear as just big obfuscated pieces of dark cardboard. Yet when I was "attacked" by a female victoria in the open, all I saw was a huge white and black polka dotted bed sheet coming at me. I would have sworn the wingspan was a 1/3 meter.
The first wild Ornithoptera I saw were two male urvilleanus chasing a female across an open field under bright sunlight. It was indeed a breathtaking sight. Had I been assigned an illustrator and been told to have them draw what I saw (and been unfamiliar with Ornithoptera) the result would be almost purely blue, with a giant yellow banana, five times the real size, hanging below in an awkward manner.
That said, when Ornithoptera come to feed on Hibiscus flowers, they look like big butterflies; spectacular perhaps only because they are Ornithoptera; they look like specimens you pulled out of the drawer and stuck on a shrub. The large blue Lycaenids are actually far more impressive on a green background, and appear much larger than they really are.
Being able to watch Ornithoptera in the wild is indeed a treasured memory. That said, they are just as beautiful, and act the same, in the butterfly zoo in Niagara Falls.
Chuck
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Post by wollastoni on Oct 31, 2020 6:56:04 GMT -8
The first wild Ornithoptera species I saw flying was Ornithoptera priamus teucrus from Biak island (New Guinea).
True that seeing this wonderful fluorescent green flying is a very impressive sight.
Observing the green males flying slowly behing the huge black females is a wonderful sight also.
Priamus is a pretty common species in some villages. I think I saw around 20/30 of them in one day.
I also had the luck to see one Ornithoptera chimaera accross a river near Wamerek village in the Central Mountains of New Guinea. (Baliem valley)
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Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2020 20:28:47 GMT -8
Ok.......I realize this bucket list item is not entomological, but driving my 1983 280zx w manual transmission has been on my bucket list since my teen years. Got this dream recently......thinking I’d better act before I get too old. They are a blast to drive and take care of. I’m crazy abt the insects as u all know, but have to break away from them every so often.  |
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Post by eurytides on Dec 16, 2020 7:16:32 GMT -8
I wonder if certain hobbies cluster together. I am also a car enthusiast.
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Post by nomihoudai on Dec 16, 2020 7:32:44 GMT -8
I wonder if certain hobbies cluster together. I am also a car enthusiast. A spurious correlation. Show me a woman in her 40s/50s that collects cars. Your gender and age is the larger contributor. That is a great car. I do like the Nissan Z-series. The Datsun 240Z is the origin of those. Unfortunately, they seem out of my price range. |
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Post by eurytides on Dec 16, 2020 7:55:33 GMT -8
I don’t know either way if there is a correlation between insects and cars. Do you know many middle aged women who collect insects?
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Post by eurytides on Dec 16, 2020 7:56:52 GMT -8
Also, I did not say there was a causal effect between collecting insects and cars. If A causes B and C, it is accurate to say that B and C are correlated.
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