Euploea

I must admit I have seen some interesting and stunning specimen on Insectnet. I have also read some interesting dialogue about those specimens.

I have two questions;

Question number 1: Are all of these specimens self collected or purchased?

Question number 2: If purchased, how do you rehydrate them with out damage or staining the wings? Especially water stains from rehydration?

I see all the photographs of specimens from the other side of the world and they look like they were collected yesterday.

I have only purchased ova, larvae and pupae. In all my years I find mounting dried specimens after rehydration the most difficult to mount.

Am I missing something???

The main advantages of self caught or bred specimens is that they are easier to spread when freshly killed and you control the collecting data instead of relying on dealers and suppliers sometimes paltry efforts. Preparing material that has been in an envelope, sometimes for decades is an art that is only mastered with practice. Over time you develop the methods that work best for you and it almost becomes as easy apart from the fact that specimens always retain a certain degree of stiffness no matter what you do.

Wait for my soon to come comments about relaxing dead stock. I'm sure it'll be interesting.
I'll only mention positive results:)

By pure chance I found a picture of my favorite specimen, Euploea radamanthus (=diocletianus) lowii from Borneo:



Euploea do not suffer from stains when you relax them, so you can use quite a lot of water with them.

Euploea bloosome corazonae Beautiful species it is.
Where is it coming from?