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  #1  
Old 07-23-2008, 08:25 PM
Acid Lamp Acid Lamp is offline
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Anyone else collect insects?

I started a local garden bug collection a few weeks ago. So far, I've managed to collect a female stage beetle, a lubber grasshopper, two golden paper wasps, and some neat leaf-footed bugs. I've been doing some research and it seems that there is a high level of geekery amongst this hobby. I'm in it more for my amateur naturalist tendencies than for any hard scientific value of the collection. A few sites seem to make out that it is a cardinal sin to not label your collection appropriately, but I just like to look at the bugs. So anyone else keep a casual insect collection?
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  #2  
Old 07-23-2008, 08:40 PM
ivylass ivylass is offline
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I also see from GQ you've added a tomato hornworm to your collection.

No, I will not provide a link to one.
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  #3  
Old 07-23-2008, 08:41 PM
GuanoLad GuanoLad is online now
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Do you mean pinned in a display case? Or live in a tank? Your comment about labelling has me confused.
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  #4  
Old 07-23-2008, 08:52 PM
Cervaise Cervaise is offline
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Yeah, in my PANTS!


Wait, what was the question again?
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  #5  
Old 07-24-2008, 12:44 AM
T. Slothrop T. Slothrop is offline
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oh, wait. I just figured out that you don't mean those of us who just happen to live in an old house.

I guess I should un-subscribe from the "does anyone else collect Gekko eggs thread too."
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  #6  
Old 07-24-2008, 06:13 AM
Acid Lamp Acid Lamp is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GuanoLad
Do you mean pinned in a display case? Or live in a tank? Your comment about labelling has me confused.
Pinned in a case.
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  #7  
Old 07-24-2008, 10:20 AM
Pazu Pazu is offline
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I've been an insect collector for most of my life; by any reasonable standard, I'm an amateur. Since I lost my childhood collection when I went off to college (lack of maintenance and hungry dermestid beetles destroyed it), I restarted from scratch in 1995 or thereabouts.

I do try to keep reasonable data labels on my specimens, since they're often "souvenirs" of various vacations I've been on over the years! (Better than snowglobes, IMO. )

I'm probably not a fair judge of the "geekery" quotient in this hobby, though.
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  #8  
Old 07-24-2008, 11:14 AM
John DiFool John DiFool is offline
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I objected to just such a project for my entomology class due to ethical objections, if it involved killing an otherwise healthy insect (as opposed to locating one which was already dead but not smooshed or anything). They eventually allowed me to cobble together insect parts to create "Frankenbugs", replete with faux yet plausible life histories. After that it became an official alternative for the course.
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  #9  
Old 07-24-2008, 11:22 AM
ShelliBean ShelliBean is offline
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My son and I are starting one this weekend! We've moved to the sticks from the city so my kids are having a wonderful time looking at all the insects. We decided to start a collection. So far we have two types of grasshopper, a hornet, a red velvet ant, a false wasp, a rhinocerous beetle and a cicada. They are not labeled yet but we will once we start pinning them.

Yay bugs!
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  #10  
Old 07-24-2008, 05:15 PM
Acid Lamp Acid Lamp is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John DiFool
I objected to just such a project for my entomology class due to ethical objections, if it involved killing an otherwise healthy insect (as opposed to locating one which was already dead but not smooshed or anything). They eventually allowed me to cobble together insect parts to create "Frankenbugs", replete with faux yet plausible life histories. After that it became an official alternative for the course.
I really, really like this idea. This is right up my alley as a sculptor.
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  #11  
Old 07-24-2008, 05:28 PM
Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor is offline
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Quote:
Anyone else collect insects?
Not deliberately, no.
__________________
There's an Initiation Ceremony.
It involves a Squid and a Goat.
You're gonna be good friends with that Goat.
The Squid will not exactly be a stranger, either. ~~Me, on the SDMB Initiation
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  #12  
Old 07-24-2008, 05:30 PM
Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor is offline
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Quote:
Anyone else collect insects?
Not deliberately, no.
__________________
There's an Initiation Ceremony.
It involves a Squid and a Goat.
You're gonna be good friends with that Goat.
The Squid will not exactly be a stranger, either. ~~Me, on the SDMB Initiation
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  #13  
Old 07-24-2008, 07:36 PM
Argent Towers Argent Towers is offline
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If you ever have a glass display case on one wall of your study, with a bunch of insects in it, and one is missing, and you also have another display case on the opposite wall with a bunch of fly-fishing lures and one of them is missing, find the missing objects and put them in their proper places. All of the water will drain out of the fish tank, and then you can push it out of the way and there's a box of flame rounds for the grenade launcher hidden behind it.
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  #14  
Old 07-24-2008, 08:50 PM
miamouse miamouse is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cervaise
Yeah, in my PANTS!
Wait, what was the question again?
*snerk* thanks, I needed that.
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  #15  
Old 07-25-2008, 01:35 AM
Scribble Scribble is online now
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I don't collect insects now, but I used to. In fact, it was a requirement when I was taking my systematics class for my master's in the Dept. of Entomology at my old university.

If I had a net, I'd be collecting now. Anyone know where to get a good insect net in Berlin?
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  #16  
Old 07-25-2008, 03:06 AM
panache45 panache45 is offline
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I still have the 50-year-old collection I had as a kid. Hundreds of specimens, mostly butterflies and moths, that you just don't see anymore . . . all labeled. The wings still look great, but some of the bodies have decomposed.
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