Fresh Specimens from Cameroon just added

Hello Everyone

The African Singles page on Insect Designs has just been updated with some fresh material from Cameroon. The photographs on the African Singles page are of the actual specimens you will be purchasing.

Most specimens are unidentified and there are often bargains to be found by the keen collector.  The page is updated regularly with new specimens.

This week we are also looking forward to receiving parcels from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and perhaps even India.

Some Good Butterfly Books

Hello Everyone

I am often asked by beginners what books to get. There are lots of books around, and the best are very expensive and only for those seriously into the subject.

For those just starting, there's a good book by Bernard D'Abrera that's cheap and packed with photos, several thousand in fact, and it's a good one to give you an overall idea of species that are to be found. You should be able to get it at Amazon.

Eventually I would love to get the entire series by Bernard D'Abrera that the above book draws from, but this will cost me several thousand dollars.

In the mean time I am collecting the wonderful Butterflies of the World series by Bauer and Frankenbach. Several volumes are published every year. They are large format and feature wonderful full sized color photographs. The cheapest way of getting them is by subscribing to the series. The only catch if you do this is that you have to purchase all of them. You can also purchase them one by one. I get mine direct from the publishers. Visit Insecta for more details.

Fresh specimens from Peru now available

Hello Everyone

The box from Peru has been opened and the specimens are now available. We have fresh Morpho didius, Morpho godarti assarpai, Morpho theseus juturna (new lower price), Morpho achilles and Morpho adonis. We also have fresh supplies of Ancyluris formosissima.

New Specimen Photos

Hello Everyone

It has been a really busy week this week at Insect Designs. Lots of customer orders to prepare has meant that a box of fresh specimens from Peru has been sitting unopened all week. Hopefully these will go up on the site over the weekend.

A box of specimens from Argentina has just been shipped. All things going well, it should arrive within the next week or so.

You will notice on the web site that a few new specimen photos have been uploaded of specimens that arrived last week from Malaysia. These are female Amathuxidia amythaon dilucida and Zeuxidia aurelius, as well as Polyura delphis peninsularis and Kaniska canace perakana.

A visit with an Australian captive breeder

Australian specimens are always hard to come by. Although most are not CITES listed, the Australian government only allows the export of specimens that have been captive bred. Not only that, but captive breeders are required to be government licensed, hence the difficulty of obtaining specimens for export.

Last Friday I visited my supplier of Australian specimens to collect more specimens for the web site. While I was there, Ross was kind enough to allow me to snap some pictures of his butterfly house. These are the photos (Ross is the one in the photo, not me).

We then went downstairs and had a look at some of his hungry caterpillars.

I always enjoy visiting Ross and nearly always spend more time there than I had planned.

Lots of new specimens now available

Hello Everyone

This weekend has been very busy with lots of specimens being sorted and put onto the web site. We received new specimens and restocks from RCA, Peru, Malaysia and Australia, including some very hard to get females.

On Friday I visited my Australian supplier and took some photos of butterflies and caterpillars in his butterfly house. I'll post these in my next post.

Here are some photos of some of the new specimens you will find on the web site right now.

New Package from Peru

A new package has just arrived from Peru. The new specimens will be uploaded to the site within the next few days. There are two other packages also on the way from Peru. These should arrive within the next one or two weeks.

We also have material on the way from Malaysia and Tanzania. We are also hoping to receive a fresh package from Argentina within the next month. This package will contain specimens that many of you have been waiting for for a while.