New Beetles from the Philippines

Hello Everyone

We have just received some really nice beetles from the Philippines. You will find them in the Circulionidae, Buprestidae, Cetoniidae, Cicindelidae and Cerambycidae sections of the web site. Below are photos of just a few of them. Stock of most of the species available is very limited.

Singles Pages Updated

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Both singles pages at Insect Designs have been updated with some interesting specimens from Tanzania and Cameroon. The photos on the African Singles page and Single Beetles page are of the actual specimens being offered. I have not identified many of the items being offered, so you may find something that's hard to get at a great price.

Fresh Specimens from RCA and the Philippines

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Things have been very busy at Insect Designs this week with the arrival of several packages from RCA and the Philippines. On the site you will find a number of restocked items and new specimens, including some very nice Achillides karna iruana and some female Euphaedra and Asterope from RCA.

We have also received some very nice new beetles from the Philippines. These should appear on the web site within the next week.

Some new Butterflies and Beetles from Africa

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Insect Designs has just been updated with a few new specimens from Africa. We also have a number of restocks from RCA.

1. Cetoniidae from Tanzania and Cameroon.

2. Precis columbia, Precis cleocharis and Pieris pharis from RCA.

New Dynastidae from Indonesia

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We have just added two new beetles to the Dynastidae section at Insect Designs, some very nice Chalcosoma atlas males and some large Chalcosoma caucasus males. They are really stunning.

We are also awaiting some new stock from the Philippines. These should arrive within the next week or so.

Fresh Specimens from Indonesia

Hello Everyone

Insect Designs has just been updated with some fresh specimens from Indonesia. Amongst the restocks we have some Arhopala araxes pairs and Arhopala herculina males, and we have some lovely Hyplolimnas pandarus pandarus females and Hypolimnas pandarus pandora males.

We also have several new specimens on offer:
1. Euploea phaenareti hollandi females and Euploea rhadamanthus schildi males;

2. Arhopala anthelus and Arhopala trogon males;

3. Various Parantica males and females;

4. Papilio ulysses telegonus females (2 only);

5. Very nice Papilio memnon x Papilio oenomaus (5 only);

6. Menelaides rumanzovia x Papilio oenomaus (1 only).

Fine Art by Luigi Puiu

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Over the years I have had the chance to meet many interesting people in the course of dealing with butterflies.

Luigi Puiu, one of my customers, lives in Romania. Not only is he an avid collector with an impressive personal collection of more than 54 000 butterflies (he will share some photos of his specimens at a later date), but he is also an accomplished artist with a master and doctorate in Fine Art. He has had 43 exhibitions, 18 of them being outside Romania. Luigi is also a designer.

Three of Luigi's art works are pictured below. Their actual size is 75/55cm and they are done on hand-made Japanese paper.

If any of you do interesting things featuring butterflies, I would be happy to post some photographs and information about them on this blog.

New Beetles from Tanzania

Hello Everyone

We have just updated the single beetles page at Insect Designs with some fresh interesting beetles from Tanzania. Some of the new items are pictured below. Normally only one of each specimen is available, and photographs of the actual specimens you will be purchasing are on the Single Beetles page.

Fresh Specimens from Tanzania

Hello Everyone

We have just uploaded a bunch of new specimens from Tanzania on the web site, including lots of new and restocked Colotis species, males and females. We have also updated the African Singles page with some interesting specimens from Tanzania.

Setting Butterfly Specimens

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In an earlier post I explained my method of relaxing butterfly specimens. In this post we will look at my method of setting them into position. This method is by no means the only one out there, but I find it works for me. I hope you find it useful.

Step 1

Place the specimen on a paper towel and gently press on the thorax with the blunt end of a pair of tweezers until you feel (and hear) it crush. Be careful not to squash the thorax completely. Repeat on the other side.

If the specimen is quite old you need to be especially careful.

Step 2

Holding the specimen as shown, squeeze the tweezers so that the wings open slightly.

Step 3

Hold the wing where it joins the thorax and manipulate the wings open and closed. The idea is to make everything supple so that the wings open easily. Repeat on the other side. 

Step 4

Push a pin through the thorax and pin it to the pinning board so that where the wings join the thorax is level with the top of the pinning board. I make my own boards from pieces of stiff foam glued together.

Pin thin strips of card on either side of the body as shown in the picture.

Step 5

Place a pin next to the abdomen on the side you are going to pin out first. This keeps the body more or less in place while you open the wing out.

Step 6

Move the wings into the position you want using the pair of tweezers. I use stamp collecting tweezers because they are nice a smooth and won't damage the wings. Be careful not to rip the wings.

Hold the wing in position by pressing down gently on the cardboard strip. Place a piece of unwaxed paper over the wing and pin around the outside. Repeat on the other side.

Remove the pin from next to the abdomen.

Step 7

This is what the finished specimen should look like.

If the abdomen droops or is off centre, use pins to put it in the correct position.

Step 8

Use a strip of card and pins to position the antennae.

Leave the specimen in a cool, dry place for about a week to dry out fully. Keep ants etc away by using some surface spray in the area where your specimen will dry.

Once it is dry, remove the pins and store your specimen in a safe place. Use plenty of moth balls.