Subject: Collecting tips

From: "B.C.Wood (Byron Wood)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 1995 09:08:11 +0000

Could anyone out there give me some very general tips on ensuring butterflies
collected in the tropics do not get destroyed by ants and mould before you've
even made it back to the airport!!!

Is a sprinkle of naphthalene in the collecting tub, with all the specimens in
envelopes, enough ?

How do most people dry their specimens in the field ? I rigged up a cardboard
box with shelves around a light bulb later on into the trip when I realized
mould was setting in to some of my specimens. Anyway...any helpful tips ?

I'm working on butterflies in the forests of Trinidad, especially with respect
to forest disturbance. Last field season I used both walk-and-count techniques
and fruit traps set in the understory and in the canopy. This trip (May to
September) I'm hoping to concentrate my efforts on one guild, the satyrinae
butterflies. These are one Pierella species, 4 Taygetis and 16 or 17
euptychiine species (Cissia, Euptychia and Chloreuptychia). I've chosen this
group as they are all shade-seeking forest species (with the exception of
Cissia hermes perhaps) so should respond greater to forest disturbance.

If anyone is interested and would like to discuss it in more depth, or has some
data or knowledge of the effects of forest disturbance on this guild or any
other...I'd love to hear from you. I've just started the second year of my PhD.

Cheers

Byron Wood
Biology Department
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA

[email-masked]