AZ Lepidoptera
I have been collecting Lepidoptera at least since the age of 10. There were ups and downs, but I never fully quit this hobby. Except for a few gifts from friends, I only collect insects that I capture myself in the wild. For this reason I like to think of myself as a hunter and trapper, not a collector (this is a good moment to read my environmental statement). Right now my collection boasts 5724 unique cataloged specimens from 54 countries, representing 3958 subspecies of 3313 species in 1273 genera, as detailed in the complete holdings list.
My collection no longer belongs to me. It has officially become part of the millions-strong insect collection of my school ETHZ , in the Department of Environmental Systems Science. For now, I have it on loan in my house, where I can continue working on it in my free time. All specimens are stored pinned and dried in special drawers: almost airtight flat wooden boxes with a foamy bottom to hold the insect pins and a glass top. About 150 of these drawers fill up a dedicated room.
Each specimen has a unique ID tag and a digital counterpart. The latter is a pair of tagged photographs of the recto and verso sides of the set specimen. These digital specimens are stored in "digital drawers" that you are invited to browse by clicking on them below. Unfortunately, most specimens have not been carefully looked at since capture and were only subject to hasty preliminary identification. I am in the process of re-measuring and re-identifying everything. This will take many years. To date, only the following drawers have been updated: Papilionidae, Nymphalidae (partim), Danainae, Heliconiinae, Heliconiini, Biblidinae, Satyrinae (partim), Euptychiina/Pronophilina, Bombycoidea (partim) Saturniidae and Arctiinae. For the rest, please take any identification with extreme caution.
Most recent inventory: 22.10.2023
