eBay buyers beware!

[Pete Eeles]

I've just received the latest newsletter from the Entomological Livestock Group. In it, there is reference to this item on eBay:

Seller: mustavit-2007
Item Number: 380196740377
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 3D1&_rdc=1

The supposed collector, a Mr. Gardiner whose details are on the data label, has written to the ELG to explain that this was never one of his specimens and, what's more, this isn't even a British swallowtail, but the common american Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) - see http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1356. I hope the buyer gets their £255 worth

On a related note, I'm writing an article on the "Butterflies and the Internet" for the European Interest Group (EIG) of Butterfly Conservation, focusing on the good and bad of the Internet. Any thoughts you might have would be appreciated (please reply to this thread).

Cheers,

- Pete

[Dave McCormick]

On a related note, I'm writing an article on the "Butterflies and the Internet" for the European Interest Group (EIG) of Butterfly Conservation, focusing on the good and bad of the Internet. Any thoughts you might have would be appreciated (please reply to this thread).

Thats a great idea. I am always wary on where stock online comes from. Questions I'd ask are:

Is the stock taken from the wild and if so, is it legal or will it affect the species in the wild?

If the critter is a dead specimin, how did it die, and where did it come from? (I have a few specimins myself, but these are ones either bred in captivity or ones I found dead, either around my moth trap or other locations, but never killed live creatures, I really disagree with it and it does never help the species in that area. Butterfly farm specimins are ok as they are bred and die in captivity. Some places even sell dead specimins to collectors from butterfly farms to ensure the wild species are not collected and save them. (Such as birdwing species, if bred and die in farms, then wild ones don't risk going extinct.)

[Neil Jones]

There is a lot of dodgy butterfly trading on Eb
On the general subject of dodgy trading on the internet these two threads should be interesting.
http://tinyurl.com/ye4qveh

http://tinyurl.com/y932jct

They come from sci.bio.entomology.lepidoptera a usenet discussion group but in reality were all posted through the list Leps-l which is gated with the usenet group.
They concern a Chinese dealer who was using surreptitious methods to post adverts
for a CITES listed butterfly.

There are unfortunately many American collectors on the various discussion lists who quite openly support criminal collectors. At one point, and it may still be true, the Lepidopterists' Society over there had a rather notorious crooked collector on their membership committee.
This was one of a 3 man team whose criminal indictment for their felony convictions ran to EIGHTY FIVE PAGES.
Email me If you want more details.