Tales of an entomologist. About adventures and travel

touching story ^__^

Yes, I also had the idea to catch (ground beetles) in cemeteries, because, basically, they are all very old and "caught" a lot of what was happening to the surrounding territories... steppes, plowing, planting and growth of forest belts, monocultures, pesticides, etc.... Having a variety of microconditions, cemeteries can be quite good reserves of species that have not survived the "anthropogenic pressure" in the surrounding territories.
.. but they still don't raise their hands...

I have seen at least one publication about the fauna of cemeteries, if I remember correctly, in Australia.

"Blasphemer! It is not good to run over the graves with shouts of joy..."

Segal as Steven

Residents of the Far East like to tell such tales. Probably to give yourself significance and scare away visiting people. So as Stanislavsky said, " I don't believe it!"

I have been living in the Ussuri taiga for several years and I can confirm that this is not a story. There are also more strange cases, in the opinion of urban residents of central Russia. For a tiger, a dog is a treat. He's not afraid of people. He goes out on the freeways sometimes. And lies, despite the signals of cars! They shoot into the air... It doesn't go away! He doesn't care if there are five of you. The Real Master of the Taiga!

This post was edited by Wild Yuri - 17.04.2010 16: 58

Here's more from an old essay... There was a time! Now everything is somehow respectable...

Sex chat

It happened right after I moved to Vladivostok. One of my friends, having learned that I grow butterflies, wanted to do the same. Grow. She asked me to knock her out. I started teaching. I gave a lecture. He showed me the equipment and cages. Then the practice started. I was teaching a girl manual mating of butterflies. Unexpectedly, she admitted that she was participating in an online sex chat. And they regularly meet all the sex chat (20 people), go to the sauna, to the cinema (then still in the sauna), etc. She blushed and told me that she had blabbed about me to the sex chat. That there is such a butterfly breeder in the world. Who developed the manual mating technology... And that the sex chat really wants to come visit me. I asked who was in this sex chat. She held up the photo. The girls were terrible, the men pot-bellied and old. And there was only one exception - my student. A peach with a wandering eye. She went to a sex chat for fun. Two-thirds of men went to a sex chat hoping to fuck her. But she said it wasn't time yet… I was afraid. I said no way. I didn't want this sex chat at home. Now I asked "who's there" when the doorbell rang. I looked out the window to see if there was a sex chat in the yard. And yet it happened. The doorbell rang. It was my student. I opened the door. On the threshold, behind her... ruddy and fresh after the sauna was a sex chat.

My 45-day incarceration in Germany is coming to an end. On this occasion, I bought a bottle of very elite grappa and today I am a little cool on the forum, I cook all sorts of goodies. Apparently, stories about this have surfaced in my memory.
1. approximately the 25th day on the Ukok Plateau. Icy winds. Shackles of cold at night. A real Russian Tibet. Prolonged rain, which the locals call Ak-zhaum (white wall). And the very long Sary-Tas pass in the central part of Ukok. We're going on horseback. Kasym, as always, is ahead on foot, pulling his horse, and we are trudging along on horseback. 2700. Everything is covered with clouds, and it's dripping. Approximately 5-7 degrees of heat. Bullshit in short specific. 7th hour in the saddle. My friend and guide Sanya Chuikin (a local doctor) addresses me:
_ Roman how do you feel about the table setting, appliances, forks, knives, etc.
- I feel fine, - I answer.
"You might as well give it up now."
"I think so.
Then he pulls a palmful of dirt out of his pocket. Natural mud. He put the tortillas in the pocket of the UGC, they got wet there, and taking into account the burnt ones, they turned into mud when they got soggy. We ate. Normalek...

2. Once the Mongol Gascons attacked us - they got up somehow badly. They come in groups all day long. And who goes with them - Sanya is our driver. Sana'a is a different story... Then. Once again, 5 people come. We are busy with our own affairs. Sanya entertains them. The complete lack of common words turns communication into an indescribable concert. Sanya shows them the UAZ
-This is the UAZ
On the pump
-This is the pump
On the tent
-Tent.
Tired of explaining to them the simple decoration of our camp, despite the unprecedented interest of the Mongols, Sanya decided to learn something from them.Asks:
"You're from there?" he waves his hand sharply in the direction of their intended home.
The Mongols look at Sanya blankly.
- From there???
He waves again.
The Mongols are confused...
Sanya is boiling. Here are the clueless ones...
FROM THERE??? He's already raising his voice. He waves his hand sharply again.
The Mongols resentfully mount their horses and leave in the indicated direction.
We've never laughed so much in our lives.

RAMBO IS RESTING…

An exciting but not yet described topic is war: between and against entomologists.
I know of two.

The first one broke out about 20 years ago in Kyrgyzstan, on the Kaindy ridge, when loxias (a rare butterfly Parnassius loxias) was discovered there and entomologists flocked to fish like moths to the light of a lamp. I counted 19 entomological tents there that season!
Loxias live on Kaindy very locally, and entomologists have sorted out all the places, and one Voronezh resident even decided to "stake out" their land. Seeing competitors on the borders, he shouted:
"Go away!" I found this place first!
They explained to him reasonably that the places here are not divided, and continued to catch "luxury locks".
The embittered owner of the place met a Kyrgyz hunter on the trail the next morning. The mountain shooter did not know any belmesa in Russian, but the butterfly man begged him with gestures to stay with him "on the hunt", without covering the gun...
competitors soon appeared for fishing. The collector pointed to the Kirghiz...
Or that person will start shooting at you!
The Kyrgyz smiled hospitably, not understanding the essence of the appeals, but the guests still retreated and went to another place.
In the evening, they met our Kyrgyz on the road and explained to him that it was his "protégé" who shouted. The Kyrgyz was taken aback. He didn't want to shoot the sewers at all! He began to fraternize with them, went over to the opposition and even shared the meat of the mountain goat he got.
The next morning, Kirghiz and the collectors went up the mountain together. The aggressor immediately understood everything and "disappeared" into the nearby gorge.
He crossed the Kainda Ridge, determined to find a new, hard-to-reach Loxias place to spite his enemies.
This view was never seen in that direction...
The haggard privatizer of fishing spots returned three days later and quietly left, with the nearest hitchhiker to another place unknown to me in Kyrgyzstan…

The second war occurred between entomologists and local residents, the same 20 years ago in the Altai village of Aktash.
Morning, village road to the mountains. Another Voronezh entomologist is slowed down by not yet old bratello, from the local, and offers to "prescribe" him.
The issue price is 200 rubles
. The collector was (and it seems like it remained) strong. He knew karate techniques.
And he sent…
Bratello violently rushed at the guest, wanted to butt... A skillful trip, – a bandit with a broken face on the asphalt sits on the highway, and the entomologist continues on his way.
It wasn't there! The battered "authority" gathers the militia in the evening to catch This... and all the others who walk around here with a net and callous eyes.
That year, there was a large series of sewers in Aktash that were still unaware of the outbreak of hostilities.
The locals found out the address of one of the groups. There were other residents of Voronezh – slender and meek. The militia broke into the house and started beating 4 collectors. And there would have been victims, but someone's wife, in their sleepy crew, managed to pull out a gas pistol...
2: 0.
The next morning the war did not subside. I went to collect in the mountains and could not believe my ears...
– We'll grow up to love you."..th!
Always calm local children shouted from the cliff.
I was very surprised, and in the evening I learned from the landlady of the apartment that in the village "our people had a fight with yours" ... And that the first ones were looking for me for some reason.
I went through the vegetable gardens to the Voronezh house, but there was no one there. The collectors fled and settled down somewhere in the taiga.
At a local hotel, I met our "karateka". He was packing a backpack-he is urgently leaving for Shebalino, together with the Voronezh group, since there is a war in the village.
Here, bad luck… That day, as luck would have it, I found a population of the rare Klossiana matveevi!..
I decided to become a partisan, went to the remote mountains and lived there for about a week, catching matveevs in short runs.
I hitched a ride to Shebalino. Voronezh residents told me that the locals, seeing their bus departure, even chased them for 5 km in a UAZ truck, but apparently there was not enough fuel...
3: 0.
And so.
Respect, lads, entomologists!

This post was edited by Wild Yuri - 25.04.2010 14: 18

I also had to give local lyuley a couple of times in Kyrgyzstan. For some reason, they thought that I should definitely give them money or share a tent (sleeping bag, camera...) .

Yes, then one of the beaten even stayed with me - I was then 17 years old. Many residents of Lipetsk, Voronezh, etc. remember the hospitality of my late grandmother.
It is necessary to live in an expedition tent independently. I think so. And less communication with whips and closer to the gathering places.
There are people standing at the mine right now - they even leave their tent for the whole day. Awesomes

Yes, then one of the beaten even stayed with me - I was then 17 years old. Many residents of Lipetsk, Voronezh, etc. remember the hospitality of my late grandmother.
It is necessary to live in an expedition tent independently. I think so. And less communication with whips and closer to the gathering places.
There are people standing at the mine right now - they even leave their tent for the whole day. Amazing

Those were different times - a lot of young people in the village, drunk, "wild Altaians"... Now everything has become more civil. However, it is better not to stop in Aktau. At the factory-yes. It was quiet there even in those years. But at the time of that war, passing people could tell the "militia" where the entomologists had fled, and they could visit... I had to go into hiding.

In my opinion, regardless of the place and time of activity of entomologists, all the same local aborigines will treat us aggressively or try to extract any benefits from us, due to their narrow-mindedness. They just don't understand the important role we play in the cycle of life. This is our human nature( everything unknown is dangerous)

No, that's not true - I didn't see any aggression in Peru or Mongolia. I think little of it entomologists have seen from local and in South Africa, Turkey, etc. Only in the vast expanses of the USSR this is normal. The most w-a was and will be Tuva.

We're fine.. Not in many places there are aggressive people, most often kind and you can stay for the night.

then there is an offer to all Forum to pass a course of psychology that to us any sea was knee-deep . As far as I know, rural pseudo veneers are not particularly smart, and they are aggressive or overly inquisitive only because they are bored all summer to stare at the spattered ceilings in their homes and as a result: at the sight of a person with a net sticking out of his back, interest involuntarily wakes up. And so... the most primitive course of psychology can help in an extreme situation, without particularly trying to "reject" any person

It is very difficult to call Moldova the USSR, as well as the Baltic States and a number of regions of Ukraine.

Without a doubt, there are plenty of nice and kind people, but how many of us already know... in the family not without uroda

I have never encountered entomological disputes , thank God.

In the Leningrad region there is such a place - the Lava River, where trilobites are collected. By the way, a good copy can cost several hundred pupaars. I don't need trilobites at all, but I've traveled several times in the company of amateur paleontologists I know. Here everything is really divided. I was warned - one, and even with a geological hammer (or other tool/fossils) don't show up here! It can be very serious trouble. This is not a joke - at least one case is known when a certain friend left and did not return. This is not the level of rural punks, real money is spinning there, hence the relationship.

... ... ...
The most w-a was and will be Tuva.

And the most a-s in it is Ak-Dovurak...

It's a nightmare when people claiming to be scientists and other things are ready to kill you for a lousy thousand pupaars. When it's scumbags it's understandable. They're scumbags in Africa, too. But when an "entomologist" brings a Kyrgyz with a carbine, or a "paleontologist" scores a "comrade" with a kyle - this is already bad. Very bad indeed. I've seen a man stand on a slope and shake when someone else is out there catching a butterfly. Naturally, it beats him. They would have given me AKM instead of a net - I would have soaked it. The clinic is everything. It is necessary to treat - sometimes by lobotomy.

Yeees... Absolutely, blah, people have gone wild - if money is more expensive than human life...

And the most a-s in it is Ak-Dovurak...

Everything is cool there and Erzin and Mugur-Aksy. Beautiful nature, just a country that beckons to itself, and it's so hard. I was in Tuva on 2 big monthly trips. Large routes. But we were in the car, and we always got up very correctly. And then there were problems. But there were also unforgettable moments. Purchase of 10 kg of grayling for $ 4, etc. Belyashi delicious in Erzin bake-they call them there Permyachi. I still remember. What butterflies. A sea of wonderful butterflies.

Roma, damn it, don't poison your soul!!!

Permyachey wanted to... Understand

Everything is cool there... Beautiful nature, just a beckoning country...
... ... ...
I still remember. What butterflies. A sea of wonderful butterflies.

Permyachi - delicious, but not the main thing...
I haven't been there since 2003. And dreams constantly... There is something magical about this country...

then there is an offer to all Forum to pass a course of psychology that to us any sea was knee-deep . As far as I know, rural pseudo veneers are not particularly smart, and they are aggressive or overly inquisitive only because they are bored all summer to stare at the spattered ceilings in their homes and as a result: at the sight of a person with a net sticking out of his back, interest involuntarily wakes up. And so... the most primitive course of psychology can help in an extreme situation, not particularly napregayas "otshit" any person

There are three important rules
: 1. Be aware of the possible consequences.
2. Prevent them whenever possible.
3. Act as necessary.
If you know that a net sticking out from behind your back arouses interest, make sure that it doesn't arouse interest. If you can't change the population, change yourself.
No need for the net to stick out from behind your back. from the bag, etc. Pridolbatsya to such a brow is forgiven and "more correct" than to someone who does not have a net.
Don't start collecting in front of a wine shop or beer bar in the district center. If you get hit in the face , it will be very natural. If you are walking with a girl or know that the people here are bad, a traumatic weapon or something similar will not hurt. Try to behave like a normal Soviet citizen and the people will reach out to you. They hold out vodka - drink it. They ask for cigarettes - give them to me. Don't play smart. It is necessary to speak in the language of the population.
Controversial advice, but effective.

This post was edited by Yakovlev - 25.04.2010 16: 13

Permyachi - delicious, but not the main thing...
I haven't been there since 2003. And dreams constantly... There is something magical about this country...

I'm 2002. I'll go at the end of May.

It's a nightmare when people claiming to be scientists and other things are ready to kill you for a lousy thousand pupaars. When it's scumbags it's understandable. They're scumbags in Africa, too. But when an "entomologist" brings a Kyrgyz with a carbine, or a "paleontologist" scores a "comrade" with a kyle - this is already bad. Very bad indeed. I've seen a man stand on a slope and shake when someone else is out there catching a butterfly. Naturally, it beats him. They would have given me AKM instead of a net - I would have soaked it. The clinic is everything. It should be treated - sometimes by lobotomy.

There are mentally ill and unbalanced people in any specialty - whether it's an entomologist or a prosecutor. The main thing is to avoid excesses. Well, if excesses are allowed, then punish them. According to all strictness.

My late colleague, friend and teacher, Yu. B. Kosarev, told me:

In 1991, he went to the Altai Mountains to collect butterflies. As usual - a photocopy of Shtandel's article (then there was nothing more detailed), two blocks of scarce cigarettes, and other junk packed in a backpack, boarded a plane, and left for two weeks. Yu. B. ' s goal, I note, has never been a commercial catch of butterflies. But he was lucky to be interesting. In particular, I have one of the Colias heos gynandromorphs from his collections.

And so. As it usually happens, in Altai. in the most "popular" spots, there were up to 12 butterfly nets at a time. There was an unwritten rule at the Seminsky Pass - the hunters walked side by side, each had a 20-meter lane, and encroachment on "foreign territory" was punishable by exile. These are the mores...

And there was such a significant case: Yu. B. in Shebalino settled in a hotel with some St. Petersburg collector. Before that, there was a good day of fishing, and Yu. B. caught some very rare variation of some parnassus. In general, in the morning in the hotel room there was neither that St. Petersburg man nor that Parnassus .

They also say that there were such gentlemen as Podshibyakin and Shtandel. Those from ZINA stole - why go to the field: D

Among collectors and entomologists there are sick people. Just like in other areas. They stole from museums, from each other... this is a huge number of stories.

Among collectors and entomologists there are sick people. Just like in other areas. They stole from museums, from each other... this is a huge number of stories.

But the most famous of them is the story of the holotype Parnassius autocrator . By the way, the names in this story are kept silent. It's a pity...

I'm 2002. I'll go at the end of May.

Envy...

My mood just turned sour... What about good people? Ah, colleagues?

It's a nightmare when people claiming to be scientists and other things are ready to kill you for a lousy thousand pupaars. When it's scumbags it's understandable. They're scumbags in Africa, too. But when an "entomologist" brings a Kyrgyz with a carbine, or a "paleontologist" scores a "comrade" with a kyle - this is already bad. Very bad indeed. I've seen a man stand on a slope and shake when someone else is out there catching a butterfly. Naturally, it beats him. They would have given me AKM instead of a net - I would have soaked it. The clinic is everything. It should be treated - sometimes by lobotomy.

I agree.

But, a small clarification. In my case, it wasn't about PALEONTOLOGISTS. I'm a paleontologist myself. It was about people making money from minerals. Specific groupings, specific roofs, and disassemblies. No scientific interests were visible there. On the other hand, there was also no desire to be particularly interested.

Yes, this is understandable... As well as those who stand on the slopes and mow down Parnassus and say-I'm a scientist, I'm an entomologist. Why I'm not allowed to fish in the nature reserve. We have a lot of such people-who read the word Nymphalidae as Numphalidae. Who believe that entomology is the Prague bursa. Who know the surnames of Watanabe, Kawasaki, etc. and don't know the surnames of Christensen, Sinev, Mine, or Razovsky.
"Butterflies are flying stamps," the late Gornostaev once said. Meaning postal services. How right he was... There is such a legend...

Thank God that there are no micromarks

While. Bye, Stanislav. The collection expansion just hasn't reached micra yet...

Well, let's see

In a number of groups reached. For example, in fingerflies. Three people work in parallel:
1. Arenberger (Vienna)
2. Giles (Netherlands)
3. the Ustyuzhanin clan + Kovtunovich (Novosibirsk-Moscow).
So there is real competition for "new species" and valuable material. In general, it is very stimulating...
Therefore, all who have finger-wings or will have them from normal places-welcome. I'll bring them together and introduce them...

In a number of groups reached. For example, in fingerflies. Three people work in parallel:
1. Arenberger (Vienna)
2. Giles (Netherlands)
3. the Ustyuzhanin clan + Kovtunovich (Novosibirsk-Moscow).
So there is real competition for "new species" and valuable material. In general, it is very stimulating...
Therefore, all who have finger-wings or will have them from normal places-welcome. I'll bring them together and introduce them...

The fingerwing clan wars are coming!
Arenberger sits on the Austrian types, Giles on the Dutch ones, Basil on the British ones. Everyone, under any pretexts, does not allow competitors to work with the old types, not to mention their own. They do not publish new photos of types and their genitalia (fingerflies are a total genital group). Everyone works only with those materials that they catch themselves, which means that travel costs are high, and here the Kovtunovich clan probably wins.
And of course, reduce competitors to synonyms, and accordingly do not recognize this from others by publishing a recovery from synonyms!
It's just getting started!

In general, it seems to me that Vasya and Peter, as well as Arenberger, work correctly - and only Giles smacks the shit. His catalog of the world's fingerflies is the worst book on entomology. The worst! When the species flies in one point of Transbaikalia, and the distribution is Russia - this is still okay. But when the creature flies in Kazikoporan (formerly Armenia, now Turkey) - and also Russia. From Georgia to Magadan - Russia. And a lot of other blunders - I don't know that Cyrenaica and Libya are one.... Wildness.
As for the work of my friends Ustyuzhanin and Kovtunovich, they work well and very competently.

Of course, I'm exaggerating, all the same, fingerflies are not daytime ropalocera.
Maybe they should share the world? Who would get what?
I also appreciate my acquaintance with Vasya and Peter, especially since I live a 30-minute walk from Vasya's house.

Of course, I'm exaggerating, all the same, fingerflies are not daytime ropalocera.
Maybe they should share the world? Who would get what?
I also appreciate my acquaintance with Vasya and Peter, especially since I live a 30-minute walk from Vasya's house.

Like what? Arenberger Austria-Hungary, Giles-Benelux. Well, Vasya and Petya - Russia.