History of completed sales on eBay

Methodology

Important to understand how the tool works to better understand its results.

This tool :
– uses completed sales only : if an insect is overpriced on eBay and not sold, it won’t appear here.
– shows insects from all ebay sites (ebay.com, ebay.co.uk, ebay.de…)
– the level of tax depends of several factors (the seller country tax, your country tax…). In average, we see a 25% tax on items we have purchased ourselves so we apply this +25% rate in the file.
– uses a fixed conversion rate between euro and dollar, and this rate may vary from month to month.

This tool :
– doesn’t show all sold insects on eBay (we can’t find them all). But we have recorded more than 10,000 sales so it should be useful for you.
– doesn’t show insects with a final value below $30 as knowing their market price is not key (so we focus on more expensive insects).
– eBay erases old items. Clicking on them :
. will show you the right item if recent
. will show you a similar item or a “Not found” page if older than 2 months.

Note that price highly depends of quality ! If you see a Parnassius autocrator sold at $30, it doesn’t mean that the market price is $30. It means that this Parnassius autocrator was very damaged and sold at a cheap price.

The post The insect price checker appeared first on InsectNet.

You’d like to know where the specimen comes from and when it was collected.
InsectNet is there for you! Discover the Insect Label Decipherer.

How to use the Insect Label Decipherer

Enter your label in the Insect Label Decipherer … and our artificial intelligence will give you the result in a matter of seconds.

Here’s an example with a Japanese label.

Hard to say what it means if you don’t speak Japanese… and worse, the printed characters are blurred.
Here is the result with the Insect Label Decipherer :

Now you know that it comes from the city of Shichinohe (Japan), the collecting date and you have the name of the collector !
You even have a Google Map link towards the identified locality !

You want to try the tool, you will find it at the top of this page. Upload your photo and let the magic happen :

One comment: on poorly handwritten labels, the tool can’t always work miracles! Give it a try.

As this tool is new, don’t hesitate to send us positive or negative feedback so that we can improve it.
Tell your collector friends about this tool!

I would like to thank my friend Emmanuel Zinszner for giving me the idea of developing this tool.
Olivier
InsectNet admin

The post The insect label Decipherer appeared first on InsectNet.

Advertise your stag beetle in the InsectNet Classifieds

Hundreds of insect collectors from North America, Europe and Asia are daily checking the InsectNet Classifieds to find interesting insects for sale. You will easily find some customers for your stag beetle. The cost is €10 to create an account (payment via Paypal) but you will easily earn a lot of money by advertising your insects there.

How to sell your stag beetle in the InsectNet Classifieds

• Register here : https://www.insect-classifieds.com/registration.html
• Choose your username and password
• Fill your Personnal details (country, name…)
• Select the €10 New account Package and click on “Next”
• Select Paypal and pay the €10 via Paypal, once paid, your account is live and you can advertise your stag beetle in the InsectNet Classifieds. If you don’t have a Paypal account, you can’t use the InsectNet Classifieds and your account will be deleted.

Where to sell stag beetle in India ?

You can use the InsectNet Classifieds to advertise your stag beetle online and find insect collectors who will be very happy to buy it. The InsectNet Classifieds is the best stag beetle selling site. Of course, check with your legal legislation about insect export rules and permits. Some Indian stag beetles are very rare in collection and reach a high price on the market. Write the collecting locality on a label, it will be important for the scientific value of your stag beetle (Lucanidae).

What is the value of a stag beetle ?

The value of a stag beetle depends of its rarity in collection. Stag beetle from India, Africa and New Guinea can reach a high price (above $1,000) as they are rarely offered online. The quality of the specimen, the full collecting data and its beauty can also increase its market value. Entomologists and Museums are looking for stag beetles with full collecting data.

The post How to sell stag beetles online ? appeared first on InsectNet.

So, if you love entomology, these are events not to be missed. Some enthusiasts organize their trips to other continents to coincide with these insect fairs. 

To add your fair to this list, please contact us : contact.insectnet@gmail.com

Lists of insect fairs around the world

As these insect fairs take place around the same time every year, we’ve sorted them by month. Be sure to check that the date indicated is the one for this year, as the fairs are sometimes shifted by a week from one year to the next. Double-check the date on the fair organizers’ website, which we systematically indicate. 

January

Pardubice insect fair

Located in Pardubice, Czech Republic

10 January 2026

email : mila.kalabza@email.cz

—

February

No important entomological fair

March

Prague insect fair

Located in Prague, Czeck Republic

website

—

Ento-Mons

Located in Mons, Belgium

1 March 2026

website

April

EntoModena

Located in Modena, Italy

11/12 April 2026

website

—

Riverside insect fair

Located in Riverside, California, USA

25 April 2026

website

—

Bourse de Liège

Located in Liège, Belgium

19 April 2026

website

—

May 

Pardubice insect fair

Located in Pardubice, Czech Republic

16 May 2026

email : mila.kalabza@email.cz

June

No important entomological fair

July

No important entomological fair

August

No important entomological fair

September

Pardubice insect fair

Located in Pardubice, Czech Republic

6 September 2025

e-mail: kalabza.mila@gmail.com

—

EntoModena

Located in Modena, Italy

19/20 September 2026

website

—

Tokyo insect fair

Located in Tokyo, Japan

23 September 2024

website

—

Juvisy Paris insect fair

Located in Juvisy, France

26-27 September 2026

website

—

AES insect fair (near London)

Located in Sunbury-on-Thames, England 

29 September 2026

website

—

October

Insectorama Seraing insect fair

Located in Seraing, Belgium

12 October 2025

website

—

Munich insect fair / Insektenbörse München

Located in Munich, Germany

24 October 2026

email : stefan.loeflath@t-online.de

—

Moscow insect fair

Located in Moscow, Russia

4/5 October 2025

website

—

November

Frankfurt insect fair

Located in Frankfurt, Germany

7/8 November 2026

website

—

December

No important entomological fair

The post List of Insect Fairs – Date and Place appeared first on InsectNet.

I’ve been collecting butterflies for 30 years and had never found the perfect technique for rehydrating butterflies before spreading them. I will thank here Nicolas Grimaldi for teaching me this technique. 

I can guarantee you that I have tried dozens of techniques, I will mention for example :
– placing the specimen in a jar filled with moist sand for 3 days,
– placing the butterfly in a tupperware with moistured toilet paper. 
– inject the butterfly with hot water using a syringe
– injecting the butterfly with gin or vodka

None of these solutions was perfect: 3 days in a jar is sometimes not enough to soften a butterfly but molds appear as soon as the 2nd day.
Injection is not practical on small specimens like Lycaenidae and sometimes dramas occur with fats present in the body that spread in the wings and stain them. 

It is only very recently that I discovered a very simple and fast technique (less than 24 hours).

All you need is a bottle of vodka, some toilet paper and an airtight tupperware.

Few important advices to rehydrate your butterflies

It is very simple, very fast and it relaxes the butterflies much better than the classical methods with water or injections. The other big advantage is that it avoids moistures.

What you need :
– a bottle of cheap vodka (buy the cheapest one, the one I use has 37.5% alcohol),
– an airtight tupperware,
– some toilet paper.

What to do :
– Fold a strip of toilet paper lengthwise and place it in the tupperware. (see picture)
– Pour in about half a cap of vodka. The paper should be well soaked but the vodka should not run out of the paper.
– Put the butterflies next to the toilet paper, I just put the head of the butterfly on top (to relax the antennas)
– Close the tupperware
– Wait about 12 h for a Delias, 24h/36h for an Agrias.

Benefits:
– the butterfly is much more relaxed than with the traditional methods of hot water or injection
– it is faster than the classical hot water method. One night is enough for most butterflies.
– you can leave the butterflies hard to relax (Agrias, Charaxes…) several days in the tupperware without risk of moisture because there is no water.
– I did not encounter more problems of greasing than with other methods (less risk than with the injection)
– it is not expensive : maybe 5 cents of vodka per tupperware ?

Two things to watch out for:
– you should not leave the butterflies too long. 12 hours is enough for most species. Otherwise the risk of greasing increases.
– before spreading your butterfly, ensure the butterfly is perfectly rehydrated. If not, leave in the tupperware for 12 more hours.

If you’ve never tried this vodka technique, please try it and let me know. I am sure you will be impressed. It works perfectly for all sizes of butterflies.
If you don’t have any vodka at home, you may try another strong clear alcohol

Second method : ammonia injection for hard-to-relax species

Some butterflies species like Agrias, Charaxes or Hesperiidae are famously hard to relax. The best method to relax them is injecting ammonia (14% concentration) with a syringe.
For classic butterflies (Delias, Colias…).
– use a syringe to inject one or two drops of ammonia into the thorax between the legs, at the wings level. (see photo)

– if you have injected too much ammonia, absorb the excess by gently pressing the specimen between 2 sheets of toilet paper.
– place the specimen on a sheet of toilet paper in a classic relaxer for 4 hours (toilet paper will absorb ammonia if you injected too much).
– after 4 hours, you can spread it

For tough butterflies like Agrias.
Same method but add an ammonia injection between the eye (see photo)

This is the result, that picture has been taken 4 hours later the first 2 pictures

A third method to rehydrate your butterflies.

You can also use the classic method with hot water, have a look to the video below. But be careful of moisture and be aware that it is not as efficient as the vodka method. This is the method most collectors are using because they are not aware of the vodka technique. 

Material you will need to relax your butterflies (and beetles)

Here are some useful materials, you can easily find on Amazon :

The post How to relax / rehydrate a butterfly ? appeared first on InsectNet.

The importance of labeling your insects

It is essential to label your insects in order to build a scientific collection. Even if your collection is modest, each specimen must have a label with collecting data. Beginning collectors sometimes forget to do this and regret it afterwards.

Why do you need to put data labels under your specimens? It is important to put collecting data for several reasons:
– to know from which locality the specimen comes from,
– to know when he was collected,
– to know in which biotope it was found,
– to know who collected it and what collection it was part of.

Why is insect collecting data scientifically interesting?

This data allows entomologists to learn a lot of things scientifically. Here are a few examples:
. knowing that a species was flying at an altitude of 500m in the 1960’s, whereas it is no longer found below 1500m today teachs you about the global warming of a locality.
. knowing that a forest species like Speyeria diana was flying in an American locality where there is now a mall shows the impact of urbanization on insect populations.
. to know that there were 145 species of butterflies in the 1990s around a Californian city as opposed to 110 today shows you the impoverishment of insect populations.
. knowing that butterflies are losing size compared to the past gives you information on the quantities of host plants available.
. spotting noticeable differences in an insect population in an isolated locality can lead to the description of a new species or subspecies.
. knowing that there are more insect species near organic crops helps you take environmental decisions for agriculture.

And finally these collecting data are also important for you :
– they allow you to remember where you captured each of your insects (and bring back good memories)
– they allow you to classify your collection by country, localities.
– Specimens with collecting data are more valuable than without. 

For all these reasons, it is essential to label all your insects.

How to label your insects?

Place a small label under the specimen on which you provide information:

– the latin species name and sex,
– the most accurate collecting locality possible (with GPS data if you have it),
– the collection area (island, mountain, State,…),
– the country of collection
– the date: day + month + year (useful to know when butterflies are emerging)
– the biotope.  (very important to measure the impact of urbanization and deforestation on biodiversity)
– the collector name, use the word “leg. +name”
– the name of the collection, use the word “coll. +name”

An example of a well-labeled insect 

This wonderful Delias butterfly has the following collecting data label :

A free insect label template

Click here to download an Excel document with a convenient insect label template.
There are 4 lines per label, but you can easily add more. 

Our last tips :

– label also your papered specimens by writing collecting data directly on the triangle paper (sometimes you will spread them many years later). 

– print your label just after having spread your insects and place it near its specimen on the spreading board. Doing so, you won’t forget where you caught the insect and you won’t attribute a label to a wrong specimen. 

The post How to label your insects with collecting data ? appeared first on InsectNet.

Why you should learn how to mount a butterfly ?

Mounting a butterfly is a key technique you must masterize in order to build a nice insect collection. Knowing how to spread butterfly will be very useful : 

– to spread the butterfly you collect yourself,

– to buy papered butterflies which are cheaper than spread butterflies

– to display a collection with perfectly spread butterflies. 

It is not an easy technique but with a bit of practice, you will rapidly masterize it. 

Which material do you need to spread a butterfly ?

To spread butterflies, you need the following material :

– a spreading-board, (choose an adjustable spreading board to perfectly match the body size of your butterfly, it helps a lot in the spreading process )

– entomological forceps,

– entomological pins,

– glassine pinning strips,

– a fresh or well-relaxed butterfly.

How to mount a butterfly ?

The various steps to spread a butterfly

1. check that the butterfly is fresh or well-relaxed. Fresh butterflies have been caught within the day. Well-relaxed butterflies have been placed in a rehydrating chamber for few days. To check if they are relaxed enough, try to open their wings completely with a forcep. If wings are not flexible enough, don’t try to spread that butterfly, you would ruin it !
2. take the butterfly between thumb and index and introduce a stainless entomological pin of appropriate size right through the center of the thorax perpandiculary to his body
3. place the butterfly in the center of the spreading board groove
4. push the wings towards the board and maintain them by pinning a glassine strip above and below the wings. 
5. with a forcep or a very thin entomological pin, push the forewing up, in order to have a perfect 90-degree angle between the body and the inner margin of the forewing, 
6. same method to push the hindwing up,
7. maintain the wings by pinning a glassine strip around them, 
8. once spread, keep the spreading board in a dry room for 3 weeks,
9. remove the pins and glassine strips after 3 weeks,
10. put the butterfly 3 days into the freezer before adding it to your collection (dermestidae may have lay eggs on your specimen during the 3-week drying time).

How to spread a butterfly in video

There are several videos of butterfly mounting on Youtube. Some are good, some are very bad … this one is excellent and will help you understand the various steps of butterfly spreading :

4 key rules to remember to perfectly spread a butterfly

1/ use a well-relaxed butterfly,

2/ pin it perpandiculary to its body,

3/ the forewing inner margin must make a 90-degree angle with the body,

4/ never pin the wings ! It would make some awful little holes in the butterfly wings.

_{Mounting of an Agrias phalcidon fournierae female}

We hope you have found this article useful ! Start practicing with common specimens.

The post How to spread a butterfly ? appeared first on InsectNet.