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Author: suzukake

Stag beetle related products on eBay and Yahoo auctions ?>

Stag beetle related products on eBay and Yahoo auctions

eBay is an internet auction site with the world’s largest users. On the other hand, Yahoo Auctions is a famous auction site in Japan. In both cases, ordinary people like us sell products.   In these two auction sites, I searched for “stag beetle” as a keyword and looked at the differences between the products being exhibited.   Number of hits eBay (Searched for “stag beetle”): 2,687 in total, 211 for >5000 JPY (Japanese yen) Yahoo Auctions (Searched for “クワガタ”):…

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How to make a specimen of a butterfly with its wings open diagonally ?>

How to make a specimen of a butterfly with its wings open diagonally

As the next work of 3D zotrope using drone beetles (link), I created a 3D zoetrope using butterfly. I used specimens of a black-veined white (Aporia crataegi). I purchased ten specimens for 400 yen at Insect Fair. I prepared poses like flapping motion frame-by-frame.    The general method of making a butterfly specimen is introduced on YouTube (for example, here). Procedure is basically like the following steps. Step 1: Cover the specimen from the head to abdomen with wet tissue…

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How to mold an insect specimen in resin? Researchers shared their protocol. ?>

How to mold an insect specimen in resin? Researchers shared their protocol.

Recently, I found a paper that described how to mold an insect specimen in resin.   Bejcek, J. R., Curtis-Robles, R., Riley, M., Brundage, A., Hamer, S. A., & Hamer, G. L. (2018). Clear Resin Casting of Arthropods of Medical Importance for Use in Educational and Outreach Activities. Journal of Insect Science, 18(2), 34. https://academic.oup.com/jinsectscience/article/18/2/34/4955728   This post is written in compliance with the paper’s policy.   Why the authors introduce us how to mold a specimen in resin? They…

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Drone beetles dancing in resin (3D zoetrope) ?>

Drone beetles dancing in resin (3D zoetrope)

When a picture or object with a different shape appears one after another in the same place like a flip-book, our eyes are illusioned as if they are moving. For those using 3D objects, they are called 3D zoetrope. Using the same principle, I made a work that looks like a drone beetle climbed an acorn and slipped down. *The work will be exhibited in Maker Faire Tokyo 2018 (Aug.4, 2018~Aug.5, 2018 @Tokyo big site) with the team name “Ignoramus“….

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