thanks. I got the specimens from Dr. pitts & Kevin who gave me a few specimens from the Utah state collection. do you know mont cazier is?

He passed way in October 1995.

Are your his daughter? I am cherishing that specimen.

You have pricked my curiosity so I hope you don’t mind my questions. What kind of specimen did he give you? How do you know about my father?

What kind of specimen did he give me? He gave me a some what rare mutillid. Well, the insect community is pretty tight nit, once you know one person, it usually leads to other connections, not to mention, bugguide does the same thing, a network of entomologists. As for your father I did not know him directly but I assume he was a collector that donated insects to the Cal State Academy of Science or UC Berekeley and one happened to be a mutillid, which is the group I study. Although its quite a trip to be talking to his daughter. Out of curiousity, was he a professor of entomology? you have my curiousity as well I'm afraid.

He got his degree at UC Berkeley. Before I was born, he was the chairman and curator of the Museum of Natural History's Department of Insects and Spiders in New York. In 1955 he founded and was the director of the Southwestern Research Station. By the time I was born he was a professior of entomology at Arizona State University. I wasn't born with a silver spoon but with a silver bug net in my hand. My siblings and I grew up collecting and I still do today. Your photos, by the way, are fantastic.

wow, thats amazing. Thank you for your complements. Was he a fun person to grow up with collecting insects and all? If your in the area we should go collecting. Oh by the way you are entitled to this specimen if you'd like. :)

He was a fantastic father. He traveled a lot with graduate students and would sometimes take us with him. He was a very popular teacher and a patient dad. I've been told I inherited his wicked sense of humor and sarcasm. He loved making people laugh. Thanks for the offer, but keep the velvet ant. Visit the Chiricahua’s someday. They are in the southeastern corner of Arizona, where the Southwestern Research Station is. That’s where we spent most our childhood collecting insects. I’m currently living in Germany and trying to identify the critters I’m finding here.

I love wicked humor and scarcasm, it runs in our family as well. what do you study in germany? It was a pleasure to meet you. I hope to talk to you some more sometime. Its funny, I have a lot of friends that moved to Germany, must have some killer bugs.

I'm not studying anything here except maybe German behavior :-) My husbands job moved us over here for awhile. It was a pleasure meeting you too.