Titus, Alabama, USA

I have been collecting and studying insects off and on for well over 50 years, with a special interest in the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera orders. I have an Associates Degree in biology and have taken several senior college level courses in entomology, but I never finished and got my degree. I am retired now (from a totally different career) and for several years my focus has been on the many small to very small moth species in my area that I mostly overlooked for decades.

I have a respectably sized collection of both indigenous and exotic species of mostly butterflies, moths, and beetles – with my primary focus being on the large, colorful, and ornate species – which I have made arrangements to donate to a major university here in the southeast at some point. I collected or reared all of the indigenous species myself, and purchased the exotic ones from various sources – either as dried adults which I relaxed and mounted, or as ova which I reared.

As an amateur collector, one of the lessons that I have been taught is that the more one learns about insects the more he realizes how little he really knows about them. Not a season passes that I don’t learn something new about several species that I had not previously known.

In addition to collecting insects, throughout most of my life I have been an avid deer hunter, fisherman, and general naturalist and outdoorsman. I have also spent a good deal of time studying herpetology, and at one point, when I was much younger, had quite a collection of snakes and lizards. These days I enjoy photographing and collecting insects at lights, or simply taking slow walks through the woods with my camera shooting anything of interest.

It is my expectation that in participating here at BugGuide.net I stand to learn far more than I will be able to contribute – but, I will assist in any way I can.

“I am glad I will not be young in a future without wilderness.” - Aldo Leopold