What are everyone’s opinions on buying dead specimen from breeders?

Discussion

Super quick psa for anyone who doesn’t know, perfect specimen are very rarely natural death specimen. Perfect specimen are euthanized painlessly as soon as they emerge, before they can damage their wings. While there are exceptions that is mostly people lucking into finding specimen who died of some natural cause soon-ish after they’ve emerged.

I’ve never bought from a breeder, I’ve only pinned scavenge. And I kinda want to try pinning some moths and/or butterflies that aren’t native to my local area. But I really don’t feel great about buying euthanized bugs. (Idk, I know that they’re just bugs and that personal study is valuable. And I don’t feel bad when I see other people do it. But still)

Is there any way to find someone who would sell me damaged natural death specimen? I genuinely don’t mind the damage. Like I said, I work with scavenge. I’ve seen some bad ones. How would I go about even asking something like that? Is it not rude?

I’d most love to get my hands on some Atlas moths, but they are invasive where I live. My county has done a good job of removing them, I’ve never seen one. It is however, completely legal to own dead ones. (They can be bread with permits but the process seems so complicated)

I’m sorry, this turned into more of a ramble than a logical set of questions, but thank you for reading! And thank you in advance for any help!

Posted Jul 4, 2025, 1:19 AM UTC

57
Loading comments…