My collection includes more than 10,000 spread specimens from America north of Mexico plus hundreds of papered and frozen specimens. There are over 800 species represented by generally short series that have been authoritatively identified over the years. The majority, about 2/3 of the collection, comprises west coast material and the rest is from the eastern US. There is very little Canadian material, and almost nothing else from other countries.

I have been collecting since 1967, but many specimens that I have obtained from trading were collected earlier. I have corresponded and traded for about 30 years with Ron Leuschner for hundreds of authoritatively identified specimens. I first met Dr. Doug Ferguson in 1970 and corresponded with him until he passed away. He reviewed and placed determination labels on a number of my Semiothisini and provided some of the specimens in my collection. I have visited Many of the major national, regional and state collections to identify my material. John S. Buckett & Bill Bauer's collection and their inspiration led me to pursue geos in 1966. Since then I have traded with a number of collectors including Kelly Richers, J.S. Nordin, R.C. Mower, James Adams, Steve Miller, Terry Sears, Baldo Villegas, Jeff Slotten, Leroy Koehn, the late Bryant Mather, Charlie Covell, Debbie Matthews-Lott, Wally Kmentt, Jeff Slotten, Tom Neal and Paul Opler. Recently, Rick Gillmore who lives across town, brought over hundreds of his geometrids to enrich my Florida and Arizona material.

Charlie Covell, Dr. Ferguson, and Ron Leuschner were most helpful over the years in identifying my specimens. I worked closely for a number of years with Bob Schuster at the UC Davis collection while initially collecting and preparing my California specimens, and during preparation, collection, and donation of thousands of my specimens representing many orders of insects to their collection. Howard Weems, before he retired, and John Heppner at the Division of Plant Industry in Gainesville helped me with collection materials as a Research Associate, as I continued to collect and donate thousands of insects to their facility. My goal is to aid the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera in Gainesville in building the finest collection in the world of Geometrids of America North of Mexico. Someday I hope to work at the Center full-time.

UPDATE 2023: It's been 20 years since the above note. I donated my collection of geometrids to the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the University of Florida in 2010. I am now retired and have moved to Gainesville, where I am curating the Geometridae at the McGuire Center. I am also currently involved in moth surveys here in Florida.

The North American part of the geometrid collection here has 92% of all known geometrid species found north of Mexico. It is curated in over 1,200 drawers. We also have thousands of drawers of foreign geometrid material. Many of the foreign geometrid genera remain to be fully curated, but Charlie Covell (who has been here since the opening of the Center in 2004) and I have made a good progress. There are also tremendous holdings of moths from around the world that still need to be sorted to the family level.

One of my goals here at the McGuire Center is for the collection to have a representation of all known species of Geometridae found north of Mexico. I personally have short series of many Florida moths and other insects and will be happy to exchange them for any geometrid species that are not represented in the McGuire Center. If you are interested in exchanging Lepidoptera please contact me for a list of our priority geometrid species.

I encourage all lepidopterists to visit our collection here and to contribute to it. You can just contact me for a private tour. If you are interested in donating any of your Lepidoptera please contact Andrei Sourakov (sourakov@ufl.edu). And please visit the McGuire Center website for more information: McGuire Center News - McGuire Center (ufl.edu)

You can contact me at bbelmont@ufl.edu.