Year first

Dale Roberts/Bill Yule droberts03 at SNET.Net
Sun May 5 12:48:40 EDT 2002


Hey all,
  First of the year for me in Guilford CT. May 5, 2002 a beaten down Vanessa virginiensis, a lady with a couple of bird bill shaped chunks clipped out of her hindwings.  In 1898 Holland's "The Butterfly Book" lists this species as Pyrameis huntera, "The Hunter's Butterfly".  In 1925 Weed calls this butterfly Vanessa huntera, "The Painted Beauty".  Today we call this same critter Vanessa virginiensis, "The American Painted Lady" as it is listed in Klots' 1951 Peterson Field Guide.  The point of this mini-history?  As you can see generic concepts change over time and so the genus can change.  Specific epithets sometimes change too as more is learned about the butterfly and history of previous names reveals itself.  Common names (which are really English vernacular names) change with the times too, as fads come and go, often at the bequest of the publishers of Field Guides.  Pyrameis huntera becomes Vanessa virginiensis. The Hunter becomes a Lady.
What doesn't change, IMHO, is the beauty of the butterfly.
       
                                               Bill Yule
                                         Stuck inside on the nicest day of the year!      Enjoy all!
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