Butterflys GEHP

[Onildo João Marini-Filho]

At 07:42 AM 6/5/98 +0100, you wrote:

>This message is from William Butler <ButlerWR at aol.com>, a student from
U.S.A.- FLORIDA.
>
>Please tell me what type of butterfly would be represented in the days of
Noah the Ark builder of the Old Testament of the Bible.  I am writting a
paper for humanities class that will be an account of the building of the
Ark as seen through the eyes of a caterpillar who changes into a butterfly.
 This infomation would add some credibility to this fictional story.  
>THANKS,
>William Butler
>

	It's probable that more than 99% of the actual butterflies and some
already extinct species were around at Noah's time (But when was it
exactly?). Then you must rely on his ability to collect more than 20,000
species distributed worldwide (the real number may be even greater, as new
species are discovered). He must have had enough room to bring their larval
foodplants together, or else they would die much before the rain stopped (a
butterfly doesn't live more than a few months). Well, that's a rough
analisys for butterflies only, not accounting the other 5-40 million
species of organisms on earth.


Cheers,

Onildo J. Marini-Filho
Lab. Comportamento de Insetos
Departamento de Biologia Geral/ICB
UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Tel.: ++55 31 499 2579