Butterflys GEHP

[Anne Kilmer]

Onildo =?iso-8859-1?Q?Jo=E3o?= Marini-Filho wrote:
> 
> 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

The guy is retelling a myth. He needs a butterfly indigenous to the 
Tigris-Euphrates area, which is liable to flood. Give him  a break, 
fellows. 
Anne Kilmer
Sounth Florida