Undet. Papilionid from Rio Grande Valley, TX

[Alexei G. Belik]

Anne Kilmer wrote:

> I have already apologized to Mike .. . if only he'd said it was a road
> kill in the first place, I wouldn't have spoken up.
> Had it been a Schaus swallowtail, blown by the hurricane and looking for
> citrus, and caught by an amateur, the act would have been a federal
> crime. Even road killed Schaus, picked up innocently, cought get you in
> trouble.

I already apologized for my impoliteness too.

Point of view of the outsider (in that sence, that geographically
I'm far from the US):
Don't you think, that the situation is paradoxical - to prove the
discovery
of a some species at the territory where it was not known previously,
one should have a specimen. Otherwise the discovery will be invalid
(especially if this species is difficult for the exact determination, 
so such ID is impossible by the photography alone). But if the 
species is protected, the poor person, who collected it, becomes 
a criminal (even if this person took the road-killed insect!).

So, if you'll discover your lovely Florida's endemic Papilio 
aristodemus ponceanus Shaus (Shaus' Swallowtail, I believe) 
say, in California :-), you don't want to be the criminal, 
you don't take the specimen to prove your discovery, don't report 
the discovery (to avoid any possible suspicion that you might be a 
criminal) and the science will never know about the occurrence
of  this species so far from the main area of its distribution...

In Russia the things with the insect protection aren't so severe 
like in US (our government has more important problems to resolve 
at this time). But since our authorities, like the monkeys, are 
copying all things from the "West" (no matter good thing or is not), 
these problems sooner or later will appear here. Therefore, this 
worries  me too.

Sincerely,

Alexei Belik

P.S. Oops! Isn't this looks like I'm reviving the recently died 
(at last) "collecting vs. not" thread?

--
Alexei G. Belik
Saratov, Russia
e-mail: belik at fannet.ru