P.sennae

[John Grehan]

In response to Bridget Becker who comments:

>I'm new to this list. I'm not a scientist. I just love butterflies. In
>response to
>A lack of "empirical" evidence regarding the function of wings, they clearly
>serve a purpose. Pollination, for one. I don't know of too many pollinating
>creatures that don't have wings.

Wings may enable pollination by butterflies, but that does not mean that is
their
purpose. Of course if one were to believe that wings have a purpose, and that
pollination or dispersal is that purpose, I could not demonstrate otherwise, but
I could not empirically  demonstrate any purpose since purpose involves
goal directed
 origins (i.e. the behaviour or morphology comes into existence to meet a
future need).
As far as I am aware, there is no empirical evidence to suggest that organisms,
behaviours, morphology etc evolve this way.

>Perhaps they also serve as camouflage, looking like flower petals. Anyway, I
>know one purpose served by butterfly wings. They add beauty to the world -
>I'm sure there's no empirical evidence of that , either.

I agree would agree with Bridget that there is no empirical evidence, so I
cannot
agree or disagree that the addition of beauty into the world is one purpose
served by
butterfly wings, only that this lies outside my empirical experience.

John Grehan