P.sennae

[Neil Jones]

In article <v01540b00b21bf7687535@[128.118.72.46]>
           jrg13 at psu.edu "John Grehan" writes:

> 
> >Dear Leplist,
> >
> >The empirical work of Susan Harrison on checkerspots in California
> >serpentine habitats and Ilkka Hanski on the Glanville fritillary supports
> >an important role for migration in maintaining widespread patchy
> >populations of butterflies. See Thomas and Hanski 1997 In Hanski and
> >Gilpin 1997, Metapopulation Biology.
> >
> >patrick foley
> >patfoley at csus.edu
> >>
> 
> 
> The empirical work might support an important role for checkerspot wings
> in migration and maintaining widespread patchy populations, but this empirical
> observation does not say anything about whether that function is the purpose of
> the wings, or indeed whether the wings have a purpose at all.
> 
> John Grehan

It is an excellent book but I think Patrick Foley misses the point.
The only purpose of butterflies' wings is to move butterflies around.
They are like that because some random event in their past history
caused natural selection to shape them that way.

It is the same for human legs; they exist only to permit us to move around.
Those of us who are more successful mate more often and have more
offspring. Even the human mind is only something that has been shaped
by natural selection to help us to mate,procreate and raise our offspring
better. This could be described in short as "Coitio ergo sum". ;-)

-- 
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.nwjones.demon.co.uk/
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn Bog
National Nature Reserve