new book, call for photos

[Phil Schappert]

Hi everyone,

Apologies for the long message...

I'm now in the process of, amongst other things, writing a book on
butterfly ecology and conservation for Key Porter Books in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada. The book will be called "A World for Butterflies" and
will include five major sections/chapters: 

1) Introduction (to butterfly biology, life history, etc.)
2) Butterflies of the World (systematics and evolution)
3) A World of Butterflies (faunistics, distribution and habitats)
4) A Butterflies World (ecology)
5) A World for Butterflies? (conservation)

The "meat" of the book will be in the last two chapters. The book is
intended to simultaneously serve the "coffee table," naturalist and
professional markets so it will include about 300 color photos, a
major text written for the educated layperson plus frequent in-depth,
fully referenced sidebars on specific subjects. It is intended to be
available before Christmas 1999.

The reason for my announcement/note is to put out a general call for
photographs. Since the subject is ecology/conservation my intent for
the book is to show photos of living butterflies "doing" things (e.g.
butterflies and caterpillars in recognizable activities other than
just sitting looking pretty). Thus it makes appealing to amateur and
professional Lepidopterists more important than professional
photographers (but you already knew that, didn't you?). You, or
someone you know, probably has just the types of photos that I'm
looking for. Here is a list of general subjects:

Photographs

In general, all photos should be of living butterflies, preferably in
the wild, "doing" things (admittedly much of the average butterfly's
time budget is "resting" but I would prefer photos of butterflies in
recognizable activities), or sequences which show specific behaviours
or unusual aspects or details of the life cycles of specific species

Intro

1)) Photos of eggs, larvae/caterpillar and pupae/chrsyalid to show
variation in size, shape, appearance, colour, texture, etc.
2) Close-up photos of eggs and specific body parts of larvae, pupae
and butterflies including: egg sculpturing, micropyle, larval head,
eyes, legs, prolegs, hairs, osmeteria, pupal cuticle structure, pores,
adult head, eyes, wing veins, scales (including structural color and
conventional and ultraviolet pigmented types), antennae (including
moth antennae), legs, etc.
3) Sequence of photos showing complete butterfly life cycle (egg,
larva (including moulting), pupa (including eclosure), adult,
including mating and egg-laying if possible). NOT the Monarch please!
4) Sequences showing motion - walking in caterpillars, vibration of
pupae, flight by butterflies, etc.
5) Photos of upper and lower wings of same species to illustrate
pattern diversity, crypsis vs. aposematism, etc.

Butterflies of the World

1) Photos to illustrate at least one living taxa from each of the
various levels of the butterfly family tree including (but not limited
to): Castniidae (butterfly/moth "missing link"); a few Moth families
(e.g. Saturniidae, Sphingidae, Noctuidae) to illustrate "outgroups";
Papilionidae (Parnassiinae, Papilioninae, Baroniinae); Pieridae
(Pseudopontiinae, Dismorphiinae, Coliadinae, Pierinae); Nymphalidae
(Danainae, Ithomiinae, Satyrinae, Morphinae, Charaxinae, Apaturinae,
Heliconiinae, Nymphalinae, Acraeinae, Calinaginae); Libytheidae;
Lycaenidae/Riodinidae (Styginae, Riodininae, Curetinae, Lycaeninae);
Hesperiidae (Megathyminae, Hesperiinae, Trapezitinae, Pyrginae,
Coeliadinae, Pyrrhopyginae)
2) Butterfly fossils

A World of Butterflies

1) Butterflies of the tropics, temperate and arctic regions (or an
altitudinal series) from the same family (to illustrate variation in
size, colour/pattern, etc.)
2) Photos of major habitat types (forest/woodland (temperate and
tropical), tundra/alpine, marshes/bogs, mountains, grasslands/meadows,
deserts, etc.)
3) Butterflies with very wide distributions (global, circumpolar,
continental) and with very limited distributions (endemics, island
species, relicts, etc.)
4) Variation in appearance/wing pattern within single species
(geographic, seasonal polyphenism, sexual dimorphism, mimetic forms
etc.)
5) Genetic "accidents" and aberrant forms (gynandromorphism,
mutations, etc.)

A Butterflies World

1) Ecological relationships of butterflies/caterpillars (unusual diets
(pollen, carrion, dung, sweat, aphids, ants), associations with ants,
mites, parasites, etc.
2) Plant/butterfly interactions (chemistry/coevolution, various plant
forms (trees, herbs, vines, ferns, etc.), unusual plants (lichen,
moss, etc.)
3) Change in appearance of larvae during development, pupae on
different backgrounds
4) Usual and unusual behaviours: puddling, gregarious roosting,
courtship and mating, migration, overwintering/hibernating, etc.
5) UV reflectance
6) Anti-predator strategies: gregarious larvae/adults,
crypsis/camouflage, aposematic or warning colours, false
heads/eyes/tails, hairs and spines, osmeteria, mimicry, flash and
conceal colour
7) Predation by birds, lizards/amphibians, mammals, spiders,
predaceous insects, parasitization.

A World for Butterflies?

1) Collectors with net, watchers with binoculars
2) Sequence of mounting and spreading butterflies (how to make a
collection)
3) Butterfly rearing for fun/profit (how to)
4) Photography equipment, do's/don'ts, common problems/errors
5) Butterfly counts and monitoring projects
6) Conservation subjects (specific taxa, both successes and failures)

If you're interested in this project then I'd appreciate hearing from
you. Please contact me privately at philjs at mail.utexas.edu,
512-471-8240 (office) or 512-237-3864 (home, Stengl Lost Pines
Biological Station).

Phil

--
Dr. Phil Schappert
Zoology, University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712-1064
Office: 512-471-8240; Fax: 512-471-9651
Stengl - Lost Pines Biological Station: 512-237-3864
mailto:philjs at mail.utexas.edu
http://www.esb.utexas.edu/philjs