Hesperia Story

[Guy Van de Poel]

Hi,

Just so you do not feel alone:
I tried to photograph Thymelicus acteon, and all I have are brown streaks on
a background of flowers and leaves. About 15 pictures spoiled.
You can tell they are related by just looking at their flying speed.

Guy.

This is not a success story. The Play: for the past 3 field seasons I have
been trying to collect a proper study series of Hesperia from a local valley
to help shed light on the mysteries of this genus in western NA. 7 August
1999 (Act 3, Scene 8): Said humanoid is not smart enough to visit a
particular hilltop earlier in the day and insists on visiting the site when
the mercury is hovering at 35 degrees Celsius. Said skippers are conducting
their affairs in normal fashion - flying at the speed of sound and seemingly
never perching for more than 2 seconds (well, at least not within eyesight).
Results: 15 swings, 15 misses - bugs win and humanoid exits stage left in
acute disgust ! --and lest you think that Hesperia are humor-impaired; I
should add that one nervy individual had the unmitigated audacity to land on
the hoop of my net. I could have sworn that it "threw me the finger" as we
sized each other up to see who would win the battle of size vs. speed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
Forest Ecosystem Specialist, Ministry of Environment
845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
Phone 250-365-8610
Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca