Galapagos butterflies

[jhimmel at connix.com]

Thank you everyone who got back to me about Galpagos leps.  I got some very good 
information at a website on this archipelago, but since I've already passed on 
the info to the person who needed it, I don't remember where it is.  Anyway, it 
lists the EIGHT species of butterflies found in the Galapagos: Monarch, Queen, 2 
Vanessa spp, a Long-tailed Skipper(Urbanus) sp, Gulf Fritillary, a western 
Phoebis subspecies, and the endemic Galapagos Blue.

Based on this, the Connecticut Butterfly Association will probably not be 
leading any field trips there...  Although it might be nice to see that "Blue". 
 Apparently they are very difficult to sneak up on.

There are also a number of moths listed - don't remember their names.  It was 
suggested that since most of the flowers were white, much of the pollination was 
provided by the moths. 

John

John Himmelman
Killingworth, CT USA
jhimmel at connix.com
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On Wed, 10 Feb 1999, John Grehan <jrg13 at psu.edu> wrote:
> mothman617 at aol.com wrote:
>
> Little is written of the
>>Insect fauna of the Galapogos. Try the works of Charles Darwin or Alfred
>>Russell Wallace.
>
>While quantity is relative, I don't think that "little is written" is quite
>accurate. In particular, Stewart Peck has published extensive compilations
>on the Galapagos insect literature, and my recollection (hazey, and I don't
>have
>the source to hand) is that 95% of Galapagos species were estimated to be
>documented. There are certainly numerous papers on Galapagos insects, 
>or papers that include Galapagos species in systematic revisions of various 
>groups.
>
>There are certainly endemic species of Lepidoptera on Galapagos, and
>some of these and other endemic plants and animals may have been inherited
>from former island arcs in the eastern Pacific.
>
>Peck, S. (1996). Origin and development of an insect fauna on a remote
>archipelago: the Galapagos islands, Ecuador. In The Origin and Evolution of
>Pacific Island Biotas, New Guinea to Eastern Polynesia, Patterns and
>Processes (A
>Keast, S. E. Miller eds.) pp. 91-122. SPB Publishing, Amsterdam, The
>Netherlands.
>
>John Grehan
>
>
>
>
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