Butterfly Dealers

[Semjase]

>Subject: Re: Butterfly Dealers
>From: w2mxw at nospam.com
>Date: 6/7/99 3:36 PM Pacific Daylight Time
>Message-id: <375c4962.1757385 at netnews.worldnet.att.net>
>
>Most of them are selling livestock for the major zoos,  whose
>butterfly houses have become a popular attraction. More of these open
>at zoos every year.  A dealer I know who sells mainly Saturniidae does
>an annual volume in the several thousand range to such buyers, and he
>is a one-man operation. Universities doing research (Max Planck
>Institute, U. of Wisconsin, etc.) buy certain species in huge
>quantities. Wedding releases are also grossing large volumes of
>material as they become more popular (unfortunately). Collectors of
>adult papered material make up the minority of sales, in terms of
>volume per individual, but there are many collectors, especially in
>Europe. I recently received snail-mail 'spam'  from a Mexican company
>which offered Central American species as papered adults, wild
>collected. (I guess once you're on the Lepidopterists' Society mailing
>list...) Personally, I think that Lepidoptera should not be turned
>into a corporate mega-giant profit-oriented business, like everything
>else these days- it ruins the enjoyment when profit becomes the prime
>motive. (And concerns about release of non-indigenous genomes,
>pathogens, etc. tend to be glossed over when money is involved). Let's
>stick with the research, science, and appreciation of Lepidoptera for
>their own sake, as interesting and beautiful wild creatures, not as
>'units of inventory'.
>      
>                                                -  Jon,  W2MXW
>                                a fellow Ham and an avid Lepidopterist

Well written but a totally fake e-mail,  why bother?

S.