"how butterflies are any different"

[Mike Quinn]

Dear Mark,

If all insects were as large and as dististictively marked as Monarchs are,
then yes there  would be less of a need to collect them. (And if pigs could
fly...) My personal preference is to watch/observe/photograph butterflies.
I think that I have a healthy interest in and knowledge of all vertebrates
and arthropods. (I have a BS in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences from Texas
A&M and am working on a MS in Entomology from the same institution. For my
thesis I helped collect and curate ~50,000 arthropods.) So personally I
don't care what, when, how, or where you collect. Actually, I'd prefer no
one "over collects" (a bit difficult to define). Also, in Texas, we enjoy
precious little public lands so I'd prefer that flowers not be decapitated
with nets in such places.

Respectfully, Mike Quinn, Donna, TX
NABA SOTX VP

>Mike Quinn wrote:
>
>> Dear Mark,
>>
>> Butterflies are different from most hymenoptera, diptera, coleoptera,
>> micro-lepidotera in that there are field guides to
>> butterflies and most can
>> be sight ID'ed to the species level with close-focusing
>> binoculars. The
>> other groups generally lack field guides and mostly need to
>> be put under a
>> microscope or 10x loope just to be ID'ed to the family level.
>
>O.K., so your point is that in your case, if such differences didn't in fact
>exist, then you would be just as opposed to collecting and killing these
>other insects as you are to collecting and killing butterflies?  (Actually,
>I don't remember if you even said that you WERE opposed to
>collecting/killing butterflies, but I will assume that you are).
>
>I guess my only point is that most people who have a problem with butterfly
>collecting don't really care or pay any attention at all to the rest of the
>insects.
>
>Mark Walker.