NOT the collecting debate :-)

[DR. JAMES ADAMS]

Matt suggests (if confronted for carrying a net),

> 2) Tell them you collect wasps, or flies, or beetles or something else less
> cuddly than butterflies.  Works every time, the response varies from complete
> disbelief (see "What nets are for" in 1), to: "take as many of the nasty
> things as you want" .

I always use this approach -- "I'm catching insects" -- which 
anymore during the daytime is as often not a lep as is.  But the 
response is remarkably more positive than if you say "I'm catching 
butterflies", as Matt suggests.  Funny that some of the same 
people would just as rapidly kill some "ugly" caterpillar consuming 
some plant in their garden.

                 James

Dr. James K. Adams
Dept. of Natural Science and Math
Dalton State College
213 N. College Drive
Dalton, GA  30720
Phone: (706)272-4427; fax: (706)272-2533
U of Michigan's President James Angell's 
  Secret of Success: "Grow antennae, not horns"