NABA and butterfly watching

Wed Jun 30 12:59:00 EDT 1999

One thing that everyone should be aware of, from kids on up, is that a
"kind" way of killing all insects is the home freezer. They cool down and
become inactive in the same way as if it was a cold night, and never
"realize" that they are dying. Aside from the ethical issue, it avoids a lot
of fluttering around in a killing jar, with damage to the resulting
specimen. This is obviously not practical in the field, but around home it
works well. Mind you, I prefer the "pinch on the thorax" method because it
is instant for all but the largest butterflies.

And for the "watchers": putting the butterfly in the refrigerator (not
freezer) inactivates them and allows close observation, without harm to the
butterfly (this holds true for temperate species at least, I have no idea if
some tropical species might be sensitive to refrigerator temperatures).

-----Original Message-----
From: Guy Van de Poel <Guy_VdP at t-online.de>
To: LEPS-L Discussiegroep <LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu>
Date: June 20, 1999 9:08 AM
Subject: Re: NABA and butterfly watching

>Though I consider this discussion to be somewhat proper to the US, I would
>like to add some comments.
>
>I started butterflying as an 6-7 year old, with my hands and a marmalade
>jar. Those pretty things were interesting, and with my newly acquired
>reading skills, I started getting books in the local library.
>They taught me lots of things on butterflies, and also how to catch and
>spread them. I used a simple net, though the netting was a transparent
>plastic bag, and I used ether to kill them in my jar (still marmalade),
>which took longer, but I put the jar away in a bag, so I did not have to
>watch them dying (I still do).
>In fourth class, we had a teacher that encouraged us to do things not
>directly related to school, be it playing football (soccer for some of you)
>or - in my case - collecting insects.
>You read it right, insects. The area where I grew up, even in the late
>sixties, didn't have that much different species of butterflies any more,
in
>total maybe ten. So I grew interested in all kinds of insects, and it was
my
>greatest pleasure to find something during the week, and then spend Sunday
>researching it in the library. The librarian (the same teacher) let me look
>in the shelves that were meant for the grown ups. I used both scientific
and
>Dutch names for the things I found, because some of the bugs simply did not
>have a common name, and after all, common names were only to communicate
>with 'other' people, that were not 'really' interested. But in my small,
>though ever growing collection, I arranged them with their scientific
names,
>the ones that belonged with each other in the same box. These scientific
>names had a 'magic' feeling in them, it made me dream of far-away
countries.
>My father's aunt was a missionary in Zaire (we all still called it Congo),
>and when she came back for a short leave, I showed her my collection. In
>short, after some story-telling, she promised me to bring me some the next
>time she would come back to Belgium. She did, five years later. The
>collecting was done on Sunday mornings, the only time during the week she
>had some free moments (after the mass, of course). The area where she was
>at, Mbandaka on the Congo River, is the richest in Africa where it comes to
>butterfly species. And they're big too.
>In what we call Middle school (age 12-18), we had an arts teacher that
>shared my interest for insects, though he primarily painted them. He had
>some books I hadn't seen before, but the best thing about him was his
>encouragement for me being busy with bugs. Even my biology teacher wasn't
>interested, that one only wanted results on the tests.
>And then my aunt came back. Big problem. Where was I going to find the
names
>and data on all of these ? The library of the school was not much of a
help,
>my arts teacher had better and more. So I went to the Zoo in Antwerp, and
>from their exhibited collection (Congo was our ex-colony), I managed to ID
>most of them.
>During the next summer leave, my arts teacher died, way too young.
>Meanwhile, I had started rearing butterflies (my father didn't really like
>it - he did the garden), and got lucky with some of our larger species - it
>was the first time I saw a live Papilio machaon.
>My mother died, and my life was rearranged. I was growing up too, my own
>hormones causing interest in other living beings than butterflies. School
>was nothing for me, I thought, so up to the factory.
>The Belgian Army still had conscripts then, and there was no way to escape.
>... And though my name isn't Davy, I'm still in the Navy, and probably will
>be for life. It's the army actually.
>But being with the Paratroops, meant being out 7 months a year, and I liked
>it. Though I did not collect any more, I got to all kinds of places, not
>only in Belgium, but all over Europe. My interest was still there, and from
>the bees of Scotland to the wasps in Turkey, the beetles in Spain or the
>butterflies everywhere, I enjoyed it.
>But the times changed, and from training defense against the Russians, we
>found ourselves in Congo (yes, they are there, as big and beautiful as the
>ones I still have at home), Rwanda and Somalia. Where the first two were
>brief operations, which did not leave me much free time, Somalia was
>different. Four months, one trunk of luggage, and I knew six days in
advance
>I had to go.
>After two weeks, I had read almost all of the books I had taken, and while
I
>was working as a wireless operator, I had lots of free time. We (+- 20)
were
>based some 120 km away from the coast and the main base, in the middle of
>the Thorn-bush Savannah. We did patrols so that somebody else could stay at
>the base, just to keep the time going. We hunted, there was enough wildlife
>: antelopes, crocodiles (mmmmm), the big non-flying birds that hide their
>head in the sand (at least that's what they do in Dutch, hope you
understand
>what I mean) and especially the locally thriving large wild African pigs
>(Somalians are Muslims, the dummies :-). And after a good hunt, there was a
>good grill. But, when the last book was read, I was in trouble.
>Not yet. There were butterflies too. So after some consideration (I was
>amidst of Paratroops after all), I started constructing a net from high
>tension wire, a pole antenna section and my personal head-mosquitonet. At
>first, I only hunted when off-duty, but after a few days, the fever had
come
>back to its full extent, and I put the remote control for the radio
outside,
>volume on maximum, so that I could hunt all of the time. The colleagues,
>after some initial laughter (you could hear them till the main base),
>adapted quickly, and even brought me some specimens every once in a while.
>The remaining three months went by as if it were merely weeks, and if there
>were no butterflies, there were wasps, beetles, ants ...
>After returning home, I needed to set them, so I started looking for pins.
>Which after some months, through some friends who collected stamps,
>succeeded when I found out about the Antwerp Entomological Society. These
>are people that share a common interest: Nature. After some initial 'doing
>everything', I decided to stick with my first love butterflies, since you
>can't do everything (unless you're a Baron Rothschild or something, which
>I'm clearly not). I still have 'the fever', though I now live and work in
>Germany, but I can communicate with my friends over the www, and there's
you
>too.
>Through my general interest in insects and nature, it's easy to see that
>mistakes are being made everywhere. We don't do a good job in Belgium (our
>longest forest is 40 km long, but only 30 m [sic] large, and between the
>lanes of the Brussels-Antwerp highway) (and did you read about our chickens
>lately ?). The small village where I grew up now has only about 7 different
>species left, and it's not getting better, on the contrary. The Germans
have
>better laws protecting the environment, and they are being applied (in
>Belgium you sometimes get the impression you only need to know the Mayor's
>hairdresser to obtain a permit to build your new house in the middle of a
>protected green area)(and some money of course). But too often 'nature' is
>synonymic to neatly mowed lawns. And the Germans like neat things. So the
>neighborhood I'm living in now, looks like the one I grew up in in Belgium.
>So in about 20 years, this too will be an ecological desert.
>
>For those who are still reading, the comments:
>
>I firmly believe common names are not necessary, but helpful.
>Standardization ? Let those do it that want to do it, there's more
important
>things to do.
>
>If you want to have interested grown-ups, start with the children. Children
>will learn everything, but they need some encouragement the school 'system'
>does not give them. The www is a great thing for this, and every time a kid
>asks a question, it should be answered. It's easy enough for you who speak
>English, there is work to do for the rest of us, all over the world.
>
>Collecting ? Without wanting to restart the usual debate, I'm pretty sure
>for me that's where it all comes from. What about letting kids collect
where
>they want ? If you have somebody guiding them, they will grow up as
>knowledgeable people, who after all will have to live in - and clean up -
>the mess we created.
>
>Taking pictures instead ? My parents would surely not have given me their
>camera when I was that small, and I only got a good one very recently. I
>already spoiled a lot of films (I'm thinking of starting to cheat, sorry
>Anne), and for me it's a nice addition to collecting, but will never
>completely replace it, especially not in areas where I haven't been before.
>
>Be careful with mass-popularization of anything. I'm always afraid when I
>see and hear about such things. It may work out for you, but I think most
>Europeans get visions of Coca Cola and burgers to accompany the wrestling
>championships. And 'dumbing down' the subject is not really the solution.
>E.g.: in a Belgian reserve, they tended to mow and burn the whole of the
>grassland annually. I need not explain what this did to the skippers. But
>they were 'plant folks'.
>
>This took the better part of this Sunday afternoon, but it's no butterfly
>weather anyway. My cat just came by to tell me she's hungry, so I better
>start doing these 'more important things' she insists on.
>
>Guy.
>
>Guy Van de Poel
>Guy_VdP at t-online.de
>
>Royal Entomological Society of Antwerp
>http://www.freeyellow.com/members/fransjanssens/index.html
>
>