Butterfly Questions - Answer

Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca
Tue May 25 14:23:07 EDT 1999


Yes, I am very pleased to report that there are still some of us villainous
collectors skulking about the countryside and mercilessly slaughtering the
flying flowers of the insect world :) :).  Unlike some parts of the world,
such as Europe, the northwestern quadrant of North America still has vast
tracts of land that have never been examined to see what butterflies fly
where and there are still outstanding taxonomic issues that require
collection of study material.  According to my calculations, less than 1 %
of the vast country of Canada has ever seen a butterfly net - so the very
real concerns related to butterfly conservation in some places are only real
concerns in extremely small places (by our standards) such as southern
Ontario, the lower mainland of British Columbia, and the Okanagan valley of
BC.  Since there is not a single person in Canada that is paid full time to
study butterflies, what we know about butterflies in this country is very
largely a result of collectors donating their time and money to furthering
our knowledge. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
Forest Ecosystem Specialist, Ministry of Environment
845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
Phone 250-365-8610
Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca


More information about the Leps-l mailing list