Butterfly Questions

Kenelm Philip fnkwp at aurora.alaska.edu
Wed May 26 05:16:06 EDT 1999


> Do enthusiasts still collect and set butterflies nowadays? They used to
> in my youth but the camera has been invented since then!

I began collecting butterflies in 1938--and the camera had been invented
long before that.  :-)

There are many people these days who watch and photograph butterflies, but
there are also many collectors out there. Some of these are people with
taxonomic interests pursuing scientific projects--others are hobbyists
with a more general interest in natural history. There are still many parts
of North America (especially the NW arctic/subarctic, as Norbert Kondla
mentioned) which desperately need more collecting--and anyone with the
skills to compile a well-kept collection with good data can do a service
to science by arranging to donate that collection to some appropriate
museum. That's one of the ways that the major taxonomic collections grow.

Some people maintain that photography is more environmentally friendly
than collecting, but I wonder. There is an environmental cost to both
manufacturing and processing film, and that may not be insignificant
compared to the modest effects of removing a few individuals from
abundant populations. Nor can photographs replace actual specimens for
many purposes...

> Has anyone information on the Mourning Cloak butterfly ?

I have some information on this species in Alaska. Let me know if that
would have any relevance to your questions.

							Ken Philip
fnkwp at uaf.edu



More information about the Leps-l mailing list