Only Leps are listed?

[Doug Yanega]

>I confess, I've never reviewed the CITES literature (although it's taking up
>hard disk space).  Can anyone explain to me, assuming the above is true, why
>only leps have been considered?  What sort of bias does this imply?

It implies that international trade in Lepidoptera is more substantial than
in any other group of insects, and thus more in need of restriction. The
greater the demand, the more likely something is to be listed in CITES -
which is why so many listed taxa are Papilionids. Not because they are
rarer, or their habitats more imperiled, but because the popular demand is
*so* great as to pose a *perceived* threat to the long-term survival of
many species. That may not be a scientific, unbiased approach to
regulation, but at least it's not *totally* off-base.


Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
           http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82