Does Bt Corn threaten any Rare Prairie Skippers

[Doug Yanega]

Paul wrote:

>I remember reading somewhere that the EPA said it was unaware of any
>threatened or endangered lepidopterans that breed inside or at the edges
>of corn fields.

Once again, you conveniently choose to ignore what the poster actually
said: they said RARE prairie skippers, not ENDANGERED prairie skippers.
*You* know, I know, EVERYONE here knows that there are thousands upon
thousands of plants and insects on the verge of extinction everywhere in
the world, including our own backyards, that are NOT on the official
government-sanctioned Endangered or Threatened Lists *and never will be*.
If you draw some magical politically-motivated line in the sand to claim
that ONLY species on the official list should be paid attention to, then
you are also burying your head in that same proverbial sand (or is it your
proverbial head...?).
You are truly a master of being disingenuous when it's convenient for you.

At any rate, the burden of proof should be on the EPA to demonstrate that
there are no species of insect (Listed or unListed) sensitive to Bt pollen
which may potentially suffer significant deleterious effects. If the EPA
refuses to look for anything other than Listed species, no wonder they
claim to find nothing.


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