Conditions for Overcollecting

[Paul Cherubini]

I wonder if it is even logistically possible for collectors to have a
significant adverse impact if the butterfly habitat in question involves
several square miles of land or more and if only adults are being
collected? 

Consider that there are 640 acres per square mile. How many acres could
a single collector be reasonably expected to cover and impact in a 6-8
hour day?  Maybe 50 acres wouldbe a reasonable figure to use here. If
so, it would take 13 collectors working simultaneously to cover a single
square mile of land. 

To have a significant adverse impact those 13 collectors would have to
be highly skilled and successful at finding and catching a significant
percentage of adults within the given square mile. As a practical
matter, to accomplish this might require 3-4 consecutive weekly mass
collecting trips.

Finally, to have a lasting impact, it seems like the 13 collectors would
have to repeat their mass collecting trips on a fairly regular (e.g
maybe monthly) basis if the butterfly in question produces two or more
generations per year.

Paul Cherubini, Placerville, Calif.