Pyrgus centaureae wyandot

[Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX]

Leroy, many thanks for sharing your knowledge of this butterfly and also for
caring enough to add to our collective knowledge of butterflies by spending
your valuable time and money to do so.  I too have spent a small fortune
exploring the wonders of the natural world and finding out what lives where.
I have consistently found that the conventional wisdom as reflected in
publications and databases is not so wise after all; most organisms seem to
be more widespread than one would conclude from the hand-wringing of the
armchair doomsayers who spend little time in the field.  It is sometimes
depressing to find that in human society there are those who insist on
criticizing people who add to our knowledge and would rather that we all
live by their personal opinion of what is moral and ethical.  There is no
substitute for voucher specimens; new records that are not substantiated by
a good photograph, voucher specimen, or multiple qualified observers are
generally not accepted as new records.  Despite the growing impediments to
biodiversity data collection that are perpetrated by do-gooders with
personal agendas; society needs more keen people out and about to see what
is really going on.

-----Original Message-----
From: Leptraps at aol.com [mailto:Leptraps at aol.com]
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2000 9:46 PM
To: LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Pyrgus centaureae wyandot


Let me try another nickel worths:

I can see that somebody does not like my collecting habits. I lived in the 
mountains of Virginia from 1974 to 1982. Our home in Augusta County was set 
deep in a heavily wooded area on 97 acres. Pyrgus centaureae wyandot would 
visit the Pussy Toe's that bloomed in openings in the woods. I loved to 
collect in the mountains of Virginia, especially in the spring. I never had
a 
problem locating populations of Pyrgus centaureae wyandot. I only collect
few 
specimens from each location for the record. I visited one area near 
Blacksburg, Virginia in 1992 and found Pyrgus centaureae wyandot still 
present and in good numbers. However, I was not looking for Pyrgus
centaureae 
wyandot, I was searching for Erora laeta, which was also present. 

I spend lots of time in the field, and I take voucher specimens wherever I 
go, for the record. My specimens are a natural history record. I never 
understood the listing of Pyrgus centaureae wyandot, maybe some people need 
to go look for it like I did. Either with a net (MY CHOICE) or a camera.
They 
would be surprised at what they might find. 

And Mr. Emmit, I did report the vast majority of my records in the News of 
the Southern Lepidopterists' Society and the Season Summary of the 
Lepidopterists Society. I also gave the majority of my records to Dr. Opler 
when he was working on the Butterflies East of the Great Plains. They were
in 
the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina in the 1970s and 1980s, it was 
still in the mountains when I left Virginia in 1983, and they were still 
there in the 1990s, and I will bet they are still there now. I am not 
attempting to be a smart ass, but who is out in the mountains looking for it

now? I am just curious.

The small number of specimens that I remove from nature is nothing when 
compared to the number that a bulldozer blade will take out. A prime
example, 
drive south down the Florida Turnpike from Palm Beach County, after you
enter 
Broward County you will smell the Pompano Landfill before you see it. Look
to 
the West, that was once 605 acres of Cypress Wetlands and Hard Wood Forest
of 
sorts, a place where I collected and will soon be houses. How many 
butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, rabbits, birds, snakes, mosquitoes, 
cockroaches, etc., etc., were lost to this land clearing project. However, 
once the houses are built there will be a need for pest control people to
get 
whatever manages to survive. Now there's a viscous cycle!

I live in Florida now, you would be surprised by what I have found since I 
moved back hear in 1998! And yes, I still reported my collecting records in 
the news of the Southern Lepidopterists' Society. 

Leroy C. Koehn
6085 Wedgewood Village Circle
Lake Worth, FL 33463-7371
Hm: 561-966-1655
Cell: 561-301-4215
E-mail: Leptraps at aol.com