Southern Hairstreak

Anne Kilmer viceroy at gate.net
Sat Nov 4 14:44:29 EST 2000



Michael Gochfeld wrote:
> 
> Thanks to Alan for the northern perspective. Now we need some Floridians
> to tell us whether "Southern Hairstreak" works for them. 


not at all. South of what? I ask you ... 
Windblown hairstreak or ... has the bug actually *got* a common name? Or
are these vernacular names, given by the six people who care, who might
as well call it the favonius hairstreak until next week when they can
call it two other names because next week the splitters will be back. 
Perhaps we could call it the brontosaurus, as that it is a good name,
not being used at the moment. 
(Michael, is it too late? Could we all rise up and insist on calling
that dinosaur the brontosaurus, and grind the taxonomists into little
pellets? And jump upon them?) 
There is quite a lot of territory south of me, if you care to cross a
little water, and I suspect that it is devoid of "Southern" hairstreaks.
Geographical names need to be restrictive; not insular. The Miami blue
is fine. We know what we are talking about. 
The gold-rimmed swallowtail is ok, although I was quite happy calling it
the Polydamas Swallowtail, and it did give me a leg up when it came to
learning the scientific name. 
But I wish the taxonomists would cut us learners some slack. We sit
there bravely, as I did this morning, at a table with signs indicating
that we know all and will reveal all, and ... well ... I haven't the
foggiest  whether the names that trip mellifluously from my tongue are
currently extant or are now better applied to some other organism. 
We had a lovely day for it, the botanical garden was a mass of
butterflies and skippers, butterfly plants and shoppers, the weather was
perfect, and most of the people who had come to gather wisdom and
daffodils at once went home happy. 
There's a reprise tomorrow, Mounts Botanical Garden, West Palm Beach,
don't miss it if you can. 
Central Hairstreak? There's a compromise. It's everywhere, although not
very much ... 
cheers
Anne Kilmer
South Florida

 I agree
> entirely with the Alan's on the need to have a broad perspective when it
> comes to a geographically delineated name.  My contention is that
> neither name was good (partly for the same reason that Alan just gave).
> But, I realize now that may have been just a New Jersey perspective.
> 
> I thought of Rare Hairstreak, because it seems to be rare in most places
> (Ontario for example, from whence the name S.f.ontario derives), or
> maybe "Erratic" because it shows up unpredictably one year (often quite
> commonly) and then disappears. Just as if it were blown in on a wind one
> year and not the next.
> 
> Opler gives the etymology for "favonius" as Western Spring Wind. So
> maybe the Western Hairstreak or Spring Wind Hairstreak or even Favonius
> Hairstreak might be less confusing than Northern or Southern (or
> Northern/Southern).
> 
> Mike Gochfeld
>

 
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