Southern strays

[Ron Gatrelle]

    These trends also work in the negative. I think it is fair to attribute
the scarcity of many species of Lepidoptera in the Sand Hills region of
South Carolina to these recent climatic trends. Years of hot weather and
less rain in already arid regions can is devastating. In ages past
populations could shift their regional distribution centers. In areas of
extensive human environmental destruction or alteration, this can no longer
occur.
    The following is a brutal fact. This planet and the organisms on it have
rolled with the eonic environmental punches.Things have been able to evolve
and thus survive because there was always a niche, a corner of the ring, to
retreat to. In the past the great swings of global warming and cooling have
been survivable because biogeological movement was available. Modern man has
changed this for a long time to come. Thus, global warming concerns me very
little (I don't own beach property), because regardless of the cause, it has
happened before and will happen again. I am concerned that so many living
things no longer have somewhere else to go to weather the storm.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris J. Durden" <drdn at mail.utexas.edu>
To: <leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 05, 2000 5:26 PM
Subject: Re: Southern strays


> The same pattern is present in my own records for Central Texas (single
> observer over 32 years). *P. ocola* has been joined by both *P. hecebola*
> and *P. sylvicola* in the last ten years. *U. proteus* is now expected
> rather than a remarkable stray. *Astraptes f. azul* has recurred several
> years in a row at the same site. And there have been many more changes of
> this nature. Yes I think this is due to a warming trend. A similar
> northward range expansion has been meticulously documented by the Texas
> Parks and Wildlife Department for the delicious whitewing dove.
>   We have more strays than we did 30 years ago, more strays have become
> periodic colonists, and more periodic colonists have become permanent
> residents. This I attribute to milder winters. Needless to say such
warming
> trends have happened before. 12,500 years ago we had conditions similar to
> the Nebraska Sand Hills or Kiev, in this region. About 6,000 years ago we
> had palmetto swamps in the river bottoms from here to the coast. About
> 4,000 years ago we appear to have had some creosote bush desert local
> habitats in this area. ........Chris Durden
>
> At 02:56  5/11/00 -0400, you wrote:
> >Only a decade ago, the Long-tailed and Ocola Skippers were considered
> >extremely rare to accidental in New Jersey, but now they are merely rare
> >in southern NJ and rarer in central NJ. But a late Sept trip to Cape
> >May, NJ would be disappointing if one or both were not encountered.
> >
> >Are these status changes reflective of climate change. The number of
> >observers may have increased.  The number of butterfly gardens which
> >concentrate such strays may have increased.
> >
> >M Gochfeld
> >
> >
>
>
>
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