out of sight, out of mind - out.

[Grkovich, Alex]

See comment below.

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Ron Gatrelle [SMTP:gatrelle at tils-ttr.org]
> Sent:	Friday, August 17, 2001 5:08 AM
> To:	Leps-l
> Subject:	out of sight, out of mind - out.
> 
> The southeastern US was one of the first areas of North America settled by
> Europeans. The first "capitol" of Spanish Florida was near what is now
> Beaufort, SC. In the 1600's settlements were founded on the SC coast.
> Thus,
> it is that many of the butterflies and moths that were first described
> from
> North America were based on specimens collected in the area where I now
> live. Linnaeus, Fabricius, Hubner, Boisduval, Le Conte and others
> described
> species from this area. For the vast majority of these no original
> specimens remain.
> 
> Since those colonial days, few Lepidopterists have lived, collected and
> _studied_ the butterflies of the South Carolina and Georgia coasts. In
> fact
> since John Abbot (1800)only myself (Dominick worked mostly on moths and
> one
> or two others just collected.) When Harris' Butterflies of Georgia came
> out
> in 1972 there were no coastal record for Mitoura grynea (Olive
> Hairstreak/Juniper Hairstreak). This is especially odd since Mitoura
> grynea
> smilacis was described from the GA coast. Even today I only know of three
> individuals, other than I, who have ever collected this. It has been
> virtually ignored in the popular literature except for an occasional
> reference to it as only a "form" - which is totally incorrect as it was
> described (in length) as a full species.
> 
> The USGS site lists Mitoura grynea sweadneri as a T2 "threatened" species.
> Compared to smilacis, sweadneri is common. Smilacis exists only along the
> immediate coasts of GA and SC from about Brunswick north where its host
> Juniperus siliciola is found in tidal marshes, islands and parts of the
> Maritime mainland.  My paper just published on the eastern Mitoura is the
> only research to deal with this taxon since its original description in
> 1833. The neotype male and a female will eventually be posted on the TILS
> web site. Sweadneri is the third rarest eastern Mitoura behind smilacis
> (2)
> and the southern subspecies of hesseli (1) described in my paper. Mitoura
> hesseli angulata is known from only one colony in SC, one is GA and two
> (or
> three) in Fla.
> 
> Chlosyne ismeria ismeira is one of the rarest resident butterflies in the
> US. (Its subspecies C. ismeria nycteis is one of the most common.) Ismeria
> is known from only three specimens from GA a few from Florida and a
> handfull of others from the Gulf Coast. There are other taxa I could
> mention. The point is that the southeasten coastal area of SC and GA is
> unique and rich in endemic butterflies. But because no one has lived,
> collected and studied the butterflies of this area in the last 200 years,
> it is silent in the literature. The loosers in all this are the taxa which
> are fast becoming victims of the massive modern development (mostly for
> the
> rich) of the coastal islands. The Carolina Parrot will not be the last
> taxon to become extinct in this area due to human explotation.
> 
> In the last few years I have been doing my best to publish scientific
> information on the butterflies and skippers of this unique area. With the
> dumbed down climate of today relative to subspecies, where they are
> virtually ignored in the eastern US, I feel it is not much use.  I have
> little hope for A. midea midea, M. grynea smilacis, B. isophthalma
> insularus and H. attalus nigrescens. 
	 
	[AG]  Whether or not you have little hope, you must continue; there
are at least a few of us stragglers out there who are paying attention. By
the way, there is a colony of CWN with yellow FW patches flying in a wet
field at the foot of the Boston Hills in North Andover, MA not far from
where I live. OK, I'll spare everyone the mystery: I mean Common Wood
Nymphs; these appear to be a mixture of subspecies alope and maritima.

> At least Poanes aaroni bordeloni is
> getting some recognition in Texas.
> 
> Ron Gatrelle
> 
> 
> 
>  
>  ------------------------------------------------------------ 
> 
>    For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:
> 
>    http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl 
>  

 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl