out of sight, out of mind - out.

Grkovich, Alex agrkovich at tmpeng.com
Mon Aug 20 08:17:13 EDT 2001


See comment below.

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX [SMTP:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca]
> Sent:	Friday, August 17, 2001 10:59 AM
> To:	'Ron Gatrelle'; Leps-l
> Subject:	RE: out of sight, out of mind - out.
> 
> Keep up the good work and do not let the know-it-alls with half-baked
> opinions and who do not have any personal knowledge of the creatures they
> are commenting on, get you down. Present the best available information
> and
> your taxonomic interpretation that flows from it and you will continue to
> be
> more scientific than some of the scientists. -- and on behalf of the
> butterflies, thanks for speaking for them, repetition is frequently
> necessary to make a point.
	[AG]  C.S. Lewis wrote in "The Great Divorce": ..."The more His
voice is beaten on their ears, the more their ears are closed in defiance.
At first they will not, in the end they cannot hear..."  If they wish to
hear or not is not even the question; there is a job to do, it must be done.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ron Gatrelle [mailto:gatrelle at tils-ttr.org]
> Sent: Friday, August 17, 2001 2:08 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. At least Poanes aaroni bordeloni is
> getting some recognition in Texas.
> 
> Ron Gatrelle
> 
> 
> 
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