Understanding the South (S. Carolina to Mississippi)

[gwang]

Hi Ron, 
Perhaps you've explained this already in a previous post and I missed
it, but why is Mitoura a genus?  In Butterflies of Canada, the authors
give the following reason for regarding Mitoura as a subgenus of
Callophrys: "The tenuous nature of the characters separating these
'genera' were illustrated by Warren and Robbins (1993) in their report
of a hybrid between 'Incisalia' augustinus and 'Callophrys' sheridanii.
In particualr, the valve 'cap' (a sclerotized thickened area at the apex
of the male valve), used to characterize Incisalia, is shown to be
present also in Mitoura and Callophrys, but expressed to a lesser
degree." (page 25)  Is this somehow incorrect, or has some new evidence
been discovered which justifies this split?  Are the other 'subgenera'
really separate genera?

Peace,
Xi Wang

Ron Gatrelle wrote:
> 
> Growing up in Iowa in the 1950's the "South" was just the "south" - a big
> hunk of the country where everyone and everything was the "same" - except
> for Florida as it was really different.  After 34 years of living in the
> South, Bubba, how wrong that was.
> 
> To this day I don't think the rest of the country has an understanding of
> the different faunal zones in the south. The southern Appalachians and the
> Everglades may come to mind with some or many but not the Black Belt,
> Sandhills, Islands regions. The Black Belt is (was) an extensive prairie
> across central Mississippi and Alabama. Many of the butterflies of that
> region are evolutionally connected with those of the west - e.g.
> Deciduphagus henrici turneri. A geologically similar area is found in
> Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. It is call the Sandhills
> Region. The Islands Region is a semi-subtropical narrow coastal band from
> Jacksonville Florida to Myrtle Beach South Carolina. (Charleston SC is due
> west of tropical Bermuda and warmed by the same Gulf Stream.)
> 
> If you have a copy of the Peterson Western Field Guide by Opler/Wright I'd
> like you to look at a couple range maps. (I don't own the Eastern Guide but
> the same maps are likely in it too.)  Look at the range map for Hesperia
> attalus slossonae (Dotted Skipper) in SC and GA in particular (There should
> be no gap between FL and GA and the NC swath to the coast is way too wide.)
> The point is that this map provides a visual of the Sandhills faunal zone.
> Endemic taxa are Poanes aaroni minimus (SC), Chlosyne gorgone gorgone(SC,
> GA), Chlosyne ismeria ismeria (GA, FL, MS, LA), Satyrium edwardsii
> meridionale (SC, GA).
> 
> Next, under Callophrys gryneus - Juniper Hairstreak (should be Mitoura
> grynea - Olive Hairstreak) note the map for Fl to SC. That tiny coastal
> line is the Island faunal zone. Endemics are Mitoura grynea smilacis (SC,
> GA), Anthocharis midea midea (NC, SC, GA), Hesperia attalus nigrescens
> (north SC end), and perhaps Brephidium isophtalma insualrus (SC, GA, ?FL).
> By the way the species grynea range in Fl is much wider than on the map to
> the south and west. Insularus may be a species.
> 
> The bottom line is that there are five distinct life zones in South
> Carolina for butterflies. They run in parallel from the Atlantic to the
> Appalachians. In Mississippi and Alabama there are four parallel zones from
> the Gulf inland. Taxa occur the length of these ecological zones and differ
> across the zones. The xeric Black Belt and Sandhills are a central dividing
> geological feature from North Carolina to Louisiana.
> Differing subspecies often occur within and/or on either side of these
> regions formed millions of years ago when those areas were the coastline.
> Later, the Atlantic Island collided into eastern North America and became
> today's outer coastal plain.
> 
> Butterflies live in areas today that were formed millions of years ago.
> These current species (and subspecies in particular) must be assessed in
> conjunction with the development of these areas - and can thus not be fully
> understood apart from their biogeographical evolution. The true status of
> butterflies in the South will never be appreciated until they are first
> understood from this perspective. At which point eyes will finally be
> opened and protection for the region's unique taxa and their habitats may
> finally occur. However, at the rate things are going they may all be
> extinct and turned in housing areas by then. And people wonder why I hate
> monotypic pansubspecific common names. We can not protect that which we do
> not know.
> 
> Ron
> 
> 
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