Butterflies of Quintana Roo or Yucatan

[John Shuey]

Patrick,

There is nothing out there that is specific to the Yukatan (pc spelling
within TNC).  Jan Merman is working on a field guide to Belize and Yukatan
but it is apparently stalled for now. I saw the plates several years ago, so
I don't know what the status is. This will cover the big showy families
only.

Because the Yukatan is a pretty species poor region - and mostly wide-spread
lowland species at that - DeVries works quite well.  There are a few
endemics - Papilio rogeri and Hamadryas honorina come to mind (although
there are several really cool endemic skippers).

If you can combine DeVries with de la Maza's "Mariposas Mexicanas" (which
you may be able to pick up in a good bookstore in Cancun) - you should be
able to ID almost everything in the big families - even metalmarks w/ Costa
Rica Volume II.

As a note, the Sian Ka'an check list is pretty slim - I think it probably
represents a fairly low-level of collecting effort.  Good areas for
butterflies (on the tourist track) include Sian Ka'an of course, Ruinas
Coba', Grutas Balanchanche, the forests near Lagunas Balcalar and any of the
"lesser ruins"  that aren't over run with tourists.  These "off the tourists
track" ruins usually offer nice trails through scrub forest- great places to
see butterflies.

Good luck,
John
_____
John A. Shuey
Director of Conservation Science
Indiana Office of The Nature Conservancy
1505 N Delaware Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202
317.951.8818


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu]On
> Behalf Of Patrick Foley
> Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 3:13 PM
> To: 'leps-l at lists.yale.edu'
> Subject: Butterflies of Quintana Roo or Yucatan
>
>
> In the few precious moments we have before God or the aliens bring it
> all to a close,
>
> Does anyone have a recommendation for a book on butterflies of Yucatan?
> My family leaves for there in one week, and looking over my copy of
> DeVries Butterflies of Costa Rica and a checklist for Sian Ka'an, I
> realize that less than half the Yucatan species in DeVries. I do have
> Beutelspacher and Howe 1984, Mariposas de Mexico, but it covers just
> Papilionidae and is about 1 x 2 feet in size, the strangest shaped field
> gude I have ever seen.
>
> Any book stores in Cancun that have any natural history?
>
> Patrick Foley
> patfoley at csus.edu
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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