Hotspots

[Kenelm Philip]

observing spots as there are lepidopterists--but I can suggest what has
worked for the last 35 years in Alaska and adjacent regions:
 
1.  Wander around at random and get to know your general area, and its
butterfly fauna. You won't know where to find the less common species
until you have some idea as to which species are common and or widespread.
 
2.  Learn the plants that serve as larval foodplants or nectar sources
for adults, and the kind of terrain that supports these plants.
 
3.  Get the USGS topographic quads for your area, and study them. With
enough experience on the ground, you can often predict from topo maps
which spots will repay investigation. Even more useful is the combination
of topo maps and false-color aerial photographs. I have used that method
to select collecting sites in roadless areas, where you have to be flown
in by bush plane or helicopter to a site, many hundreds of miles away, that
you have never seen--with fairly good results when the weather cooperated.
 
4.  Try to check out as many different biotopes as you can. Many will be
unproductive--but you never know until you try. And you may just luck out
and find some very restricted habitat which supports something really
interesting...
 
        There are some additional conditions applying to high latitudes,
which I won't go into here.
 
                                                        Ken Philip
fnkwp at uaf.edu
 
 
 
 
 
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