Beauty etc/Re: lep names

[Stanley A. Gorodenski]

>
> Perhaps I am alone in my concerns on this matter. If you look at the
> amount of literature published over the years describing new subspecies,
> workers in all other groups have greatly reduced or ceased this activity
> since the 1960's. For example, There have been very few (there might be
> a recent description I don't know about, otherwise I'd say NONE) or no
> new subspecies described in the Pompilidae (spider wasps, to use an
> insect example) since 1963. But with butterfly workers, these subspecific
> descriptions rise exponentially since about 1960 into an outright orgy in
> recent years.
 
Could it be that it is because of the large variability in wing
patterns, and that perhaps lepidoptera taxonomists are queing in on
these as the wrong traits to place populations in subspecific status?  I
don't know since I am not a taxonomist.  Just a thought.
 
Stan
 
 
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