gene pool and releases

[Patrick Foley]

Paul, Chris and others,

At the moment I think there is not enough evidence to speak very securely about the
distribution of parasites at all levels in lepidoptera: mites, parasitoids, protozoa,
bacteria, viruses, transposons, and runaway genes. Thus it is easy for any of us to
rely on intuition and prejudice. We do know that any organisms we study closely have a
rapidly evolving, ever-changing set of parasites. This makes me pause. If it does not
make you pause, there is little I can do with our present knowledge.

But it is a far cry from this admission of ignorance to a claim _for_ the safety of
releases. Every time we see some general claim that there is no scientific basis for
worry about nonlocal butterfly releases we should recognize these claims for what they
are: 1) optimistic guesses, 2) doubtful, based on evidence from humans and other
mammalian species well studied medically, 3) plausible only because no major disasters
have occurred so far. As a scientist, I am excited to watch this grand and stupid
experiment. As a naturalist and teacher, I am less enthusiastic.

There has been little discussion on this list about the complex evolutionary processes
associated with geographic variation. To really get at this we need to know more about
what Avise calls the phylogeography of the relevant species (Of course we won't get to
know more, because the random releases are confusing the story). I am also leaving
aside ethical issues since others can handle them better. There are fascinating
sociological issues which I am happy to pass on, such as what is the effect on the
general public when lepidopterists treat butterflies like sequins or balloons. Why
should they take butterflies seriously when we don't?

The relevant scientific problem we are most likely see worked out in our lifetime
concerns the geographic distribution and dynamics of infectious disease and other
parasites. There is a lot of data to collect and theory to construct. If you think you
know the answers, start producing them. I think, even for humans and domestic animals,
our ignorance and peril is an open vista.

Patrick Foley
patfoley at csus.edu

Ps. After three days watching over a puking 2.5 yeal old, I finally got up to a Sierra
Nevada creek, saw some butterflies, collected one bee on a Mimulus, captured (and
replaced) two snakes and several caddisflies, and read another chapter of a book I am
reviewing. It was nice to get out, but I only used my net for the snakes. A Lorquin's
admiral my little pukester wanted to see more closely was just beyond reach, not a bad
place to be.

Paul Cherubini wrote:

> Pat Foley wrote 6-17-01:
>
> > As we have already pointed out on this list, Monarchs and
> > Painted Ladies seem the safest candidates for unregulated release
> > due to their migratory habits, BUT ...Even Painted Ladies occasionally
> > achieve reproductive isolation and speciate as is evident from the four
> > mainland species of Vanessa. If Australopithecus had colonized
> > North America and practiced wedding releases, we might have just two
> > species on the continent. This may seem trivial to you, but the long term
> > consequences are profound.
>
> Planes, trains, trucks, automobiles and ships have been moving Painted Ladies
> and Monarchs and their larval host plants around the USA for the past 100+ years.
> As Ken Philip noted on 6-13, "North America has not had an ecosystem
> unaffected by humans since the first humans arrived many thousands of years
> ago." Pat, given this background of past and ongoing human assisted dispersal
> and tremendous habitat alteration, is it reasonable to expect that wedding and
> school releases could play a substantial role in determining whether or not Painted
> Ladies and Monarchs might or might not achieve reproductive isolation within
> the USA at some point in the future?
>
> > What we don't know about insect diseases and parasites is far greater
> > than what we do. Do you think we know all the diseases of
> > butterflies, or their potential for spread? I don't. Is this scientific arrogance
> > on my part?
>
> Pat, there is no substantial evidence that monarchs and Painted Ladies
> experience serious disease epidemics in the wild to begin with.
>
> For many decades monarch and painted lady researchers and commercial
> breeders have been collecting tens of thousands of wild caterpillars in the field
> and raising them to adulthood. They have found that tachinid flies and
> hymenopteran wasps are the only parasites/parasitoids that occasionally
> kill these wild collected caterpillars.
>
> Researchers and breeders rarely see substantial mortality
> from other pathogens such as fungal, bacterial, protozoan or viral diseases
> unless they rear under crowded and unsanitary rearing conditions.
>
> In other words, researchers and breeders don't encounter "mystery"
> pathogens that they don't know how to control - if mystery diseases
> really existed, Monarch and Painted Lady breeders would have a hard time
> staying in business.
>
> In sum, while I agree we may not know all the possible
> fungal, bacterial, protozoan or viral pathogens that affect Monarchs
> and Painted Ladies we do not see these species suffering from
> serious disease epidemics in the wild to begin with.
>
> We also know that despite the tremendous increase in human assisted
> dispersal of Painted Ladies, and Monarchs and their host plants over the past
> 100 years, these butterflies continue to be among our most common
> butterflies (look at what happened with Vanessa butterflies this past spring).
> There is not the slightest hint that all this human assisted dispersal and habitat
> alteration has been harmful to these species within the USA. To the contrary,
> there is massive evidence that such assistance has greatly increased
> the range and abundance of both butterflies and their caterpillar host plants
> around the world.
>
> Paul Cherubini., Placerville, Calif.
>
>
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