York/Rock Hill Butterfly Count?

[Ron Gatrelle]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alex Netherton" <danetherton at msn.com>
To: "Ron Gatrelle" <gatrelle at tils-ttr.org>; <Burnetted at aol.com>; "Carolina
Leps" <carolinaleps at duke.edu>; "Leps-l" <Leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 11:07 PM
Subject: Re: York/Rock Hill Butterfly Count?


> Hey, you want to add my e-mail to your diatribe? I am also against
> collecting. If we collected birds the same way people collect
butterflies,
> there would soon be no more of them, probably what is happening to
> butterflies.....
> I can't stand people who kill something and don't eat it.
> In an age of digital photography, imaging, all manner of photography, WHY
do
> we need "voucher" specimens.
> If spleens are going to be vent, allow me to vent mine. I was flamed
> severely for my views, so let me flame someone!
> Lay down your nets everyone! let the butterflies fly free!
> Alex Netherton
> The Appalachian Naturalist
> Asheville, NC
> http://www.appalachian-naturalist.com

Its very simple Alex.  There are tens of thousands of insects in this world
that are undiscovered, undocumented, and thus unprotedted. Without
collecting they will become extinct having never ever been given the chance
for human protection. There are probably hundreds of moths in this
situation right here in the USA. Further a great many of these insects do
not cooperate with the human eye to tell us they are not the same thing as
something else. We are now finding that some of the commonest eastern US
butterflies are in fact more than one or even two species. Only collecting
has and can unveil this.

There is a whole undescribed species of Tiger Swallowtial right under your
nose in the Appalachians and you probably are totally unaware of it. It
looks virtually identical to the Eastern Tiger. You have probably reported
this in error many times as the Eastern Tiger by your "sightings".
Fortunately, a couple of "amateur collectors" have been working on this for
a few years and are about ready to go to press with this. The butterfly
receiving the most attention right now in your area is Phyciodes batesii
maconensis, a species I discoverd named and put everyone onto. Butterflies
are not at all comparable to birds when it comes to taxonomic knowledge in
this country..

As a Christian I disagree with abortion completely. However, I have to obey
the law of the land which says it is legal and thus I do not have the
"right" to impose my moral agenda on someone else. Likewise, collecting
butterflies and moths is not only scientifically needed - but completely
legal. Neither you or anyone else has any right to impose your moral agenda
on that on anyone else. You also seem to think it is OK to hunt for food.
Well, there are plenty of vegatarians who would see you as a total
hypoctrite for that. This is what we call subjective morality. Or, morality
of convenience not of law.

Yes, let the butterflies fly free - so they can be food for birds. Is that
OK?  Let them fly free so they can lay 100 eggs so 99% can be consumed in
the food chain. But don't let a lepidopterists catch a couple to put in
drawer to admire forever. And definitely don't let a taxonomist (the vast
majority of which have not worked for DNRs, Museums or Universities)
collect any to find out what they really are so we don't end up with
Watchus extinctus - after they are gone.

Your remark "If we collected birds the same way people collect butterflies,
there would soon be no more of them, probably what is happening to
butterflies....." is surely very sincere. But it is so propaganda based and
devoid of reality it is pointless for me to address it.  It is right out of
the Fundamentalist Environmentalism Bible. It is cultic - and scary. But,
that is what it is intended to do, scare people into emotional action
behind the anti collector gurus of our day.

I appreciate your zeal on behalf of butterflies. Perhaps we can march
together against the real enemy - industrial and governmental destruction
of habitat.
I have said nothing here in a mean spirit to you. I hope someone you trust
will be able to talk to you and free you from this sincere (but false)
notion that collectors and collecting are somehow the cause of the modern
decline of butterflies in the Rain Forest of Brazil or the Appalachian
Mountains.  As the Bible says, the truth shall make you free.

Wanting to be your friend, Ron.




 
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