The Numbers

gwang gwang at mb.sympatico.ca
Tue May 29 17:38:34 EDT 2001


Slight prob. with your math down there.  8.7 million/9 billion = 
8.7 million/9000 million which is rougly 0.1%, not 'less than one one
thousandth of a percent'!

Peace,
Xi Wang

Leptraps at aol.com wrote:
> 
> There has been a battle raging between Ron Gatrelle and some members of the Carolina Butterfly Society over collecting.
> 
> For my 2 cents worth, I will try the numbers.
> 
> I am a very active Lepidopterists. I collect, prepare, lable, ID and place in my personal collection approxmately 2,800 specimens per year. I determined the number of specimens by the number of #2 insect pins I purchase each year. Also, it requires approimately 20 minutes from beginning to end to process a single specimen, or 933 hours, or 39 days. That is a lot of work and good deal of time. However, I will use 2,800 as an average for all Lepidopterists just to have a number.
> 
> There were approximately 3,100 members in the Lepidopterists Society, Southern Lepidopterists, Society, Ohio Lepidoterists, etc. I used the membership lists of these organizations and total all those who indicated they collect (There is some duplication as most Lepidopterists belong to some or all of these organizations.)
> 
> If 3,100 Lepidopterists collect and prepared on the average of 2,800 specimens per year, a total of 8,680,000. I have no idea how to determine the percentage of butterflies to moths. We will call the annual number 8.7 million.
> 
> I have been told or read that between May 1st and October 31, that there are over 9 billion butterflies and moths flying about every day in North America (USA & Canada). For the sake of argument (I am sure there will be some), 9 billion individual butterflies and moths fly every day. Lepidopterists collect 8.7 million. The percentage is a whooping 0.000966,  or less than one - one thousand of one percent.
> 
> The collecting argument is almost meaningless.
> 
> 
> 
> There are not enough collectors to do the damage that is necessary to effect the overall populations of Lepidoptera. And most surprisingly, collectors visit the same places time and again, and the bugs are always there, until the habitat goes away. Once you look at the numbers, why argue?
> 
> I was never any good at math. How about it, anyone else want to try the number game for the overall population.
> 
> Leroy C. Koehn
> 202 Redding Road
> Georgetown, KY
>       40324-2622
> "Let's get among them"
> 
> 
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