Tale of Two Continents --

[Mark Walker]

Norbert asked about diversities on two continents.  

Hmmmm.  My only thought is that it would seem to me that lumping is as big a
phenomenon in Europe as it is in North America.  I'm not familiar with the
numbers Norbert is using relative to European species diversity, but
everywhere I look I see what appears to be references to the same bugs from
the U.K. to the Mediterranean Sea.  One approach is to consider if, using
the same rules being applied here in the U.S. and CA, many of what are
considered full species in Europe would tend to be "lumped" into single
species.  This would seem to be a fairly simple experiment.

As Norbert suggests, there would seem to be primarily two logical
explanations for the diversity disparity:  either we on the North American
continent are following different rules for defining species; or there
really is more lep species diversity in Europe.  One possible explanation
for the latter may be locked in the very different geological, ecological,
and particularly human histories of either continent.  Do we have any notion
of how the lep fauna may have changed in Europe over say the last 4000
years?  And how recently have the leps as we know them on the North American
continent been here?  What sort of influence did the European influx have on
this?

My perception is perhaps much different than most.  I consider many of the
lepidopteron "species" to be creative variations of the same organism - at
least from God's definition of species - and are the amazing result of a
divinely crafted palette of options defined by random and relatively slight
environmental permutations.  I see current human understanding as part of a
grand irony, whereby Creation is as has been suggested by Scripture, but
with the creative twist of involving localized random variation (an obvious
requirement for individuality - a key aspect of Creation).  In our defiance,
we acknowledge only the randomness, fail to limit it's significance, and
choose to completely ignore the obvious demand for external perturbation and
the signature of creative genius.

Whoa.  Where did that come from?

Mark Walker
agonizing in nerve pain in Oceanside, CA

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