By the way, garden leps, and taxonomy

[Ron Gatrelle]

By the way, after posting this statement:
This pupae vs. chrysalis thread is totally proper and the way it should be.
It is good, in my book, to note that no one has posted something like --
"Why are you all spending so much time talking about pupa or pupae,
chrysalis, imago, dipteran, coleopteran, diapause, instar etc. etc.?
Let's just enjoy the butterfly cats, migrating Tigers and Ladies."

It hit me that this could easily be taken as a dig toward the simpler side
of lepstering.  That was not my intent at all.   I like the talk about
migrating Ladies and "cats" (= larvae) in the garden as much as anyone. I
should post more on my butterfly gardening myself.  What I had in mind were
those who _only_ want to dialogue on that level and seemingly also do not
intend to or want to go into (onto) other levels of study of Leps.  I
actually see very little of this "type" of thing here on Leps-L.  But in
other places and list serves I am blown away at times when being (not a
novice) but ignorant seems to be the perpetually desired state of
perfection. A kind of Amish lepstering.

I do not communicate very well by email.  I am a person to person, person.
So my intents may not come across well at all in the expression of my
thoughts.  Soooooo.

This weekend I was out a bit in the "weed garden" as all my friends and
family call it.  Things have slowed way down in the yard even though the
temps for the next few days here in Charleston will be up to about 80.
Here is my list.

Cloudless Sulphur (P. s. eubule)  steady flow but only one or two at at
time
1 Cabbage White (P. rapae) Saturday.
1 Varigated Frit.  (E. claudia) Saturday
1 Gulf Frit. (A. v. nigrior) fresh, Saturday
1 American Lady (V. cardui) Saturday
1 Reinthal's Hackberry (A. reinthali) Friday
1 Silver-spotted Skipper  (E. clarus) Friday
1 Whirlabout (P. vibex) Saturday

I haven't seen any swallowtails for quite a while.
I am surprised at the absence of Little Yellows (E. lisa) in the yard all
year. Seldom seen about the house. Usually they are frequent at this time.

Ron Gatrelle
http://www.tils-ttr.org

PS  Realizing some may wonder about A. reinthali.  The above combination is
due to my field research on this in finding this and A. celtis sympatric at
the celtis type locality in Burke County, Georgia.   For details check out
TILS August 2000 news article on this on our web site.  What we know today
in Florida as reinthali was long known as alicia.  For some time FL alicia
was recognized as a distinct species mostly due to larval differences.
Friedlander sank this FL entity to a subspecies (along with about
everything else in Asterocampa) and also gave this FL entity the name
reinthali. (He correctly restricted the name alicia to the Louisiana visc.
Gulf Coast celtis pops there.)   The species  status of the FL entity
should be retained. Also see my article in TTR (The Taxonomic Report) Vol.
1 #5 Jan. 1999 on Asterocampa.  This article of mine on in 1:5 was reviewed
by Friedlander himself and I quoted him a good bit in the paper.   Present
day Asterocampa taxonomy is based on his research published in 1987.
However, his comments presented in my 1999 paper need to be read --
especially by those who deal with Asterocampa out west.



 
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