museum 'poachers'

[Grkovich, Alex]

I don't know, either, for a fact that the Ringlet has been in the Canadian
Zone of New England for a long time, as Mike writes. It would be interesting
if there's anyone reading this (Kent?) who might know for certain. Warren
Kiel of Whitefield, NH, who I communicated with years ago and collected with
once or twice in northern NH (Coos Co) might know.

I suspect that it has longtime been in northen New England, primarily
because the species, in the East, is essentially a Canadian Zone butterfly
and occurs widely in the Canadian Zone across the Upper Midwest and then
through eastern Canada. Now, there is a curious thing that I have noticed
about some of the northern species in the east (Boloria freija, frigga,
chariclea (or titania-?) grandis, Erebia discoidalis and mancinus, Oeneis
chryxus, even Lycaeides idas, etc.) and that is that some of them seem to be
associated with and thus limited in the East to the Canadian Shield areas,
of which northern New England is not a part. They will occur widely for
example, in northern Mich., Minn., and Wisconsin, which are part of the
Canadian Shield (Laurentian Mountain) region, but apparently do not occur in
similar environments (and at similar latitudes) within northern New England
(not even in northern Maine, although B. chariclea grandis does occur
sporadically in northeast New Brunswick and also on Cape Breton Island, Nova
Scotia) which belong to the Appalachian Region. This has always intrigued
me. Now, Oeneis jutta and Boloria eunomia dawsonii do not follow this
pattern, and do occur in northern NH, ME (both are at Wilsons Mills, ME
along Rt. 16 - I have found them both there, most recently on June 12, 1993
- and I wonder if anyone is sharp enough to pick up on the irony of that
visit - ask me and I eagerly will respond in private - you'll get a kick out
of it), and (jutta only?) VT and NY.

So what then is the fact about the Ringlet? At sort of first or second
glance, and with not nearly enough voucher material (of trash bugs (!!! -
God, I love that term)), northern NH and VT material looks darker and redder
(and greener below) than MA/s. ME stuff, and FW ocelli appear to be more
pronounced and occur in a higher pecentage of specimens in the south (which
more resemble central NY populations to me). But this is all VERY
preliminary, and Kent has also suggested to me that in northern VT there is
some variation between the broods. So more vouchers are required.

I'm not surprised that Mike confirms, also, that the Ringlet has spread into
NJ only within the past few years; if it is essentially Canadian Zone, then
it would not have been expected to have been there until recently (?).

Alex
  
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Michael Gochfeld [SMTP:gochfeld at eohsi.rutgers.edu]
> Sent:	Wednesday, April 10, 2002 2:57 PM
> To:	agrkovich at tmpeng.com
> Cc:	'cmbb at sk.sympatico.ca'; fnjjk1 at uaf.edu; Lepslist
> Subject:	Re: museum 'poachers'
> 
> I was intrigued that Alex suspected that the Ringlet had been in the
> Canadian Zone of New England for a long time.  It certainly has invaded
> NJ only in the last few years.  In fact it has spread rapidly down the
> Hudson Valley (perhaps leapfrogging enroute), so it seems entirely
> reasonable that it wasn't around 30 years ago.  It was already
> widespread in Orange County (southern NY) by 1994 when the first NJ
> specimens were obtained. 
> 
> It is now common and widespread in the northwest. It is mainly a
> farm-field roadside butterfly here.   MIKE GOCHFELD
> 
> "Grkovich, Alex" wrote:
> > 
> >         Martin Bailey wrote:
> > 
> > > So I pose this question to you:  Why must you add to your collection
> > > specimens that you will never get enough examples of to make
> meaningful
> > > comparative analyses? Where the addition of that specimen to your
> > > collection
> > > will not advance our knowledge of the species in question.
> > >
> > > Martin Bailey,
> > >
> > > greetings from:  Weyburn, SK., Canada.
> > >                          49.39N  103.51W
> > >
> >         [AG]  Excellent question. Why collect either "trash bugs" (to
> quote
> > Norbert, I laughed and howled at this term of his), and what exactly
> defines
> > a "trophy"?
> > 
> >         First, in the late 80's and early 90's, I collected, for
> example, a
> > good series of "Common" Ringlets (Coenonympha tullia inornata)
> (correctly
> > referred to as Inornate Ringlets)  from central NH and Maine. Some years
> > later, I finally got around to spreading most of them. Then I added a
> number
> > of specimens from Mass and a few from VT. As they were essentially, as I
> > said, "trash bugs", I could have just as easily just "given" them away
> or
> > just let them sit there endlessly in stamp envelopes.
> > 
> >         Then the question occurred to me not that long ago: The "Common"
> > Ringlet has quite recently expanded its range into southern New England.
> (It
> > is not even mentioned by Klots as occurring at all in New England,
> although
> > I suspect that is oversight- it probably has occurred n the Canadian
> Zone in
> > New England all along) From where did it expand into say, eastern MA?
> From
> > the north or from the west? I have begun to arrange my series of this
> > butterfly to at least get a preliminary clue about this, if possible. I
> > suspect (without having examined enough specimens to date) that it MAY
> have
> > come from the west, from central New York.
> > 
> >         What seems interesting is that, while the species has recently
> > spread into southern New England, it has apparently not done so in the
> Upper
> > Midwest; for example, while occurring abundantly in the Canadian Zone of
> > northern Michigan and Ontario, I have never found it or heard of it from
> > southwestern Ontario, southern Michigan etc.
> > 
> >         By the way, an excellent compilation of photographs of the
> various
> > taxa of C. t. inornata, heinemanii, macissaci   etc.(I trust I've
> spelled
> > the names correctly - I don't have the books here with me) from the
> > northeast (Quebec, northern New York, Maritime Provinces etc.) can be
> fouind
> > in Louis Handfield's book, "Le Guide des Papillons du Quebec" (Mark, I
> > recommend this book!).
> > 
> >         Also, my two specimens of Papilio polydamas, from St. Thomas,
> USVI,
> > would probably qualify as a "trophies" to many people. I will probably
> never
> > utilize them in any "research" (but who knows). But my purpose (or
> > motivation or interest) is to build as complete a reference (or
> > "scientific") collection as possible. And anyway, I chased the first one
> for
> > about 4 hours before I caught it, (once tripping badly, while running,
> on a
> > big rock that was hidden in the deep grass) so perhaps I have earned the
> > "trophy".
> > 
> >         Alex
> > 
> > >
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