[leps-talk] Big Cross Post

[Johnson, Kurt]

Well, with all the lumping of Neotropical Hairstreak species long AFTER much
of the data showing how different they are has been published in
peer-reviewed journals, don't get your hopes up on convincing some people.
To some "green" is a parrot, "black" is a crow (as I said in Nabokov's
Blues).  It's a pretty amazing phenomenon.  But, right, it is too bad we
don't have "bird calls" with butterflies which at least, in ornithology, are
pretty persuasive.  You'll remember my article awhile back about Ernst
Mayr's error in the 1940's estimating that "all the bird species are known"
(and the error was some significant percentage).  One of the major methods
of distinguishing those "crytpic" "siblings" or whatever words one wants to
use was bird songs etc. but, like I said, in Lepidoptery there seems to be
(i) first the papers that distinguish these taxa and (ii) then the ones that
sink them back, etc.  So strange...

Some of "synonyms" under "species" in the "expert" Neotropical lists aren't
even monophyletic, as is well known to workers on the field in various
regions down there but, again, its nearly impossible for them to get a
hearing (language, money, power, training) etc. in any journal to get their
points across.  Or, if they publish such results locally there are often
just ignored.  Thus, I suppose there will never a "list" or concensus that
satisfies everyone.  Its funny sometimes; you'll remember that in Nabokov's
Blues I noted that the northern literature had "TWO" Chilean workers, a Dr.
Rojas and a Dr. Ureta, each with a bibliography.  They were actually one
person.. Dr. Rojas Ureta.  Very funny but typical of now we operate up here.

KURT
Dr. Kurt Johnson 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/leps-l/attachments/20020412/f2506214/attachment.html