more tenuous taxonomy

Tue Dec 31 12:06:09 EST 2002

Thanks for your thoughts Paul,please feel welcome to also share your
thoughts on what kind of data and how much of any kind of data you would
want to see to form your taxonomic interpretation. That would provide some
guidance to those who wish to assemble and publish such data. Almost
certainly other people will also have ideas about what information would
convince them/allow them to make their own decision and I invite them to
also share their views on this matter. The data I have seen convinces me.
Continuing to treat such a frivolous lump as the defacto taxonomic standard
is a course of action that I do not find the least bit scientific. I
continue to respect the right of other people to hold a different view if
they so chose.

-----Original Message-----
From: paulevi at webaccess.net [mailto:paulevi at webaccess.net]
Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2002 8:46 AM
To: Kondla, Norbert SRM:EX; tils-leps-talk at yahoogroups.com;
leps-l at lists.yale.edu; albertabugs at majordomo.srv.ualberta.ca
Subject: RE: more tenuous taxonomy

Dear Norbert,

Thanks much for this informative dialogue about selene and myrina. 
Although Clark's lumping of the two apparently was either impulsive or
cavalier or both,  I think we would wish convincing published information
that no North American selene populations are conspecific with any
Palaearctic populations.  This may well be the case, but I think we would
wish more data before resurrecting myrina.

Paul A. Opler

Original Message:
-----------------
Wrom: GPKYLEJGDGVCJVTLBXFGGMEPYOQKEDOTWFAOBUZXUWLSZLKBRNVWW
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 13:36:04 -0800
To: TILS-leps-talk at yahoogroups.com, leps-l at lists.yale.edu,
albertabugs at majordomo.srv.ualberta.ca
Subject: more tenuous taxonomy

Boloria myrina disappeared from the North American species lists a long time
ago. The reason is rather shocking; it seems to be because one person could
not see any differences between B. selene and B. myrina. For the past 60
years this butterfly has been treated as a subspecies of the European B.
selene, apparently because Clark (1941) could see little difference between
the North American and European butterflies. Besides presenting a very weak
argument for lumping, Clark also expressed the view that Speyeria mormonia
washingtonia is a subspecies of the Asian taxon aglaja (variably placed in
Argynnis, Fabriciana or Mesoacidalia by various authors). To his eyes, S.
mormonia washingtonia "does not seem to differ in any tangible character
from A. aglaia". Thus I place no credence in his taxonomic call with respect
to myrina/selene. In contrast, species status for B. myrina is supported by
the results of laboratory hybridization experiments by Oliver (1977). In
contrast to Clark's inability to see differences; Kondla and J. Laiho were
able to see several phenotypic differences between northern European and
North American specimens and Oliver reports some differences also. So I see
nothing in the literature that convinces me that myrina and selene are
conspecific but see published information that supports treating them as
distinct species. simply looking at some specimens critically also causes me
to use the taxonomic treatment of Boloria myrina here in North America, as
was the accepted practice prior to Clark's paper. If anyone is aware of any
published or unpublished information to support the idea that Boloria selene
is present in North America; please advise. Thank you.
CLARK, A.H. 1941. Notes on the American respresentatives of the butterfly
genus Argynnis. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 31(9):381-384.
OLIVER, C.G. 1977. Genetic incompatibility between populations of the
nymphalid butterfly Boloria selene from England and the United States.
Heredity 39(2):279-285.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management
845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
Phone 250-365-8610
Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca       

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