What is a lepidopterist?- Answer to Guy Van de Poel

[Eduardo Marabuto]

Hi

> Yet.
> In Germany, 95% of the species occurring are protected, cannot be caught.
> The ones that can be, are species like the Pieris, Inachis io, Aglais
> urticae, the Vanessas.
> In certain regions of Switzerland, collecting butterflies is completely
> forbidden. In Spain (including the Canary Islands) no butterfly (insects?)
> at all can be taken: illegal.

and

I know in Flanders it is illegal to have some species
> in your collection (e.g. Iphiclides podalirius). This butterfly is still
> common around the Mediterranean, *but his range does not reach Flanders*
in
> the north (though of course stragglers can come that far).
>
> In politics, when a certain species is threatened, it depends on the
threat
> what will be done about it. Depending on how much money is involved, the
> solution will be a real one, or just a cover-up.
> We all know that if the caterpillars do not have anything to munch on any
> more because of loss of habitat, it does not bring anything to forbid to
> collect the adults.
> And a nice cover-up is just that: if no-one can collect butterflies, less
> people will be interested, and less threats will be reported on. And
> 'looking' at butterflies is good for the common species (that usually do
not
> need protection), but several of the skippers are impossible to tell apart
> without catching them. The same goes for some rare Pierids (try and
> distinguish Pieris mannii or ergane from P. rapae in flight).
> Most of these laws do not really serve anything except to protect big
> interests.
>
> Guy.

About Germany, I'm asking myself why? Why a so high number of butterfly
species are under protection by the government if people are the great
responsibles for their decline? (and that is applied to most parts of
Europe) Agriculture, escapes of alien species of plants, cities natural
expansion, drainage of soils, etc, etc... are the grat factors of
habitat
loss. Why are butterflies only thought about when they're in some kind
of
risk?
A new example comes to my mind... if a farmer in Germany is ready to
cultivate a land and finds a thyme plant (Thymus sp.) full of
caterpillars
of Maculinea arion (I suppose it´s protected in Germany) and he crushes
the
plant (with everything within it) with it´s traction-engine is it
considered
a crime? Is he going to be arrested? What kind of fee is he going to
pay?
NOTHING
And if immediately before the farmer crushes the plant appears a
collector,
without any permits for collecting, a simple amateur, and tells him
there´s
a protected species on that plant? Is the farmer going to stop working
for
that? Loosing money for that? No way!
Okay, both the collector and the farmer agree so that the collector
catches
all larvae in the plant and takes them away so that the farmer may
continue
his work. If he keeps the larvae is it considered illegal? For God sake,
he
may have saved their lives and is he going to be considered a criminal?
Even
if he decides to put them in his collection wouldn´t they die each way?
There´s a bit of strange in all those protective laws, etc... (at least
is
what i think)
Is the 95 % applied only to butterflies or also to moths and other
orders of
insects? If one knows how insects are, how they behave, reproduce, etc.
those laws wouldn´t be applied that way, simply not carrying about them
and
only searching for infractors... Insects, in my minds eye, cannot be
compared with wolfes, bears, and other kinds of large animals, with
different ecologies...
I really think like you Guy
uf...

About Spain, i really didn´t know it was illegal to capture anything
there... is it also applied to moths, Pieris sp. and most insects?
That´s
strange knowing that it´s so similar to my country. Exceptions could be
Sierra Nevada and other isolated localities with many endemisms, local
and
very restricted species. That´s where conservation should take place.
There´s no reason for that about common species, pests, widely
distributed
ones, etc... simply is a matter of politics and if we know what happens
in
south Spain... with kilometers and kilometers without a tree, only corn,
vine-yards, eucaliptus and other virtually useless for leps
cultivations...
One has to think about real interests about this....


>You can collect in Turkey, but you cannot take
> them out of the country.
> I don't know about the other countries (I would be interested to know
about
> Portugal - Eduardo ?).

About Turkey... why? Is it to prevent illegal trading? It must be...

About Portugal:
 It´s a bit difficult to talk about my own country. It seems people
simply
don´t get interested on them and that´s a bit sad...
About legislation, as far as I know, NO SPECIES ARE LEGALLY PROTECTED.
Maybe
because of ignorance from the government, maybe because of ignorance
from
scientists (i´m just an amateur, maybe level 3 according to Robert J.
Nuelle).
I´m not completely certain about what I said in the previous paragraph
and
i´ll try to contact the ICN (Nature Conservation Institute) and then
tell
you all the real status about portuguese leps. :)

uf, I think today i´m complaining too much and must stop for now...
All the best for everyone in the list

Eduardo Marabuto
Portugal




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