What is a lepidopterist

[Chris J. Durden]

At 09:56 PM 1/30/2002 -0500, you wrote:

- - -
>  If you are serious about the study of butterflies and
>moths at any level, then I suspect you are indeed a lepidopterist.  It's not
>a title that has to be earned, nor is it a title that requires peer review.
>But it simply doesn't apply to everyone that has an enthusiasm for
>butterflies.  I don't believe the word was intended to have this wide an
>application - it's as simple as that.  It's not an issue of "us" and "them".
>It's just category X vs. Y.

Yes Mark, you have the essence here.
This would leave out those who decorate their gardens with butterflies as 
well as those who craftily decopage wings to plates, or construct glass 
frames of a thousand monarch wings in a design on milkweed silk. Not that 
there is anything wrong with the use of butterflies in arts and crafts, but 
it is just not Lepidoptery. It would also leave out some of the 
life-listers who rush from hot spot to hot spot without lingering for a 
long look at familiar species.
...................Chris Durden (an Entomologist who is also a Lepidopterist)



 
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