Fwd: value

[Chris J. Durden]

If butterfly specimens are so darned valuable where are the swap-meets? You 
would think they would be as ubiquitous as gun an knife shows.
Give us a break!
.................Chris Durden


>>________________________________________________________________________
>>Message: 4
>>Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 07:52:07 -0700
>>From: Paul Cherubini <monarch at saber.net>
>>Subject: Re: Commercial value of butterflies
>>Michael Gochfeld wrote:
>> > It's not an underground at all. There is a whole list serve
>> > devoted to the sale and purchase of specimens (both live and dead).
>> > It's the commercial aspect of butterfly specimens that worries
>> > conservationists (birders and butterfliers don't buy and trade 
>> specimens).
>> > Not many species command hundreds of dollars,
>>Mike, an article in Outside Magazine hints at an underground
>>industry where big dollars are paid for perfect rare / endangered
>>butterflies and moths:
>>http://www.outsidemag.com/magazine/0196/9601is.html
>>"Although their case is the most prominent, Kral, Skalski, and
>>Grinnell are not the only collectors to have run afoul of the Fish &
>>Wildlife Service. Last July a commercial dealer named Charles
>>Kondor was sentenced to five months in prison in Wisconsin.
>>The indictment that same month of a collector in Texas, John
>>William Kemner, who specialized in Mexican butterflies, is
>>rumored to implicate some of the most important museums in
>>the country, from the Smithsonian on down. Butterfly poaching
>>and smuggling cases have been investigated independently in
>>Britain, India, and China, where a pair of alpine silks was
>>reportedly sold on the Japanese market for $37,000."
>>I just wanted to know whether or not the motivation for
>>the collecting and breeding of rare species in the Skalski-Kral-Grinnel
>>case was to make money via underground trading or
>>the motivation was simply to accumulate the worlds finest
>>collection of rare butterflies (with the recently passed Fish &
>>Wildlife endangered species laws getting in the way from time to time)
>>Paul Cherubini



 
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