[leps-talk] Heliconius charithonius in Dallas, Texas...sort o f...

Fri Sep 20 11:50:20 EDT 2002

Mike,

Yes, except that Painted Ladies and all the others that migrate (or
disperse) into the northeast during late summer akso range up the east coast
from the southeast, also that this is a normal and annual event for those
species. But NOT strigosus. If it did, then we would be consistently finding
records of it all the time, and these records would occur throughout the
eastern part of the upper Midwest, and also along the coastal plain. But
this is not the case for strigosus. 

As I said, look at the USGS map for strigosus. It's a lower Great Plains
immigrant (we can almost add - ONLY). Now just because I never saw it in TN
or OH or Wichita Falls, TX  doesn't of course, mean it wasn't there
(especially the latter, but not seeing a single one over the course of more
than 3 weeks was remarkable, and there were a LOT of things flying). But
especially in western TN, I DID see some of the immigrants over the course
of almost 2 years, including Agraulis vanillae nigrior, Zerene cesonia,
Phoebis sennae eubule etc. but not strigosus. 

And, really, HOW would strigosus get to Marblehead? From Missouri. And look
at the photos: It's an immaculate specimen. Sorry, I just don't believe it.

Alex

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Michael Gochfeld [SMTP:gochfeld at EOHSI.RUTGERS.EDU]
> Sent:	Friday, September 20, 2002 11:38 AM
> To:	Harry Pavulaan; TILS-leps-talk at yahoogroups.com;
> leps-l at lists.yale.edu
> Subject:	Re: [leps-talk] Heliconius charithonius in Dallas,
> Texas...sort of...
> 
> When I first heard that the Massachusetts Queens was the western
> subspecies, I
> thought that this INCREASED the likelihood of a wild, natural origin.
> Others
> have the opposite view (Alex, Harry?).  Don't we northeasterners get a lot
> of
> emigrants from the southwest (Painted Lady, comes to mind first).  It
> points out
> the usefulness (or at least the interest) of subspecific identification.
> But,
> that still leaves us a controversy to sort out.
> 
> And no, I don't seem to have saved (or perhaps even seen) a photo of the
> New
> Jersey Queen.
> 
> Mike Gochfeld
> 
> Harry Pavulaan wrote:
> 
> > Dale Clark wrote:
> >
> > <<
> > I'm probably opening a can of worms here, and I don't really mean to,
> but
> > it's just frustrating for someone like myself (and many others) who are
> > trying to monitor populations, etc. and find these...illegals...flying
> > about.  Just felt like venting a bit.
> > >>
> >
> > Dale:  Please do vent!  And...open that can of worms.  While I
> absolutely
> > hate the thought of more government rules and regulations, the butterfly
> > release industry really should take a look at it's practices and
> consider
> > adhering to some ethical standards and "policing" itself, or the
> government
> > will do it.
> >
> > I have absolutely nothing against the release of butterflies obtained
> > locally or within the same regional biogeographic province where the
> same
> > gene pool exists, but the introduction of specimens of a distinct
> subspecies
> > into the range of another is disturbing.  While a few isolated releases
> are
> > probably not a problem (I suppose the genes will be absorbed into the
> local
> > population without effect, if cross-breeding occurs), if this practice
> > accelerates, well, I can see where problems might arise.
> >
> > The increasing numbers of Danaus gilippus that have been reported in the
> > northeast in recent years, with a surge of reports this year, initially
> > seemed to indicate a previously undocumented migratory phenomenon.  Or
> does
> > it?  A recent report from Marblehead, MA. (just northeast of Boston) was
> > documented with photographs.  Turns out that this individual is
> distinctly
> > subspecies "strigosus" (based on distinct characteristic dorsal HW
> marks)
> > and not nominotypical "gilippus", meaning that its origin is in the
> American
> > southwest rather than Florida.  Does this mean it's a migrant that came
> up
> > through the midwest, then came eastward and found its way into New
> England?
> > Strigosus is somewhat migratory, so it sounds plausible but unlikely.
> Or
> > does this indicate that strigosus is being released in the east?  Now,
> all
> > of these northeastern D. gilippus sightings are thrown into doubt.
> >
> > My recommendation is for breeders to tag or mark all of their stock
> destined
> > for release so that at least the first generation "releasees" can be
> > identified.
> >
> > Harry Pavulaan
> >
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