Miami Blue

[ParcBob at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/23/02 3:25:55 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
gatrelle at tils-ttr.org writes:


> > In a message dated 9/22/02 9:33:36 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> > dinah.pulver at news-jrnl.com writes:
> >
> >DINAH SPEAKS:
> > > Thanks Bob. I had to go with 50, Jeff G. said he thought that would be
> OK.
> > > Here's the stories. Too bad you can't get the paper there. The graphic
> that
> > > ran on the local front with the story is really something, with photos
> of
> > > the 5 butterflies including the blue we got from Randy Emmitt. It was
> > > beautiful.
> 
> "Hurricane Andrew also had a devastating impact on the Miami blue.  Now a
> decade later the butterfly is still hovering on the brink of disappearing,
> with an estimated 50 left in the wild."
> 


RON SPEAKS:

> Greeting all.  There are several items that I would like to address in the
> exchanges and articles circulated in this series of posts.  But for now I
> will just address the above statement.  It is absurdly false.  The colony
> just at the Bahia Honda park alone in one of the largest single colonies of
> Miami Blue ever recorded from the perspective of  population density - we
> need to remember that this species was not even known till 1941 and the
> Florida subspecies not even described till 1943.  As Bob said, there are
> hundreds = a thousand or more individuals at Bahia Honda.  (Anyone who says
> otherwise is either being willfully untruthful or is incompetent in their
> knowledge of the situation.)  One has to remember that adult butterflies
> are only a small portion of any species overall population.  eggs, larvae,
> pupae, adults - each is an individual.  There are hundreds of each present
> on this key.
> 
> Further, this butterfly is a semi-canopy flyer which means the higher up
> one looks the more one will find of them.  Even at the low Bahia Honda
> _beach_ site (they are elsewhere on that key too) one finds many more at
> the top of the dune than at the base.  People need to quit looking just on
> flowers on the ground and start using binoculars to scan the upper reaches
> of the Nickerbean and Balloon vines in the trees.  All current and
> historical field data indicates that that is where they prefer to breed.
> 
> We also do not know that the colony at north Key Largo is not still active.
> That area has not been searched properly at all.   The most recent sighting
> there was in 2001.
> 

Thanks Ron,

I just want to repeat and reemphasize the importantanceof the SW Florida 
Survey the  science team needs to organize with Ane and Jose's Task Force. My 
address for Tom and Mia bounced. I am trying a new one and they can write me 
for the post from yesterday if they get this.Anybody else please send me the 
right on. I have no time to call them. I am 40 calls behind now. :)

I envision about 5 teams of 4. for 2  consecutive weekends or 2  or 3 days. 
The Key Largo is already  in progress as far as planning. it is scince team 
only right now. 

Areas of the SW have al ot of host and the Bug was there in considerable 
numbers when I was there so often in the 80's and early 90's.

Bob

PS: The original was a private conversation with Dinah and Executive 
Committee  only is to respond to the CC: list.  I invite comments and 
discussion but only through Nature Potpourri and TILS-LEPS-Talk.

Thank you... Dinah is a professionall and does not have the time to answer 
everyone.

PSS: It is going to get ewxciting here on out. i will be posting more and 
more news as will other staff to NP and TILS Talk.  I hope to have media 
works in planning stages and production by the end of January. JJust stay 
tuned.

Have a great night (mothing, owling, frog listing and of course...loving.



# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
Bob Parcelles, Jr.                    #                  
Pinellas Park, Florida              #
Reply To: ParcBob at aol.com  #
 <A HREF="http://www2.eboard.com/eboard/servlet/BoardServlet?ACTION=CLOSE&ACTION_ON=NOTE&SITE_NAME=Destination&BOARD_NAME=Ecology-Today">Ecology-Today - eBoard</A>        #
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/leps-l/attachments/20020924/419cc802/attachment.html