Fatal Metalmark

[Mike Quinn]

*

nemesis *(W.H. Edwards, 1871)
None of the refs I checked (going back to Holland) discuss the origin of the
English name, though Miller & Brown (1981) report the type locality as
"Arizona" which Brownie further restricted to the vicinity of Tucson. Who
knows, maybe it was described from Tombstone... Mike Quinn, Austin


On 9/20/06, Fred Heath <fred.heath at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> The other day at a presentation on California butterflies someone asked
> why
> the Fatal Metalmark (Celephelis nemesis) is named "fatal". Since I had no
> idea, I hypothesized out loud that the original collector of this species
> was having trouble catching it and so it became his "nemesis". Finally one
> day he was so excited to see it nectaring on a nearby flower, he leaned
> over
> and swung his net catching the type specimen of the butterfly, but not
> realizing the flower was on the edge of cliff, plunged to his death. So
> his
> nemesis was fatal to him! Although this got a big laugh, I also became
> curious (and yes I know curiosity killed the cat) as to where the name
> came
> from? Anybody out there know?
> --Best regards, Fred
>
>
>
>
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