Fatal Metalmark

[MexicoDoug]

Hello Lepsters,

Based on Chris Durden's comment that "Fatal" was an addition by Klots in
1951, and with attention that nemesis was described in 1871 (Edwards), and
Holland had called it the Dusky Metalmark before that, I think it would be a
safe bet to assume that the "fatal" was added to the common name at a much
later date.  Dusky is an overused descriptor for darkish, so one could
easily speculate that Klots decided to do a little more justice to nemesis
by a more interesting name.

Why fatal?
Speculation: "Fatal" doesn't mean only life-ending.  As Mark points out,
Nemesis was the divinity charged with dispensing justice to braggarts,
offenders, and others who for whatever reason got more than their fair
share.  But earlier on in Greek mythology you can find she was simply the
spirit who doled out happyness and sadness to give men equity in life - a
fate.

Thus another definition of Fatal is ... to dispense fate.  The actual Fates
themselves were Nemesis's siblings through their mother, Night (Nyxt).
Though Nemesis wasn't one of "the" Fates (ugly, old), she was a beautiful
fatal goddess herself.  Purely speculation, but it kind of makes sense when
you think of why such a beautiful little Lep would be fatal in the sense of
a fatal accident.  Enough "musing" on what Klots was thinking.

Originally nemesis was placed in the Charis genus.  Charis nemesis (Edwards,
1871).  Charis probably refers to the Charities or to Charis herself, a
beautiful woman sometimes said to be a daughter of Bacchus (Dionysis).  A
hostplant of C. nemesis is Baccharis salicifolia, often found near empty
arroyos with ground humidity.

Other similar Metalmarks named in the same general period included Emesia
emesis (=vomiting!!?), so I wouldn't expect to much of a story behind the
nemesis name other than just being a normal diety called into Lep service.

I've had a heck of a time in the field distinguishing among the group of
coincident species of the like metalmarks including nemesis, so the modern
meaning of "nemesis" isn't too far off  ...

Guess we need the original paper. Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. 3:212 (1871).

Best wishes,
Doug

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Walker
To: Fred Heath ; 'Leps-l' ; SoWestLep at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 9:19 PM
Subject: RE: [SoWestLep] Fatal Metalmark


Fred,

I have no idea why the name "Fatal" has stuck, unless it is somehow
associated with the Latin name "nemesis". I just recently prepared a
presentation on "Greek Mythology in Lepidoptera" for a high school English
class here in North County where I was able to share specimens of various
butterfly species and ssp. whose names are associated with Greek Gods,
Heroes, and other characters from literature. Lots of Metalmarks in this
category. The specimens spanned all major families and came from every
continent. Lots of fun.

Here is the bio for Nemesis (from http://www.theoi.com/Encyc_N.html ):

The goddess of indignation and retribution for hybristic behaviour and
undeserved good fortune. After being seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan,
she lay the egg from which Helen was hatched

Perhaps not any help with your specific question, but interesting
nevertheless.

Mark.

-----Original Message-----
From: SoWestLep at yahoogroups.com [mailto:SoWestLep at yahoogroups.com]On
Behalf Of Fred Heath
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 12:56 PM
To: 'Leps-l'; SoWestLep at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [SoWestLep] Fatal Metalmark

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

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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