"dire straits faced by most of our butterfly fauna"

[patfoley]

Paul,

Sometimes conservationsists use the analogy of endangered species as 
canaries in a coal mine. Canaries are chosen because their high 
metabolism makes them succumb _before_ the miner does.

Monarchs, Cabbage Whites and other weedy species are not good canaries. 
We are talking weevils in the coal mine, garden slugs in the coal mine. 
If Art Shapiro is right, that even weedy butterfly species are not 
looking good in the Central Valley, then we are past the canary stage. 
Time to see what is going on. Or time to argue that somebody somewhere 
exaggerated about something once. Your choice.

Patrick


Paul Cherubini wrote:
> patfoley wrote:
>
>   
>> do you seriously think monarchs make a good model lep for
>> conservation problems?
>>     
>
> Not really because the Monarch and it's milkweed host
> plants tend to thrive in disturbed habitats - both urban and
> agricultural - just like many of the Vanessas, Cabbage Whites,
> Swallowtails, Orange Sulfurs, Mourning Cloaks, Buckeyes
> and so forth.
>
> But Shapiro has expressed doomsday-type concerns
> about declines in the weedy species too, in the lower
> Sacramento Valley; e.g. declines in Mourning Cloaks,
> Buckeyes, Orange Sulfurs (in some years) etc.
>
> Paul Cherubini
> El Dorado, Calif.
>
>  
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