Saturday, May 18, 2013

butterflies

http://www.britishbutterflies.co.uk/collecting.asp
This website has a little blurb about collecting butterflies.
i know, it's just
I do know that butterfly collectors like hunters have a love for nature, which to me is a good thing, i do believe they are part of what i call 'keepers of wild places'.

Yet i want to state here, i am against butterfly collecting, to me no argument really holds. ( I was actually appalled that it still exist, and more appalled that so many of the same species are taken.)

Yes, i went to part of a butterfly talk in Whitehorse, and i liked it i learned a lot. Thank you.

I learned, Butterflies aren't really threatened by this cold weather.  As for this Mourning Cloak  ( a hibernator)  which i have not seen this year ( some people claim they have) but apparently they will just sleep a little longer and come out when it is finally warm enough for them.( when will that be? we are still in suspended animation here this year)

I learned, Certain Parnassias, that i have never seen yet,  have as host plant  Stonecrop and Roseroot, ( Stonecrop is quite common  on the hills around here.)
Another Parnassia in the high alpine has as host plant the Corydalis pauciflora ( excuse my spelling)
Now i like that! because that is also a Corydalis that i have never met.

Here a little of my own observations
In my yard ( which has lots of poplars, one of the host plant for the Mourning Cloak)
the first Mourning Cloak was spotted
1998 April16
1999 April17
2000 April 21
2005 April 22
2009 April 25
2010 April 16
2011 April 23

in years not recorded, i might not have seen any or just not recorded the event.


2 comments:

strider said...

not just butterflies, they collect moths as well, the ranger had to sleep on site to protect the reddish buff moth from collectors at ningwood common, during the flying season, even though it was a protected site of special scientific interest (sssi)

Anonymous said...

I agree collecting flutterflys is an inappropriate passion.

Collecting things seems to me to be a little obsessive and if they are wild creatures it seems even more inappropriate.

What does the keeper of wild places collect? Photographs and memories, words and thoughts, feelings perhaps, the odd wayward soul?

Sean