Subject: Collecting vs. populations

From: KENELM W PHILIP <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1995 02:32:56 -0900

I have a question for the list. It is generally accepted by many
people that the protection of insect species involves protection of hab-
itat rather than restrictions on collecting (at least as far as scientific
collecting goes). There are probably other people who disagree, and want
collecting restricted, or stopped entirely.
        Aside from personal convictions as to whether collecting is a good
thing or a bad thing, there seems to be very little scientific evidence as
to the _effects_ of collecting on butterfly populations. I am aware of only
two pieces of evidence: a 1964 paper in Nature ('A Field's Capacity to support
a Butterfly Population', by Dethier & MacArthur) which did not directly ad-
dress the problem--but which strongly suggests even _intensive_ collecting
has no appreciable effect on populations; and an experiment that Paul Ehrlich
and his students performed on a small population of a checkerspot butterfly
that had been shown to be genetically isolated from neighboring colonies.
They deliberately tried to collect this colony to extinction--and next summer
the population was larger. I have not seen this experiment published--but I
learned about it during a long conversation with Dr. Ehrlich recently.

        Since the present set of F&WS regulations attempts to control _col-
lecting_ of all invertebrates, while having nothing to say about habitat
conservation except for endangered species (actually subspecies), it would
appear they are barking up the wrong tree. Or are they? I would be very
interested to hear about _any_ scientific investigations of the effects of
collecting on butterfly populations. We can't go on saying 'everybody knows
that..." without some evidence!

        Note: I am _not_ trying to start a flame war on whether people approve
or disapprove of collecting. I just want some real evidence of the effects.
If you want to express your feelings about collecting, send to me personally,
NOT to Leps-L.

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 | Kenelm W. Philip                        Phone: (907) 479-2689           |
 | Institute of Arctic Biology               FAX: (907) 474-6967           |
 | University of Alaska                   e-mail: [email-masked]  |
 | Fairbanks, AK  99775                                                    |
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 | It is the way of the world that some people put errors into circulation |
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 | one busy...                                                             |
 |                                              Arne Magnusson (1663-1730) |
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