Subject: Are butterflies less common now?

From: Maria Minno <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 05:22:00 -0400

Are butterflies more or less common now than in the past?

If you have been collecting or observing butterflies for at least a decade,
I'd like to know what your experience leads you to believe.  I am stopping
mail for this list temporarily for a trip to Texas, so please cc or  reply
directly to me  at
[email-masked].

Maria Minno
Dr. Marc C. Minno
[email-masked]
600 NW 35th Terrace
Gainesville FL 32607-2441
(352)375-3028
http://www.afn.org/~afn10853/index.htm

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From: Paul Opler <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 08:23:17 -0600

Maria: Personal impressions of changing butterfly abundance
         aren't worth much at best. The best indicators would be
         quantitative measures such as those by the NABA butterfly
         counts that have been held 20 years and Art Shapiro's
         transects in California. Paul Ehrlich and students' studies
         of Euphydryas editha are also appropriate. Ten years is
         probably too short a period for any meaningful long-term
         trends. Also check out Ann Swengel's relatively recent
         monitoring of tall-grass prairie butterflies and Jerry
         Powell's paper on monitoring efforts of North American
         Lepidoptera faunas. See ya in Houston. Paul Opler