Subject: Re: Pieris rapae in larger numbers?

From: [email-masked] ("Colin Cracknell")
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 1995 18:53:46 GMT

Around here (Tufnell Park, London) there are normally very few 
butterflies, and those that there are are normally P. rapae. Last year 
I'm not sure that I saw any butterflies here at all! This year I only 
need to look out of the window for a few minutes and I'll see a 
butterfly, yet with only two exceptions everything I've seen has been a 
white, probably rapae.

I've been interpreting this as an increase in butterflies generally, 
rather than P. rapae in particular. On a visit to King's Lynn last month 
I saw more urban butterflies in seven days than I normally do in seven 
years, but most of those were small tortoishell (Aglais urticae).

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[email-masked] | "Specialisation is for insects" [RAH]
                           | "I specialise in insects" [ColinC]
All opinions are my own, but Darter Systems agrees with me.
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From: "Charles V. Covell Jr." <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 1995 12:46:34 EDT

Dept. of Biology, Univ. of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292
PHONE: (502) 852-6771

In April I had occasion to be in Washington, DC, USA for a single day, and
noticed more _P. rapae_ on a wide scale around the suburbs of the city than
I have seen anywhere before.  Here in Louisville, KY 40205 USA I have seen
cabbage whites in normal numbers so far this year.
  I will be in London, at the Natural History Museum, guest of Dr. Malcolm
Scoble, from 13-28 Sept. to study types of Geometridae family Sterrhinae.
I would like to know what butterfly house or houses would be the best to
visit in that area.  Would one of you in Britain kindly give me some ideas?
Many thanks.  Charlie

Charles V. Covell Jr.   [email-masked]
Dept. of Biology, University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292-0001   PHONE: (502) 852-6771 (office)
(502) 852-0725 (FAX); (502) 456-6122 (home).  "So many bugs..."