The Lives of Lepidopterists
Inchworms, tiger moths, underwings, owlet moths, silkworms,sphinx moths, grass moths, and butterflies. Collectively, these and many others are the Lepidoptera, one of the most diverse groups of animals on the planet.
Lepidoptera can be found in the highe
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Lee A. Dyer • Matthew L. Forister Editors
The Lives of Lepidopterists
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Editors Lee A. Dyer Department of Biology University of Nevada, Reno Reno Nevada USA
Matthew L. Forister Department of Biology University of Nevada, Reno Reno Nevada USA
ISBN 978-3-319-20456-7 ISBN 978-3-319-20457-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-20457-4 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015950346 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
This book is a collection of anecdotes and observations and philosophies by a subset of the scientific community: lepidopterists. Many of the authors in this book do not refer to themselves as lepidopterists, rather they might be ecologists or molecular biologists or systematists, but they all share one thing in common. They all made the decision to spend their lives thinking about caterpillars, and moths and butterflies, which is an odd thing if you pause to reflect. Among people who make their living as scientists, many or maybe most would like to directly improve the fate of humanity by curing disease or inventing an unlimited energy supply. Lepidopterists are a different folk, because butterflies and moths are not going to save the world. They are beautiful and strange, and the benefit they offer to humanity is more subtle than an everlasting cell phone battery. So why do we do it? An easy answer is because they are really handy study organisms for all kinds of basic questions about how the natural world works, at least in part because they are easily observed. This is particularly true of the butterflies, which have a unique combination of features in that they are conspicuous (day-flying) and gentle (butterflies have no weapons, as Jim Scott observed1), which means that anyone can observe them
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