dear isaac and others, please continue to call me by my name. although the "Dr." helps in professional matters (which is why it appears in my email signature), PhD is just another degree i have picked up along the way. i am happy to remain plain 'krushnamegh' on this group.
turning to the issue at hand, it is precisely because anyone can give english names to butterflies, you should *also* have mentioned the scientific name in your email. this is a practice that i have always followed and urged everyone to follow at least when they know what they are talking about, and know enough about scientific names. you are welcome to follow this practice if you wish; otherwise there are going to be more confusions like this one in the future, just as there have been in the past (recall the case of balakrishnan valappil's hemipteran for which you supplied the name "Hitler bugs", and my butterflyindia email of 16 Feb. 2007 in response). but this goes beyond a mere confusion. regarding the english name of A. drumila, i have checked all of colin smith's books (by the way, the name is not with two 'l's, as you mention it in your email): Field Guide to Nepal's Butterflies (1981), Butterflies of Nepal (Central Himalaya) (1989), and Butterflies of Royal Chitwan National Park Nepal (1997). none of them list Allotinus drumila or the Great Darkie either in the text or in the index. if you can tell me which of his books or other publications gives A. drumila as the Great Darkie, i will look it up. even wynter-blyth's Butterflies of the Indian Region (1957) gives drumila as the Crenulate Darkie. looking at more recent books, torben larsen's Butterflies of Bangladesh - an Annotated Checklist (2004), gives A. drumila as Crenulate Darkie, not as the Great Darkie. so all the authors, except you, refer to drumila by its english name as the Crenulate Darkie. my email did not concern the difference between Darkie and Brownie, although i did mention the reason for the change between the two. it concerned the correctness of 'Crenulate' (which is standard as i just mentioned) and 'Great' (which is not) for drumila. so your accusation of my imposing non-standard english names is simply incorrect and demands some reflection, and referencing, on your part. about the issue of the replacement english name of A. drumila, Onelook.com (http://www.onelook.com/?w=brownie&ls=a) gives only three definitions of 'brownie': noun: square or bar of very rich chocolate cake usually with nuts noun: (folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous name: A surname (very rare: popularity rank in the U.S.: #36189) Onelook.com has links to miriam webster's, cambridge and many other highly respected english language dictionaries, in which you can confirm that 'brownie' does not have the racist connotations that 'darkie' always has. the most common usage of 'brownie' is in reference to the dark brown cake (definition 1 above), presumably based on its color, which is appropriate to describe these butterflies. so, my replacement of Darkie by Brownie had an explanation in my last email, which, given the long and terrible history of slavery-related human abuse in the west, is a mighty good reason for the name change. in absence of previous usage of the name combinations by any of the authors you say you follow, what is your good reason for assigning the "Great Darkie" to A. drumila in your book and in your email when that name had previously been assigned in two important books to a junior synonym, A. multistrigatus? you have caused simply unnecessary trouble with this usage. my english names will be published soon, with notes and explanations for every name that differs from that given in evans's Identification of Indian Butterflies (1932), which gave english names to all the indian butterflies then known (and as a rule i will change only those names that are racist, objectionable or wrong on other grounds, such as the Nigger for Orsotriaena medus, which i will call the 'Medus Brown' in my next book). i hope that the english names of indian butterflies will be standardized after that, just as english names of north american and british butterflies have been standardized in reference books that list all of their species and subspecies. however, i hope that we will continue to mention english and scientific names of butterflies in our posts on this group even after that because our group will always remain a mixture of amateurs and professionals. i have said this before and i repeat here: names don't contribute any additional information on species, but names mean much because they convey precisely what we are talking about and thus avoid confusion when communicating with others. this should be easy to accept. best regards, At 11:57 AM +0530 12/15/08, Isaac Kehimkar wrote: >Dr. Kunte, >Unfortunately there are no rules for giving Common Names to >butterflies or any species like the Code for Zoological >Nomenclature, so any one can give a common name to a species > as one wishes to suit their fancy. Dr. Kunte, if you wish to >change from "Darkie" to "Brownie" it does not serve the purpose as >" Brownie" too has a racist connotations. > >I follow Collin Smith for the butterfly names and taxonomy for the >north-east and after consulting a good lot of butterfly >taxonomists, both national and international, it is clear >that Allotinus drumila and Allotinus multistrigatus are conspecific >and in this case I have followed Collin Smith ( author of >Butterflies of Nepal), who calls it GREAT DARKIE. I follow only >those who have established reputation in field of butterfly taxonomy. > >Please do not impose your " Common Names" unless published in a >peer-reveiwed Journal or known publication. >Isaac Kehimkar > > > >--- On Sun, 14/12/08, [email protected] ><[email protected]> wrote: > >From: [email protected] <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [ButterflyIndia] PHOTOGRAPH OF 2008-GREAT DARKIE >To: [email protected] >Date: Sunday, 14 December, 2008, 12:19 PM > >isaac, that's a Crenulate Brownie (Allotinus drumila). this used to >be called the Crenulate Darkie (as given in Evans and other books) >but i have changed the name to "Brownie" to avoid the racist >connotations of "Darkie". your reference to the "Great Darkie" is >erroneous on two accounts; the foremost being that that name refers >to Evan's Allotinus multistrigatus, which is a junior synonym of A. >drumila; and that your butterfly is not multistrigatus even by >Evans's standard. the misidentification not withstanding, it is true >that this species (i.e., A. drumila) is listed under Schedule I of >india's Wildlife (Protection) Act. i photographed this in mizoram >last april, so we have two indian records of this rare species >within a single year! > >At 11:09 PM +0530 12/13/08, Isaac Kehimkar wrote: > >>Dear Friends, >> > > >Got this rare butterfly in Sikkim's Butterfly Park [under >construction] at Rangrang. Protected under the Wildlife Protection >Act [1972] on Scheule 1, this dainty butterfly enjoys the same >status as the Tiger or Elephant.. > > > >Usha Lachungpa was there when we almost overlooked this butterfly >perched motionless, despite so many BNHS Members flocking to see >this rare find. > >Cheers! > >Isaac > > >-- > >Dr. Krushnamegh Kunte > >Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Kronforst Lab) >FAS Center for Systems Biology >Harvard University >52 Oxford St >Northwest Lab Room 458.40-3 >Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. > >Ph: (617) 496-0078 >Cell: (512) 577-1370 >Fax: (617) 495-2196 >Email: [email protected]. edu or krushnamegh@ gmail.com > >Academic Website: http://www.people. fas.harvard. edu/~kunte/ >AcademicsHome. htm >General Website: http://www.people. fas.harvard. edu/~kunte/ index.htm > > > >Add more friends to your messenger and enjoy! ><http://in.rd.yahoo.com/tagline_messenger_6/*http://messenger.yahoo.com/invite/>Invite > >them now. > > -- Dr. Krushnamegh Kunte Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Kronforst Lab) FAS Center for Systems Biology Harvard University 52 Oxford St Northwest Lab Room 458.40-3 Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Ph: (617) 496-0078 Cell: (512) 577-1370 Fax: (617) 495-2196 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Academic Website: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~kunte/AcademicsHome.htm General Website: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~kunte/index.htm --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Enjoy -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
