Hi All, I avoided entering in to this discussion as I am neither An Authority on Butterflies, nor doing anything against cruelty to animals. But the way Blaise puts it has served the purpose for me in my early days of butterflying [15-20 years back].
In early stage I had many caterpillars in my balcony. Along with me, my son [and also students in school, where I was teacher] learned a lot from those through observations. My son took a drop for one year form school and only concentrated on cats observations for one year. In that period he observed and recorded strange phenomena in his diary where Cats fought with Aggression for last leaf. I observed the way 'plain tiger' cat gives a gentle bite at the base of leaf so that it does not secrete a sap while eating it. I traced cats the way they move away from food plant before pupating. Earlier I had same opinion about finishing the cats by collecting them. After coming in close contact with experienced people like Krushnmegh, Peter and few others I got wider meaning to my assumptions. I can not stop others from following this path and learn through experience. Experts on this group need to understand that, people like me who do not carry much knowledge, but are interested in buttreflying, make our strong opinions based on your statements. I wish, through such discussions, wrong inputs should not be passed where new comers will get pressure of being sole reason for damage, than study. Even though I do not want to continue on this subject, I just wanted to share my thoughts. I feel the key looks to be wisdom behind using information. Thanks and Regards Kedar Tokekar ________________________________ From: Blaise <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, 27 November 2011 9:11 PM Subject: Re: [ButterflyIndia] Raising caterpillars Hi All, I am noticing all arguments going in the same direction..... A few questions hv crossed my mind... Was wondering why no one has thought it necessary to encourage newcomers, students ect., to rear catipillars either for life-cycle studies or other research??? So what if a few experts hv already done the lifecycles??? Is ther no more scope for learning anything more???? Is it that there is a shortage of cats??? What is the ratio of eggs laid to the number of Adults produced in the wild?? Do we really believe that newcomers or researchers will collect so many cats for whatever reason, that it will make an impact on the number of butterflies around us ??? Is not habitat destruction and use of pesticides the main cause fr the shortage of larval food plants, which wud cause a larger decrease in cat / butterfly numbers than collection of a few cats fr life-cycle studies or other related research.... Is it that cat rearing should be left to a few experts only or people who hv published papers??? Did not the experts kill a few cats during their various life cycle or other research studies before they became experts???? This could go on n on.... the idea of posting this is not to antigonise anyone, I was just wondering if I was the only one who thinks this way.... then probably I am different..... :-) TC, Blaise -- Enjoy
