Can Butterflies Save Mexico’s Rain Forest? (http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/columns/americas/950919-butterflies.html)

A butterfly project in Mexico’s endangered rain forest typifies the small-scale projects designed to create alternatives to cattle ranching and logging. In one poor town deep within the jungle, butterflies have transformed how residents view the jungle.

As dusk settles on this town deep in the Mexican jungle, butterflies dance along the river bank and the town erupts in hot pursuit.

Moises Vazquez Cruz, 13, stalks the jungle around his family farm. Domitila Santos Flores hunts them with her three daughters. Nicodemus Cruz, a 65-year old corn farmer with aching knees, nabs any butterfly unfortunate enough to land near his home.

“The whole town is crazy for butterflies,” says Cruz. “I hope we never run out.”

What has captured the town’s imagination is not so much the colorful insects themselves as the cold cash shelled out by biologist Roberto Ruiz who comes each week to buy them. In the last nine months, Ruiz has spent $20,000 for the butterflies. The insects are shipped to Mexico City where they are carefully catalogued, warehoused and eventually sold to museums and international collectors.

The controversial project is part of a last ditch effort to save what remains of Mexico’s tropical rain forest. In the last three decades the Lacandon jungle, in Mexico’s southeastern corner, has been reduced from about 3 million hectares to less than 600,000. Montes Azules S.A., the company which markets the butterflies, hopes to develop a series of small scale projects designed to give poor residents an alternative to logging and cattle ranching.

“The jungle has no future,” says environmentalist Homero Aridjis, head of the environmental Group of 100 in Mexico City. “The oil companies, the Zapatistas, the loggers — everyone wants a piece of it.”

Montes Azules, S.A., the company behind the butterfly project, is considering other small scale projects including producing perfume from a jungle fruit. The butterfly project is unique, however, because it challenges one of the cardinal assumptions of conservation — that rare species should be untouchable. The project’s designers argue that a much greater threat to the insects is the destruction of their habitat. They are killing a few butterflies in order to save many.

The income generated from capturing butterflies has helped change the perception of the jungle in the town of Chajul. Many families take in between $25 and $200 a month — a substantial amount in this town with no plumbing or electricity.

Ricardo Biseco’s teenaged son convinced his father he could make more money collecting butterflies than cattle ranching, so Biseco decided not to clear more jungle land.

To participate in the butterfly project, the town agreed to set 120 hectares of jungle aside as a community reserve.

Butterfly Name: Panacea Prola Top and Verso

Pair on mirror backed wood shadow box Frame

Frame size and backing: 5×8 Mirror Backing

Butterfly Description: South America

Origin:

Price: 38.00

Coming Soon

Butterfly Name: Walking Stick Insect

Parchment Backing

Size Frame by the inch: 9 x 9 frame

Color: wood color

Origin: Indonesia

Price: $45.00

The twigs come alive with this giant walking stick from Indonesia. Easily 7 inches long this insect is a guaranteed conversation piece.

Click image to enlarge

Coming Soon

The Largest Moth in the world is Attacus Atlas. It is found in Austrailia and New Guinea. The Giant Atlas Moth can be mistaken for a medium-sized bat when flying. Atlas moths have the largest wing surface area of all moths andthe markings on the moth’s front wingtips resemble a snake’s head and may scare away predators.

Great Owlet Moths (Thysania agripinna) of South America have females with a wingspan that measures up to 12 inches. Owlet Moths, or Noctuids (Noctuidae), are part of a gigantic family of moths with some specimens on record with an amazing 18 inch wing span. The comet moth (argema mittrei) has the longest tails of any Moth or butterfly, with the tails sometimes exceeding 12 inches or more.

What is the largest Butterfly in the world?

The largest butterfly in the world is the Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae). This huge, poisonous butterfly lives in the rain forests of Papua, New Guinea, and is an endangered species with a wing span of 11 inches. Males of the species are much smaller than females. The second-largest butterfly in the world is the Goliath Birdwing and it lives in Indonesian rainforests and has a wingspan up to 11 inches as well.

How long do Butterflies live?

It varies considerably according to species. The average lifespan of an adult butterfly is about 2 weeks, but some species ( e.g. Heliconius erato and Taygetis mermeria from South America, and Gonepteryx rhamni from Europe ) can live for at least 11 months. Monarchs (danaus plexippus) go through a long migration lasting months. The whole lifecycle from egg through caterpillar to adult can take just 3 weeks to complete in many tropical species. In temperate regions the lifecycle of the summer generation may be complete within about 6 weeks, but many species only produce a single generation in a year. In the sub-arctic zone, several species take 2 years to complete the lifecycle. In the wild, most butterflies lives are shorter than this because of the dangers provided by predators, disease, and large objects, such as automobiles. The smallest butterflies may live only a week or so, while a few butterflies, such as Monarchs, Mourning Cloaks and tropical heliconians, can live up to nine months.

The world’s rarest butterfly is the Palos Verdes Blue. It is found in only one place, Palos Verdes Peninsula, a suburb of Los Angeles. It was thought to be extinct for over 11 years, but a recent discovery has placed this butterfly as the rarest in the world.

Butterfly Name: Two distinct butterflies on a single frames

Caligo memnon and Caligo eurilochus both have a common name, Owl Butterfly

Frame size by inch: 9×9

Markings: Tan with eye spots

Origin: one of the most unusual and interesting Butterflies in the world. Butterflies in the genus Caligo are commonly called Owl butterflies, after their huge eyespots, which resemble owls’ eyes. There are about 20 species in the genus, found in the rainforests and secondary forests of Mexico, Central and South America.

It is thought that the large eyespots might keep birds from eating them. This Caligo memnon has been mounted upside down on parchment to really show off the fact that it looks like a small owl. This frame is available with the backing of your choice

Price $45.00 Parchment  or mirror backing

Click to enlarge image

	Caligo memnon 9″ x 9″ Parchment Backing $45.00 Mirror backing $45.00
	Caligo eurilochus 9″ x 9″ Mirror backing $45.00 Parchment Backing $45.00