Favorite European Butterfly family

[jonathan]

Hi people,
I would like to find out what is the most favorite European Butterfly family. In the poll, I have left the Satyridae as a distinct family as a lot of people still consider the Satyridae as a valid.
I hope that I get at least 100 replies from more than 1,900 registered users on insectnet.
Thanks a lot
Regards
Jonathan

[jonathan]

Thanks a lot to those who voted. Keep the votes coming....

[steve]

No Hesperidae ?

[Adam Cotton]

Having split out Satyridae there is no Danaidae either!

[thanos]

What about Libytheidae ?

[Deleted]

seeing as there are only 2 species if danaidae in Europe lets throw in riodinidae too, someone must love h lucina.

[Adam Cotton]

Riodinidae is included in the poll already, Dunc.

Adam.

[Deleted]

ah yes, no votes, bit like a British entry in the Eurovision song contest.

[Adam Cotton]

Nothing political about no-one voting for Riodinidae though.

Adam.

[jonathan]

Hi people

You're right. I forgot to include the Hesperidae & Danaidae so anyone wishing to vote for any of these families can post the reply here. Sorry for the mistake but can't find a way how I can modify the poll to include these 2 families.

To Thanos:
Re. Libytheidae, I did not include it separately since this is a 1 species family which has been grouped with Nymphalidae too, but anyone can post a reply here to vote for it too. Once again, this change seems to be subjective.

To Steve:
Can I count 1 for Hesperidae?

Jonathan

[thanos]

Hi Jonathan,

Please note also that many consider Riodinidae (with only 1 species in Europe, too) as a subfamily of Lycaenidae (Riodininae). So, separating these, is the same as splitting Libytheinae out of Nymphalidae and considering Libytheidae as a separate family.


Thanos

[jonathan]

Hi Thanos,

Thanks for the update. So to clear my mind, it seems that Linnaeus at first used to group species as much as possible, even though he was the one to come up with the "Family" classification, then during the years many species were taxonomically ungrouped, now we are grouping them again.

I don't want to delve very much into this debatable and subjective topic which has already been discussed in other fora but I would like to bring an analogy here between a horse, a donkey and a mule/hinny, all falling within the same family Equidae. Quoting wikipedia:
"A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny (the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey). While there is no known instance of a male mule siring offspring, female mules have on very rare occasion given birth to viable offspring."

My questions here are:
To be consistent with the above fact, has anyone ever tried to crossbreed a Parnassius with a Papilio or a Vanessa with a Maniola or Hamearis lucina with any Lycanidae just to bring an example? I am asking because I cannot understand certain relationships. I know that it is easier to experiment with horses and donkeys rather than with butterflies but I believe that what counts for horses has to count for insects and everything else. I'm sure that this dilemma will never be solved especially since the interest in insects is declining so I think that finally everyone should accept everyone's opinion irrespective of literature. With this rate, we will end up with 1 family in the near future

Thanks again Thanos

Jonathan

[steve]

Yep

[pittendrighinsects]

My favorite is Zerynthia rumina, Papilio machaon is also quite nice, depending the ssp. Btw, are there any good places to find P. apollo is Spain, possibly in Picos de Europa or western Castilla La Mancha/Caceres? Thanks.

Quintin