Rayetta's Butterflies - A Blue (Lepotes sp.)

Hmmm. Now that I have Crumby back in the house. He can start with this one. It’s either Lepotes marina or Lepotes cassisus, maybe. Whichever, it’s tiny and nervous, a 3 - 3 on the Rayetta scales. Lomo, go get Crumby and bring him in here.

Lomo go get Crumby?

Yes Lomo. Go get Crumby.

Lomo go get Crumby!

The proto human, Lomo Sapiens, ambles off to find Crumby. Anon:

Rayetta want Crumby in office. You come now.

All righty then, Lomo. Let me just ovate for a minute so that an awareness of the Lovely Druidess’s requirements shall wash over my noggin.

You come now, Crumby!

All righty then. Take it easy Lomo. You’ll draw back a dern nub if yer not careful. Stop draggin’ on me, dang it.

Crumby is dragged along down the dusty hallways of the CB in the general direction of Rayetta’s office. Upon arriving:

There you are Crumby. Have a seat. Leave us Lomo. Shut the door behind you. I have somewhat to discuss with Crumby with a view to minimizing distractions.

Lomo tugs his forelock and departs.

Ahem. Crumby, I have lately become very interested in the diurnal Lepidoptera, a plethora of which descended upon the CB last month while you were faunching around out in the Wilderness. Tell me Crumby, what do you think, first off, when you hear, butterfly?

If it flies, it dies.

Right. Sooner or later. But moving along from having boxes of dead bugs stinking up the CB, to exquisite winged creatures fluttering about, do you think you could help me identify butterflies from pictures?

Maybe, Rayetta, if the pictures are any count and show off the key characters of the different butterflies in unmistakable detail. However, some of the different ones can only be told from others by tiny details of, for example, their genitalia.

Yes, I’m sure that’s true Crumby. And if, perchance, you find a dead one you can look at its genitalia under the microscope to your heart’s content. But many of them, most maybe, you could identify from the regular outdoor pictures?

Yepper, maybe.

Good. So what will we need to assist us in identifying my butterflies from their pictures?

Er, pictures of butterflies already reliably identified to compare them with and generic keys.

That’s what I thought and that’s what I’ve been accomplishing. The Lepidopterists have set up several good places to go on the internet to compare pictures. And on their sites, the butterflies are named. But you Crumby, are interested in far more than the mere current names of the butterflies, aren’t you? You Crumby, would wish to track down the full synonomy of each and every CB butterfly, plus all the natural histories of each and every one of them. Correct?

Yepper, maybe.

Good. Then your job, Crumby, is to set up a nice butterfly library with tomes dating back to whenever, similar to the one you put together for the Graminoids. Then we can use the butterfly library you assemble to find out all the half-forgotten lore pertaining to my butterflies and we can also make certain my identifications are correct. Do you understand all that Crumby?

Yepper. But I may not want to study up on the dang butterflies Rayetta.

Do you like being back in the house, Crumby?

Yepper. Er. Er. Er. Er. Oh.

Yes, you espy now Crumby, why you got to come back in the house early this year, to help with my butterflies, of course. If not for me, you’d still be drinking stale milk out of a stinky clog and decapitating the neighbors.

Thank ye Rayetta.

You’re welcome Crumby. Happy birthday. Now run along and start putting together a butterfly library.

All righty then.