Subject
Monarchs, Viceroys and Queens (fwd)
Date
Body
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.ucsb.edu>
Subject: Monarchs, Viceroys and Queens
From: joseph brown <joeb@prognet.com>
The Website "Electronic Resources on Lepidoptera", includes a section entitled 'Monarchs, Viceroys and Queens', (c) Cristopher Majka, which includes a couple quotes from VN:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Environment/NHR/monarch.html
The mysteries of mimicry had a special attraction for me. Its phenomena
showed an artistic perfection usually associated with man-wrought things.
..."Natural selection," in the Darwinian sense, could not explain the
miraculous coincidence of imitative asp ect and imitative behavior ...
carried to a point of mimetic subtlety, exuberance, and luxury far in
excess of a predator's power of appreciation. -- Vladimir Nabokov
....Work done by K.S. Brown Jr.[Brown, K.S. Jr. (1985). Revista Brasileira
de biologia 44: 435-460.] has shown that many noxious butterflies,
such as the Ithiomids, "derive few or no defense compounds from their
larval hostplants." In fact as proposed by Ackery[Ackery, P.R. (1988)
Hostplants and classification: a review of Nymphalid butterflies. Biol .
J. Linn. Soc. 33:95-203.], the emerging understanding of this
relationship inverts it a hundred-eighty degrees. It is now thought that
butterflies often evolve their own chemical defenses and only afterwards
shift their feeding preferences to plants protected by similar means.
Depending on the species they may or may not sequester these plant
chemicals, as the Monarch appears to.
Some researchers doubt that Batesian mimicry exists, speculating that all
mimicry may lie somewhere along a Mullerian spectrum. Others, as
Vane-Wright suggests, argue that, "Because, in addition to sharing the
same warning signal, all members of a Mullerian group are well-protected,
it has been argued that no deception is involved and, therefore, they are
not really mimics at all." In other words, mimicry as such, may not even
exist! Well, whatever one calls it, this phenomenon in its extraordinary
elaboration, casts some fascinating light on the twin concepts of
parasitism and mutualism -- two pivotal ecological and evolutionary
notions. Perhaps I'll leave the final words to V. Sirin, that great
lepidopterist and literary thaumaturge who himself copied life as
assiduously as it mimicked him:
I discovered in nature the nonutilitarian delights that I
sought in art. Both were a form of magic, both were a game of intricate
enchantment and deception.-- V. Sirin; Speak, Mnemosyne
copyright Christopher Majka
Subject: Monarchs, Viceroys and Queens
From: joseph brown <joeb@prognet.com>
The Website "Electronic Resources on Lepidoptera", includes a section entitled 'Monarchs, Viceroys and Queens', (c) Cristopher Majka, which includes a couple quotes from VN:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Environment/NHR/monarch.html
The mysteries of mimicry had a special attraction for me. Its phenomena
showed an artistic perfection usually associated with man-wrought things.
..."Natural selection," in the Darwinian sense, could not explain the
miraculous coincidence of imitative asp ect and imitative behavior ...
carried to a point of mimetic subtlety, exuberance, and luxury far in
excess of a predator's power of appreciation. -- Vladimir Nabokov
....Work done by K.S. Brown Jr.[Brown, K.S. Jr. (1985). Revista Brasileira
de biologia 44: 435-460.] has shown that many noxious butterflies,
such as the Ithiomids, "derive few or no defense compounds from their
larval hostplants." In fact as proposed by Ackery[Ackery, P.R. (1988)
Hostplants and classification: a review of Nymphalid butterflies. Biol .
J. Linn. Soc. 33:95-203.], the emerging understanding of this
relationship inverts it a hundred-eighty degrees. It is now thought that
butterflies often evolve their own chemical defenses and only afterwards
shift their feeding preferences to plants protected by similar means.
Depending on the species they may or may not sequester these plant
chemicals, as the Monarch appears to.
Some researchers doubt that Batesian mimicry exists, speculating that all
mimicry may lie somewhere along a Mullerian spectrum. Others, as
Vane-Wright suggests, argue that, "Because, in addition to sharing the
same warning signal, all members of a Mullerian group are well-protected,
it has been argued that no deception is involved and, therefore, they are
not really mimics at all." In other words, mimicry as such, may not even
exist! Well, whatever one calls it, this phenomenon in its extraordinary
elaboration, casts some fascinating light on the twin concepts of
parasitism and mutualism -- two pivotal ecological and evolutionary
notions. Perhaps I'll leave the final words to V. Sirin, that great
lepidopterist and literary thaumaturge who himself copied life as
assiduously as it mimicked him:
I discovered in nature the nonutilitarian delights that I
sought in art. Both were a form of magic, both were a game of intricate
enchantment and deception.-- V. Sirin; Speak, Mnemosyne
copyright Christopher Majka