World's largest butterfly disappearing from Papua New Guinea rainforests

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/jul/30/queen-alexandras-birdwing-butterfly?intcmp=122


Rare Queen Alexandra's birdwing is losing habitat to logging and oil palm plantation

How large does a butterfly have to be before anybody notices it is disappearing? In the case of Papua New Guinea's (PNG) Queen Alexandra's birdwing, the answer is enormous.

The world's largest butterfly boasts a 1ft (30cm) wingspan – imagine the width of a school ruler - yet few outsiders in its rainforest home in Oro province in northern PNG have ever seen it. It's a scenario unlikely to improve as oil palm plantation and logging remorselessly devours this endangered butterfly's habitat.

Edwardian naturalist Albert Meek first recorded it in 1906 on a collecting expedition to PNG. The fast-flying butterfly frequents high rainforest canopy so Meek resorted to blasting them down by shotgun. The Natural History Museum taxonomically allocated his buckshot-peppered specimens into the birdwing genus (a tropical grouping possessing super-elongated forewings) and named it after Edward VII's wife.

[d06204]

1. One could be a smart-ass

and say, "what has this to do with the price of gas?" But, my question is, why is this significant in the overall scheme of things? Apparently, they weren't missed all that much by the indigenous people. Plus, didn't they just arrest 29 cannibals in that area?

[xchrom]

2. ? i don't understand your post in the least.

it's basic science that if you remove something like a butterfly from the environment -- the things that depend on that butterfly to be pollinated suffer.

then -- basic science again -- you multiply that.

[d06204]

4. You are probably right

...I don't know. But, if the article had said bees were disappearing, well...

[Angry Dragon]

7. Bees are not the only thing that pollinates plants

so what if man strips the world of everything
we can always get another

[formercia]

8. I force my flowers to have sex

then give away their children.

[Courtesy Flush]

3. Ermahgerd termstern kerhmin!!!! nt

[Curmudgeoness]

10. Here we go, back to grade school science....

Do you remember that "web of life" thingie that they talked about? We have no idea what taking one component out of the equation will do to an ecosystem.

But more than that, if the activities are causing one species to disappear, how many others are also losing ground to the activity (in this case, deforestation and palm oil production). It is unlikely that this particular butterfly is the only casualty. So when will you be concerned? When 10 species are lost? 100 species? 10,000 species?

[formercia]

5. I wonder what the cockroaches will say to each other

when the last Human becomes maggot entree du jour.

[valerief]

6. In other news, Japan's toxic environment is producing a glowing Godzilla butterfly.

With two heads.

[Curmudgeoness]

9. MOTHRA!!!!! Oh no, not again! nt

[valerief]

11. Ha! I'm so clueless, I didn't even think of Mothra!!!! nt

[Curmudgeoness]

12. I didn't know if anyone would know Mothra.

That goes back pretty far for me. But it was my favorite Japanese monster movie....since Mothra was a good monster.

[tclambert]

13. Some twins must have been singing the Mothra song.