anyway i have learned some fun things about moths, namely: we don’t know shit about moths
@Satsuma i love this so much
@greyor if you’re wondering how to say this in lepidopterist speak, i opened a paper claiming to have discovered three new kinds of moth in canda and it opened with «Even if the genus Herpetogramma is worldwide in distribution (Solis 2010), we have restricted our research to North America – mostly to Canada – as there are so many discoveries remaining to be made and also so many habits of these fantastic species remain unknown. Even for American species, very few details are known as to the biology of Herpetogramma (Solis 2010). The latter is the only author who has tried to shed light on that matter.»
@greyor yeah a very formal and precise “no one knows anything but at least two of us are working on that”
oh thats interesting! i feel as far as amateur sciences goes lepidoptery would be one of the easier ones to start off in — they’re everywhere and its easy to make basic observations with simple equipment. And since apparently the professionals dont know anything either you’re not even that far behind 😂
@Satsuma that's how I feel about a lot of Classics LOL, there are a lot of niche areas for sure. Like my MA thesis was on someone who most people thought sucked and rejected as a boring imitator of Homer (Quintus of Smyrna, or Quintus Smyrnaeus), but I think his reputation has been rehabilitated in recent years...
Yeah, I can imagine! There is a butterfly pavilion in Westminster, not too too far away from us, and I would love to go see it sometime. We had a nice one back in Florida when we lived there too, I miss that sort of thing! Most of what I see these days are squirrels in the backyard, and bunnies, lol!
@Satsuma oh holy shit that is just! so wild. insects more broadly, yes I expect us to have vast sweeping gaps in our knowledge....but. MOTHS. in NORTH AMERICA!
@soph_sol yeah i thought “what kind of moths live in ferns” was going to be an answerable question but it does not seem to be. There are just So Many Insects
@Satsuma there are SO many and it regularly blows my mind
@Satsuma haha I love that that is the wordiest way to basically say "we know fuckall"
fun fact, Nabokov was apparently an avid amateur lepidopterist. I remember learning that from the annotated Lolita, there is a lot of mention of moths and butterflies in that text. Might be a bit in Pale Fire as well, can't remember...