keeping our butterfly database as clean as possible

[brian cassie]

Hello Massbirders,

     I hope you are all well. I am writing on the serious subject of Massachusetts butterfly records. We in Massachusetts have an enviable and important database of butterfly sightings over the past 2+ decades. It is vital that we always strive to keep our state butterfly records as accurate as possible, for obvious reasons. To that end, I would like to ask each person that reports butterflies to exercise caution in their reporting. Do what you can to make an accurate identification. If positive i.d. is not possible, do not submit guesses as factual sightings. And, of course, never simply fabricate any butterfly sightings. In various places at various times, persons have been known to make up sightings of birds, butterflies, and other organisms, I suppose to enhance their reputation in the field. Reputations are affected in this way....but never enhanced.

   Brian Cassie, Foxboro

[Bob Mayer]

"In various places at various times, persons have been known to make up sightings of birds, butterflies, and other organisms, I suppose to enhance their reputation in the field."

Does this predate the election of 2016?  Has this mentality infected even the lepper world?  Is there no end to this?

[pavu...@aol.com]

CAN WE PLEASE NOT BRING POLITICS INTO THIS DISCUSSION?!  WHEN WILL THIS STOP?

 

 

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[Neil Jones]

Neil Jones replies below.

On 15/01/18 21:48, Bob Mayer wrote:

"In various places at various times, persons have been known to make up sightings of birds, butterflies, and other organisms, I suppose to enhance their reputation in the field."

Does this predate the election of 2016?  Has this mentality infected even the lepper world?  Is there no end to this?

It happens everywhere and has happened long ago. Several famous historic cases are known in the UK. I was a contact for records for half of my nation, Wales at one time. (For anyone unclear on this, Wales is , with England, Scotland,and Northern Ireland, one of the constituent nations  of the UK)

Some records are accidentally erroneous. Some sound impossible but are strays. I once queried a Swallowtail from the middle of the sea. Was it a piece of dirt on a slide at our records meeting?
A swallowtail is a rare and restricted butterfly, but this was a real record by several reliable people on a small island!

But you do have the mad people and the narcissists too,but of course that is not how they see themselves.
These people think they are the greatest. They have the best words. Believe me. It's true.They are wonderful stable geniuses and the rest of us  are bad hombres , total losers. :-)

Neil Jones
ne...@aurinia.co.uk

 

On Sunday, January 14, 2018 at 3:25:39 PM UTC-5, brian cassie wrote:

Hello Massbirders,

     I hope you are all well. I am writing on the serious subject of Massachusetts butterfly records. We in Massachusetts have an enviable and important database of butterfly sightings over the past 2+ decades. It is vital that we always strive to keep our state butterfly records as accurate as possible, for obvious reasons. To that end, I would like to ask each person that reports butterflies to exercise caution in their reporting. Do what you can to make an accurate identification. If positive i.d. is not possible, do not submit guesses as factual sightings. And, of course, never simply fabricate any butterfly sightings. In various places at various times, persons have been known to make up sightings of birds, butterflies, and other organisms, I suppose to enhance their reputation in the field. Reputations are affected in this way....but never enhanced.

   Brian Cassie, Foxboro

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[Josh]

I’m not familiar with cases from the Lepidoptera, but have heard of a number of examples from the birding world. This paper discusses some of them, mostly from Great Britain: 

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jon_Collinson/publication/288701885_What_the_eye_doesn%27t_see_The_prevalence_of_fraud_in_ornithology/links/57aef1dc08ae0101f1770112/What-the-eye-doesnt-see-The-prevalence-of-fraud-in-ornithology.pdf 

Hmmm, overly long URL. Just in case that doesn’t work, here’s that same link with a much shorter address: 

https://tinyurl.com/y93ob969

A more recent example took place in North Carolina, I think in 2013, some details here: 

http://seagullsteve.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-human-birdwatcher-project-presents.html

Cheers,

JSR

Joshua S. Rose, Ph.D.
Amherst, MA
http://bugguide.net/user/view/2399

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