<div dir="ltr">Dear Pat:<div><br></div><div>Thanks for the clarification. I am sharing this information with Dr. Mayden who is teaching a course in animal diversity (for non majors) this year and his course may touch on superstitions. It's sad to think that we've reached a level of affluence in America to the point that we are we now importing folklore ultimately destructive to environments beyond our borders. Yecch!</div>
<div><br></div><div>Perhaps we need a page on the NAPPC website to bust superstitions about native pollinators replacing them with facts? For example, most male bees feed themselves and DO pollinate flowers except in the naturalized, commercial honeybee (Apis mellifera). Monarchs in Canada DON"T fly all the way to Mexico in autumn., They produce more than one generation along the way and it's the last generation produced that reaches Mexico. The hummingbird bill isn't a single tube. There are two mandibles as in all other birds. Butterflies don't have hair-like stings that break off on human skin (learned that one as a 7-year old). That sort of thing. Let's see what Laurie has to say.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Peter</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 11:24 AM, De Angelis, Patricia <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:patricia_deangelis@fws.gov" target="_blank">patricia_deangelis@fws.gov</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Good question! Here's another article that postulates they were possibly intended as good luck charms. <br>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><a href="http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Dallas-man-charged-with-smuggling-dead-5483979.php" target="_blank">http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Dallas-man-charged-with-smuggling-dead-5483979.php</a><br>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.</div><div>Botanist, Division of Scientific Authority-US Fish & Wildlife Service-International Affairs</div><div>Chair, Medicinal Plant Working Group-Plant Conservation Alliance</div>
<div>5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: IA<br></div><div><div><div><div>Falls Church, VA 22041-3803</div></div></div><div><a href="tel:703-358-1708%20x%201753" value="+17033581708" target="_blank">703-358-1708 x 1753</a></div></div>
<div><a href="tel:703-358-2276" value="+17033582276" target="_blank">703-358-2276</a> (FAX)</div></div></div>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 11:58 AM, Peter Bernhardt <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bernhap2@slu.edu" target="_blank">bernhap2@slu.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">Dear Patricia:<div><br></div><div>Thanks so much for circulating this item. I wish there were more details in this newspaper article. Was the man selling fresh, whole corpses or was he bringing in taxidermic specimens for people with stuffed bird collections? One wonders if the prospective buyers planned to wear them on their hats. It was perfectly legal to do so over a century ago.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The reason I mention this is that I saw a travel documentary on Mexico City on Public Television about a year ago. The woman shopping in the open air markets noted that some stalls sold magical items. This included dead, drying hummingbird corpses on sticks to use as love charms. Have we reached a point in America in which such charms have a big enough customer base to become lucrative but illegal? Either way it's not good for the 200, or so, hummingbird species native to the tropical Americas. </div>
<span><font color="#888888">
<div><br></div><div>Peter </div></font></span></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div><div><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div></div></div>
</div>
</div><br></div>
<br></div></div><div>_______________________________________________<br>
Pollinator mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Pollinator@lists.sonic.net" target="_blank">Pollinator@lists.sonic.net</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/pollinator" target="_blank">https://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/pollinator</a><br>
<br></div></blockquote></div><br></div>
</blockquote></div><br></div></div>
</blockquote></div><br></div>