Butterflies of Cuba
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      • Papilionidae : Papilioninae >
        • Battus devilliers - De Villiers' Swallowtail
        • Battus polydamas - Polydamas Swallowtail
        • Heraclides andraemon - Bahaman Swallowtail
        • Heraclides androgeus - Androgeus Swallowtail
        • Heraclides caiguanabus - Poey's Swallowtail
        • Heraclides oviedo - Oviedo's Swallowtail
        • Heraclides oxynius - Cuban Black Swallowtail
        • Heraclides pelaus - Pelaus Swallowtail
        • Heraclides ponceana - Dusky Swallowtail
        • Neographium celadon - Cuban Kite Swallowtail
        • Papilio demoleus - Lime Swallowtail
        • Papilio polyxenes - Black Swallowtail
        • Parides gundlachianus - Gundlach's Swallowtail
        • Pterourus palamedes - Palamedes Swallowtail
        • Pterourus troilus - Spicebush Swallowtail
      • Hesperiidae : Eudaminae >
        • Aguna asander - Gold-spotted Aguna
        • Aguna claxon - Emerald Aguna
        • Autochton potrillo - Potrillo Skipper
        • Cecropterus dorantes - Dorantes Longtial
        • Chioides marmorosa - Cuban Longtail
        • Epargyreus zestos - Zestos Skipper
        • Phocides pigmalion - Mangrove Skipper
        • Polygonus leo - Hammock Skipper
        • Proteides maysi - May's Skipper
        • Proteides mercurius - Cuban Mercurial Skipper
        • Telegonus anausis - Caribbean Yellow-tipped Flasher
        • Telegonus cassander - Cuban Flasher
        • Telegonus cellus - Golden-banded Skipper
        • Telegonus habana - Frosty Flasher
        • Telegonus talus - Green Flasher
        • Telegonus xagua - Antillean Flasher
        • Urbanus proteus - Common Long-tailed Skipper
      • Hesperiidae : Hesperiinae >
        • Asbolis capucinus - Monk Skipper
        • Atalopedes mesogramma - Mesogramma Skipper
        • Calpodes ethlius - Canna Skipper
        • Carystoides mexicana - Mexican Ruby-eye
        • Choranthus radians - Radians Skipper
        • Cymaenes tripunctus - Three-spotted Skipper
        • Euphyes cornelius - Cornelius Skipper
        • Euphyes singularis - Singularis Skipper
        • Holguinia holguin - Holguin Skipper
        • Hylephila phyleus - Fiery Skipper
        • Lerodea eufala - Eufala Skipper
        • Nyctelius nyctelius - Violet-banded Skipper
        • Oarisma bruneri - Bruner's Skipperling
        • Oarisma nanus - Nanus Skipperling
        • Panoquina corrupta - Corrupt Skipper
        • Panoquina lucas - Purple-washed Skipper
        • Panoquina ocola - Ocola Skipper
        • Panoquina panoquinoides - Obscure Skipper
        • Parachoranthus magdalia - Magdalia Skipper
        • Perichares philetes - Caribbean Ruby-eye
        • Polites baracoa - Baracoa Skipper
        • Pyrrhocalles antiqua - Caribbean Skipper
        • Rhinthon cubana - Cuban Rhinthon
        • Saliana esperi - Perching Saliana
        • Synapte malitiosa - Caribbean Faceted Skipper
        • Wallengrenia misera - Cuban Broken-dash
      • Hesperiidae : Pyrginae >
        • Anastrus sempiternus - Common Anastrus
        • Burca braco - Braco Skipper
        • Burca concolor - Concolorous Skipper
        • Burca cubensis - Cuban Skipper
        • Burnsius crisia - Antillean Checkered Skipper
        • Burnsius oileus - Tropical Checkered Skipper
        • Chiomara gundlachi - Gundlach's Duskywing
        • Eantis munroei - Munroe's Sicklewing
        • Eantis papinianus - Cuban Sicklewing
        • Ephyriades brunnea - Florida Duskywing
        • Ephyriades zephodes - Zephodes Duskywing
        • Erynnis zarucco - Zarucco Skipper
        • Gesta gesta - Impostor Duskywing
        • Ouleus fridericus - Fridericus Spreadwing
      • Pieridae : Colladinae >
        • Abaeis nicippe - Sleepy Orange
        • Anteos clorinde - White-angled Sulphur
        • Anteos maerula - Yellow-angled Sulphur
        • Colias eurytheme - Orange Sulphur
        • Eurema amelia - Cuban Yellow
        • Eurema boisduvaliana - Boisduval's Yellow
        • Eurema daira - Barred Yellow
        • Eurema elathea - Banded Yellow
        • Eurema lucina - Smudged Yellow
        • Kricogonia cabrerai - Cuban Sulphur
        • Kricogonia lyside - Lyside Sulphur
        • Nathalis iole - Dainty Sulphur
        • Phoebis agarithe - Large Orange Sulphur
        • Phoebis argante - Apricot Sulphur
        • Phoebis avellaneda - Orange-washed Sulphur
        • Phoebis neleis - Neleis Sulphur
        • Phoebis orbis - Orbis Sulphur
        • Phoebis philea - Orange-barred Sulphur
        • Phoebis sennae - Cloudless Sulphur
        • Phoebis statira - Statira Sulphur
        • Pyrisitia chamberlaini - Chamberlain's Yellow
        • Pyrisitia dina - Bush Sulphur
        • Pyrisitia larae - Confusing Yellow
        • Pyrisitia lisa - Little Yellow
        • Pyrisitia messalina - Whitish Yellow
        • Pyrisitia nise - Mimosa Yellow
        • Pyrisitia proterpia - Tailed Orange
        • Pyrisitia venusta - Pale Yellow
        • Zerene cesonia - Southern Dogface
      • Pieridae : Dismorphiinae >
        • Dismorphia cubana - Cuban Mimic-White
      • Pieridae : Pierinae >
        • Ascia monuste - Great Southern White
        • Ganyra menciae - Cuban White
        • Glutophrissa drusilla - Florida White
        • Melete salacia - Black-striped White
        • Pontia protodice - Checkered White
      • Riodinidae >
        • Dianesia carteri - Caribbean Metalmark
      • Lycaenidae : Polyommatinae >
        • Brephidium exilis - Pygmy Blue
        • Cupido comyntas - Eastern Tailed-Blue
        • Cyclargus ammon - Nickerbean Blue
        • Cyclargus thomasi - Miami Blue
        • Hemiargus ceraunus - Ceraunus Blue
        • Leptotes cassius - Cassius Blue
        • Leptotes hedgesi - Hedges' Blue
        • Pseudochrysops bornoi - Antillean Blue
      • Lycaenidae : Theclinae >
        • Allosmaitia coelebs - Cuban Hairstreak
        • Chlorostrymon maesites - Amethyst Hairstreak
        • Chlorostrymon simaethis - Silver-banded Hairstreak
        • Electrostrymon angelia - Fulvous Hairstreak
        • Eumaeus atala - Atala Hairstreak
        • Ministrymon azia - Grey Ministreak
        • Nesiostrymon celida - Caribbean Hairstreak
        • Strymon acis - Bartram's Scrub-Hairstreak
        • Strymon bazochii - Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak
        • Strymon istapa - Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak
        • Strymon limenia - Limenia Scrub-Hairstreak
        • Strymon martialis - Martial Scrub-Hairstreak
        • Strymon toussainti - Toussaint's Scrub-Hairstreak
      • Nymphalidae : Apaturinae >
        • Asterocampa idyja - Dusky Emperor
        • Doxocopa laure - Silver Emperor
      • Nymphalidae : Biblidinae >
        • Dynamine postverta - Mexican Sailor
        • Dynamine serina - Caribbean Sailor
        • Eunica heraclitus - Cuban Purplewing
        • Eunica monima - Dingy Purplewing
        • Eunica tatila - Florida Purplewing
        • Hamadryas amphinome - Red Cracker
        • Hamadryas februa - Gray Cracker
        • Hamadryas feronia - Variable Cracker
        • Lucinia sida - Caribbean Banner
      • Nymphalidae : Charaxinae >
        • Anaea cubana - Cuban Leafwing
        • Archaeoprepona demophoon - Two-spotted Prepona
        • Cymatogramma echemus - Chestnut Leafwing
        • Hypna clytemnestra - Silver-studded Leafwing
        • Siderone galanthis - Red-striped Leafwing
      • Nymphalidae : Cyrestinae >
        • Marpesia chiron - Many-banded Daggerwing
        • Marpesia eleuchea - Caribbean Daggerwing
      • Nymphalidae : Danainae >
        • Anetia briarea - Many-spotted King
        • Anetia cubana - Cuban King
        • Anetia pantherata - Great King
        • Danaus eresimus - Soldier
        • Danaus gilippus - Queen
        • Danaus plexippus - Monarch
        • Greta cubana - Cuban Clearwing
        • Lycorea halia - Tiger Mimic Queen
      • Nymphalidae : Heliconiinae >
        • Agraulis vanillae - Gulf Fritillary
        • Dryas iulia - Flambeau
        • Eueides isabella - Isabella's Heliconian
        • Euptoieta claudia - Variegated Fritillary
        • Euptoieta hegesia - Mexican Fritillary
        • Heliconius charithonia - Zebra Heliconian
      • Nymphalidae : Libytheinae >
        • Libytheana carinenta - American Snout
        • Libytheana motya - Cuban Snout
        • Libytheana terena - Antillean Snout
      • Nymphalidae Limenitinae >
        • Adelpha iphicleola - Iphicleola Sister
        • Limenitis archippus - Viceroy
      • Nymphalidae : Nymphalinae >
        • Anartia chrysopelea - Cuban Peacock
        • Anartia jatrophae - White Peacock
        • Anthanassa frisia - Cuban Crescent
        • Antillea pelops - Antillean Crescent
        • Atlantea perezi - Cuban Checkerspot
        • Colobura dirce - Mosaic
        • Historis acheronta - Tailed Cecropian
        • Historis odius - Stinky Leafwing
        • Hypanartia paullus - Antillean Mapwing
        • Hypolimnas misippus - The Mimic
        • Junonia coenia - Common Buckeye
        • Junonia neildi - Mangrove Buckeye
        • Junonia zonalis - Tropical Buckeye
        • Phyciodes phaon - Phaon Crescent
        • Polygonia interrogationis - Question Mark
        • Siproeta stelenes - Malachite
        • Vanessa atalanta - Red Admiral
        • Vanessa cardui - Painted Lady
        • Vanessa virginiensis - American Lady
      • Nymphalidae : Satyrinae >
        • Calisto aquilum - Cuban Dark Calisto
        • Calisto bradleyi - Bradley's Calisto
        • Calisto brochei - Broche's Calisto
        • Calisto bruneri - Bruner's Calisto
        • Calisto disjunctus - Western Cuban Calisto
        • Calisto dissimulatum - Mimic Calisto
        • Calisto gundlachi - Gandlach's Calisto
        • Calisto herophile - Cuban Common Calisto
        • Calisto israeli - Israel's Calisto
        • Calisto lastrai - Lastra's Calisto
        • Calisto muripetens - Guamuahaya Calisto
        • Calisto occulta - Hidden Calisto
        • Calisto sharkeyae - Sharkey's Calisto
        • Calisto siguanensis - Sand Calisto
        • Calisto smintheus - Cuban Rusty Calisto
        • Calisto torrei - Torre's Calisto
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      • Riodinidae / Lycaenidae - Metalmarks, Hairstreaks & Blues
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Part 1 - The Liars have it

23/12/2019

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The heading above refers of course to the recent general election here in the UK where the lying Tories have won an overall majority of seats. I thought that the heading summed it up quite well but I might have guessed that someone else would have thought of it first as I found this cartoon just now depicting John Bercow, the recently retired Speaker of the Commons, announcing the vote on the Brexit Bill - a parody of the out-dated way that the Speaker announces which way the House has voted when he says "the Ayes have it" or "the Nays have it".
Picture
Cartoon by Morten Morland
The lies
The new Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims that he has been given an overwhelming mandate by the British people. Yet another lie to add to the many previous lies. No, he hasn’t been given an overwhelming mandate as less than 30% of the electorate voted for him and less than 44% of those that voted did so. It is only because of the rigged political system in this country that he now has a large majority of seats in the House of Commons. How is this Democracy? I believe that the majority of thinking people in this country think he is a buffoon and a disgrace, and treat him with complete contempt.
And the most sickening thing I've seen is Boris making his entire cabinet recite the the debunked lies about the NHS at a Cabinet meeting including that they will provide 50,000 new nurses in five years. He had previously been forced to admit that 13,500 of these were existing nurses or ones they hoped to attract back! Fat chance of that. The NHS is already short of 40,00 nurses not helped by George Osborne’s decision in 2015 when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer to stop paying nursing students’ tuition fees and maintenance grants which has led to a 31% drop in those applying to be nurses at the same time as the NHS is facing its most debilitating shortage of them in decades. Most nurses finish training with a large debt and the number of nurses who now rely on payday loans to get them through the month numbers tens of thousands. I will talk more about the NHS later. Johnson just repeats a few untruthful slogans again and again, copying Trump in the mendacity. He says we'll have 20,000 more police. No - that will be 20,000 new police to replace the 20,000 expected to leave or retire in the same time period. So the overall number will remain about the same.
Picture
And this is the Leader of the House of Commons and Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg during a debate on the UK leaving the European Union. Labour MP Anna Turley called this "the physical embodiment of arrogance, entitlement, disrespect and contempt for our Parliament". A pretty fair summary I would say. Anyone who has watched the proceedings in the House of Commons on TV can see how archaic and out-dated it is and the behaviour of many MP's utterly shameful. I am ashamed of this portrayal of our country around the world. With MP's screaming aggressively at each other across the floor of the house and Johnson using words like 'betrayal' and 'traitor' only helping to inflame the situation, some MP's with calmer heads are calling for urgent change across the political divide. But it won't happen with the Tories in power.
The Media
Many people have either believed the many Tory lies fed to them by the billionaire-owned press in this country or they just don't care. In my opinion and many of those I speak to, the BBC (and ITV for that matter) has been complicit in disproportionately promoting Brexit on some of its news outlets. I gave up watching the BBC news on TV or listening to BBC Radio 4 in the morning a long time ago because of what many perceive to be blatant bias. Many people now refer to it as the Biased Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC seems to think that all sides should be given time to give their view. So if some people say the world is round and some, amazingly, still think its flat does that mean the latter should be given airtime? Of course not because the science is overwhelming.

I thought this sums up the issue quite well too:
"A journalism student had this quote from their lecturer which I think would benefit those BBC reporters who feel they are obliged to give every point of view equal air time:
“When someone says it’s raining and another says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. It’s your job to look out the f**king window and find out which is true”."
Climate breakdown
Johnson like Trump (and many other leaders around the world) is a climate change denier. Outwardly they express the view that climate change is nothing to do with man's activity on the planet. When it snows Trumps tweets a picture saying that this is proof that the world is not warming up! Whether he really doesn't know the difference between weather and climate, or whether he does and it's just to convince his many fervent supporters that climate breakdown is all a lie I don't know. Johnson refused to meet with Greta Thunberg and all the other party leaders to discuss climate change. He ran scared just like Trump. When she was crowned Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, Donald Trump tweeted in less than encouraging terms that she should work on her anger management problem.
The science however is very clear. Our planet is in great danger caused by man's increasing use of fossil fuels that has released large quantities of CO2 which is warming the planet to very dangerous levels. There have been five great extinction events on planet earth to date according to Cosmos magazine:
  • End Ordovician, 444 million years ago, 86% of species lost.
  • Late Devonian, 375 million years ago, 75% of species lost.
  • End Permian, 251 million years ago, 96% of species lost.
  • End Triassic, 200 million years ago, 80% of species lost.
  • End Cretaceous, 66 million years ago, 76% of all species lost.
and we are now at the start of the sixth mass extinction event. Scientists say we have only a few short years to have made drastic reductions to our emissions or we will reach a tipping point where we will not be able to stop the over-heating of the planet. The melting of the ice-caps and the huge dangerous release of methane (far worse than CO2) caused by thawing of the tundra permafrost around the world may already be impossible to stop.

The UN COP25 Conference
The UN is a group founded on the principle that multilateral cooperation can stop international conflicts. The United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC) is the international response to climate change. It is a treaty that establishes the basic obligations of the 196 Parties (States) plus the European Union to combat climate change.
At this years annual Climate Conference, the 25th, the talks were characterised by squabbling over technical details. Brazil, Australia, the US, China and other major emitters were all accused of holding up progress. The snail’s pace and low ambition of the talks stood in stark contrast to pleas from activists, who staged a 500,000-strong march through the Spanish capital Madrid. Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish activist, said that the last year of protests had “achieved nothing” as countries were still failing to bring forward the measures needed (Guardian).
Picture
At a time when our countries leaders around the world should be working closely together flat out to quickly solve the greatest problem by far on the planet today, we have Trump denying that there is a problem and saying that he will always put America first ie continuing the divisive rhetoric.

To be continued....
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