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----- Forwarded message from spklein52@hotmail.com -----
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 21:27:36 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
Subject: spirit of Vladimir Nabokov was fluttering over northwestern Moscow
Thursday, August 18, 2005 / Updated 18 August 2005 4:45 AM Moscow
Time Love's Labor's Lost on a Night Butterfly Hunt
The Moscow Times, Russia - 2 hours ago
Thursday, August 18, 2005. Page 1.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/18/002.html By Stephen
Boykewich
Staff Writer
Michael Eckels / MT
Entomologists and reporters gathering around a tree to examine moths
in the Kurkino Skhodnya River Valley Park in northwestern Moscow on
Tuesday night.
The spirit of Vladimir Nabokov was fluttering over northwestern
Moscow on Tuesday night as entomologists and enthusiasts gathered for
what was billed as "a night butterfly beauty contest."
The novelist, who was also a devoted butterfly collector, would have
appreciated the play on words. The Russian term for night butterflies,
_nochniye babochki_, is also used to refer to young prostitutes who
line the streets in certain parts of the city after dark.
The name was meant to raise eyebrows.
"That was our little joke," said Oleg Tolstenkov, director of
scientific research and ecological monitoring at the Kurkino Skhodnya
River Valley Park, smiling shyly. Tall and boyish in jeans and a
T-shirt, Tolstenkov, 25, looked more like a student at an
undergraduate party than a man of science.
He had organized the midsummer night's butterfly hunt so that he and
a handful of colleagues could catalogue the dozens of species of
butterflies present in the park -- two previous hunts this summer had
already turned up 62. He had invited the public along for reasons that
seemed to him self-evident.
"The night, the lamplight, the butterflies -- it's all fairly
romantic," Tolstenkov said. "It's not just South Africa and Latin
America that have rare species of butterflies. Moscow has its own,
and it's important for us to record them and find ways to preserve
them."
Scientific aims aside, the basic technology of the hunt would be
familiar to many from childhood: a light bulb shining on a white
screen. Species of butterflies that are active at night -- of which
Moscow has some 350 -- are attracted to the light. They flutter
around the bulb then settle on the screen, where they can be
identified by sight and catalogued.
Well, in theory at least.
An hour into the hunt, the only activity around the bulb was a group
of photographers from local newspapers snapping away at some circling
gnats.
Butterfly specialists on the scene had plenty of explanations as to
why the nochniye babochki had failed to show.
Moscow Zoo bird and insect expert Yevgeny Mimonov said the location
was far from ideal.
"Look at that," Mimonov said, indicating a nearby floodlight and
shaking his head critically. "They said yellow light doesn't bother
the butterflies. It bothers them all right."
Mimonov, in high boots, khaki pants and a many-pocketed vest, looked
like a cross between a safari guide and a beekeeper. He twisted his
beard thoughtfully, and his voice took on a tone of pride as he
described his own butterfly-hunting methods.
"Here they're using only one screen; when we do it, we use four,"
Mimonov said. "We set them up so they form a square, then put the
light in the middle. The light shines in four directions, and all the
butterflies collect inside. That's how you catch butterflies."
His monologue drew another specialist to his side: Grigory
Yeryomkin, a researcher at Moscow State University, whose Coke-bottle
glasses sat askew on his face.
"If you want to see night butterflies in all their glory, what you
need is an electrical generator," Yeryomkin said. "You bring it out
to the edge of the forest 150 or 200 kilometers from Moscow and set
up a light screen there."
But in Yeryomkin's mind, that night's hunt was more about the park
than about pure research. The 273-hectare Kurkino Skhodnya River
Valley Park, formed by a city decree in March 2004, is reported to
contain a total of 250 plant species, 80 bird species and 25 fish
species. The park stands on the edge of a raw-looking development of
new apartment buildings, many still uninhabited.
"We need to protect land like this from the construction that's
going on all around us in what is, we can say, a fairly barbaric
way," Yeryomkin said.
However imperfect the conditions of the hunt, two of the hunters
were pure enthusiasm. Camilla and Diana Nadyrshina, 8 and 10 years
old respectively, ran from the first lit screen to a second light
bulb that had been set on a white cloth. The second light attracted a
yellowjacket, more gnats and few small moths.
"They draw butterflies, they read about them," said their father,
Farid Nadyrshin. "We even went to an exhibition of a private
butterfly collection in Crimea."
The girls spotted Yeryomkin, butterfly net in hand, at the bottom of
a hill 100 meters off. After checking with their father, they tramped
down the hill where an ordinary floodlight had drawn a few of the
butterflies that had stubbornly avoided the screens set up specially
to attract them.
The girls strained to see as Yeryomkin transferred a single captive
from his net to a jar. He announced the capture of a sylleptus
ruralis, or large nettle moth.
"Fairly common appearance," he said. "Well, typical appearance," he
added, as though reluctant to offend.
Tolstenkov admitted his disappointment with the results of the
night.
"If it had been a beauty contest, we wouldn't have picked a winner,"
he said.
But Camilla's enthusiasm was undimmed.
"I love them all the same," she said.
----- End forwarded message -----
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 21:27:36 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
Subject: spirit of Vladimir Nabokov was fluttering over northwestern Moscow
Thursday, August 18, 2005 / Updated 18 August 2005 4:45 AM Moscow
Time Love's Labor's Lost on a Night Butterfly Hunt
The Moscow Times, Russia - 2 hours ago
Thursday, August 18, 2005. Page 1.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/18/002.html By Stephen
Boykewich
Staff Writer
Michael Eckels / MT
Entomologists and reporters gathering around a tree to examine moths
in the Kurkino Skhodnya River Valley Park in northwestern Moscow on
Tuesday night.
The spirit of Vladimir Nabokov was fluttering over northwestern
Moscow on Tuesday night as entomologists and enthusiasts gathered for
what was billed as "a night butterfly beauty contest."
The novelist, who was also a devoted butterfly collector, would have
appreciated the play on words. The Russian term for night butterflies,
_nochniye babochki_, is also used to refer to young prostitutes who
line the streets in certain parts of the city after dark.
The name was meant to raise eyebrows.
"That was our little joke," said Oleg Tolstenkov, director of
scientific research and ecological monitoring at the Kurkino Skhodnya
River Valley Park, smiling shyly. Tall and boyish in jeans and a
T-shirt, Tolstenkov, 25, looked more like a student at an
undergraduate party than a man of science.
He had organized the midsummer night's butterfly hunt so that he and
a handful of colleagues could catalogue the dozens of species of
butterflies present in the park -- two previous hunts this summer had
already turned up 62. He had invited the public along for reasons that
seemed to him self-evident.
"The night, the lamplight, the butterflies -- it's all fairly
romantic," Tolstenkov said. "It's not just South Africa and Latin
America that have rare species of butterflies. Moscow has its own,
and it's important for us to record them and find ways to preserve
them."
Scientific aims aside, the basic technology of the hunt would be
familiar to many from childhood: a light bulb shining on a white
screen. Species of butterflies that are active at night -- of which
Moscow has some 350 -- are attracted to the light. They flutter
around the bulb then settle on the screen, where they can be
identified by sight and catalogued.
Well, in theory at least.
An hour into the hunt, the only activity around the bulb was a group
of photographers from local newspapers snapping away at some circling
gnats.
Butterfly specialists on the scene had plenty of explanations as to
why the nochniye babochki had failed to show.
Moscow Zoo bird and insect expert Yevgeny Mimonov said the location
was far from ideal.
"Look at that," Mimonov said, indicating a nearby floodlight and
shaking his head critically. "They said yellow light doesn't bother
the butterflies. It bothers them all right."
Mimonov, in high boots, khaki pants and a many-pocketed vest, looked
like a cross between a safari guide and a beekeeper. He twisted his
beard thoughtfully, and his voice took on a tone of pride as he
described his own butterfly-hunting methods.
"Here they're using only one screen; when we do it, we use four,"
Mimonov said. "We set them up so they form a square, then put the
light in the middle. The light shines in four directions, and all the
butterflies collect inside. That's how you catch butterflies."
His monologue drew another specialist to his side: Grigory
Yeryomkin, a researcher at Moscow State University, whose Coke-bottle
glasses sat askew on his face.
"If you want to see night butterflies in all their glory, what you
need is an electrical generator," Yeryomkin said. "You bring it out
to the edge of the forest 150 or 200 kilometers from Moscow and set
up a light screen there."
But in Yeryomkin's mind, that night's hunt was more about the park
than about pure research. The 273-hectare Kurkino Skhodnya River
Valley Park, formed by a city decree in March 2004, is reported to
contain a total of 250 plant species, 80 bird species and 25 fish
species. The park stands on the edge of a raw-looking development of
new apartment buildings, many still uninhabited.
"We need to protect land like this from the construction that's
going on all around us in what is, we can say, a fairly barbaric
way," Yeryomkin said.
However imperfect the conditions of the hunt, two of the hunters
were pure enthusiasm. Camilla and Diana Nadyrshina, 8 and 10 years
old respectively, ran from the first lit screen to a second light
bulb that had been set on a white cloth. The second light attracted a
yellowjacket, more gnats and few small moths.
"They draw butterflies, they read about them," said their father,
Farid Nadyrshin. "We even went to an exhibition of a private
butterfly collection in Crimea."
The girls spotted Yeryomkin, butterfly net in hand, at the bottom of
a hill 100 meters off. After checking with their father, they tramped
down the hill where an ordinary floodlight had drawn a few of the
butterflies that had stubbornly avoided the screens set up specially
to attract them.
The girls strained to see as Yeryomkin transferred a single captive
from his net to a jar. He announced the capture of a sylleptus
ruralis, or large nettle moth.
"Fairly common appearance," he said. "Well, typical appearance," he
added, as though reluctant to offend.
Tolstenkov admitted his disappointment with the results of the
night.
"If it had been a beauty contest, we wouldn't have picked a winner,"
he said.
But Camilla's enthusiasm was undimmed.
"I love them all the same," she said.
----- End forwarded message -----