The Butterflies of Costa Rica and Their Natural History: Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae

Many biologists tackle only narrow research topics, and test or develop hypotheses just within their re- s~ricted fields. Natural history, exem- p ified by Phil De Vries’ excellent ni?w butterfly book, is seen by many a:; non-productive because it accumulates miscellaneous facts tt-at are relevant to a variety of prob- lems. This view is at least partly wrong, both in biology and in other fields considered to be paradigms of the scientific method. In physics, for example, theory alone did not pre- dizt the existence of the component units within protons and neutrons. Instead, post-war high energy ex- pccriments enjoyed massive funding bcecause of their military potential, as a l.esult of which a baffling variety of new subatomic particles were dis- covered. It was only in the 1960s that MArray Gell-Mann produced the qt.ark theory. He showed how many ‘ strange’ particles, as well as ordin- ar$/ protons and neutrons, could be explained if they were composed of a much simpler array of smaller ‘ quarks’ . The theory was of course mathematical, but its development WZIS similar to that of the theory of natural selection: an accumulation of cai.efully observed facts led to a major explanatory advance. Even to- daf, there is no theory in physics to predict whether or not quarks are themselves composed of yet smaller pa-titles. More ‘ particle natural his- tory’ will probably be needed before such a theory is forthcoming. P/lany areas of evolution and ecol- og>/ are inadequately understood: species diversity and speciation are just two examples. Tropical butter- flies, already so useful in evolution- ary biology, could provide key information. In addition, there are almost certainly questions that we