someone please call the doctor. i think she's gone plumb crezy!

It's one I haven't seen before... must be rather new. I like the galleries, but wish the site talked more about soils and the problems associated with growing... such as rot and mites, etc. Overall, though... nice website! Thanks for posting the link, Mike!

jmcat - Pretty simple really once you begin to understand taxonomic nomenclature, genetics and natural evolution. Papilio polyxenes polyxenes is the nominate form... and Papilio polyxenes asterius is one of it's named subspecies. So some confusion is common when listings lump any bug into a generalized species name like this by not including the next subordinate level of classification if they are assigned - subspecies. Subspecies are named usually because they differ from the nominate form for any of several possible reasons (environment/habitat, isolation, distribution, etc) to where they have evolved into a slightly different bug than the nominate form. In this case the range of the nominate form is Cuba, and except for possible strays it probably doesn't intergrade naturally with the subspecies of it found in their own ranges outside of Cuba, while the subspecies who do have over-lapping ranges probably do intergrade naturally. Hmmm, maybe in better laymanÂs terms, the P. p. polyxenes nominate form is mostly isolated in Cuba. So the named subspecies of it are probably the result of strays of the nominate species that established new colonies outside Cuba or a result of ancestral land mass separations that isolated them from each other. Kind of a reverse isolation I guess in that those colonies not continually strengthened by the nominate form gene pool have evolved into subspecies that differ from the nominate species. Probably as clear as mud, but hopefully at least starts to answer your question. L.

Forwarded it on to my cousin whose son just had twins, along with a 2 yo DD. They'll find it chuckly. :)