The Dangerous World of Butterflies; The Startling Subculture of Criminals, Collectors, and Conservationists

by Peter Laufer, Ph.D.

• ISBN13: 9781599215556
• ISBN10: 1599215551
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2009-05-05
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

War weary after writing a book about Iraq, Peter Laufer joked before an audience that his next book would be about butterflies. The result: an invitation to a butterfly preserve in Nicaragua. There he stumbled into a theater of intrigue full of strange and nefarious charactersall in pursuit of one of nature's most delicate creatures. The Dangerous World of Butterflieschronicles Laufer's unexpected discoveries in the butterfly industry and underground. Readers will learn everything there is to know about the beauty and magic of butterflies. But Laufer's narrative takes unpredictable turns into the high-stakes realms of organized crime, ecological devastation, species depletion, natural history museum integrity, and chaos theory. Set in locales throughout the Americas and beyond, this fascinating book takes us into a behind-the-scenes world sure to alter our view the next time we delight in the colorful fluttering of butterflies in our yards.

Author Biography

Peter Laufer is the author or coauthor of more than ten books, including Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq and Iron Curtain Rising: A Personal Journey through the Changing Landscape of Eastern Europe. An award-winning journalist and a noted documentary filmmaker, he hosts “The Peter Laufer Show” Sundays on the San Francisco Clear Channel radio station Green 960.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Relentless Quest for Tranquility	p. ix
Off to Nicaragua and an Introduction to Lepidoptera	p. 1
With the Purists Where Butterflies Fly Free	p. 21
My Successful Commercial Butterfly Release	p. 40
Diapause	p. 64
The Flight and Plight of the Monarch	p. 77
In Pursuit of the World's Most Wanted Butterfly Smuggler	p. 103
Death-defying, Globe-trotting Butterfly Hunting	p. 128
Butterflies versus National Security	p. 155
The Butterfly as Art	p. 182
Creation versus Evolution	p. 204
Butterfly Resurrection	p. 228
Epilogue	p. 253
Acknowledgments	p. 256
Endnotes	p. 259
Index	p. 263
About the Author	p. 272
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