A Reflection on the Career: Following a Path to Moths and Butterflies

Abstract

Because I was born in a small rural town along the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico, I was surrounded by nature and caterpillars. But having been taken to New York City at the age of three, I was not really aware of these magnificent creatures during those early years. For the few of us who grow up in urban environments like Spanish Harlem but love butterflies, seeking butterflies and moths is not exactly like looking for moths and butterflies in the Amazon, or the forests of New Guinea, but it is challenging and scary in its own way. I would visit those exotic places many years later, but as a youngster I could not even imagine those places. But how does anyone become seduced by butterflies and moths in the middle of a concrete jungle? As a youngster in the city, the insects that I was most exposed to, up close and personal, were flies, ants, cockroaches, and bedbugs.