Abstract
I remember v-e-r-y slowly putting my hand through the fence into my neighbor’s yard to capture my first black female tiger swallowtail; no net available. I was nine. It was awesome! I still have the specimen with its sewing pin through the thorax (thankfully not the abdomen, as I was pretty inept in those days) and a label the size of a business card. Those were the early days of excitement and fascination as I learned about butterflies and other insects.
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References
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Acknowledgments
With thanks to the many people who have influenced my development as a lepidopterist and chemical ecologist. My doctoral advisor, Ted Sargent , encouraged me to find a project that inspired me and let me work on butterflies, providing much support and encouragement along the way. My postdoctoral advisor Paul Ehrlich introduced me to the butterflies of the West and gave me the freedom to work on my own projects. Frank Stermitz and his students introduced me to the chemical side of chemical ecology and my time in his lab really changed the course of my research. Last, but definitely not least, thank you to my students, both past and present, you have and will always continue to inspire me.
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Bowers, M. (2015). From Caterpillars to Chemistry. In: Dyer, L., Forister, M. (eds) The Lives of Lepidopterists. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20457-4_1
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