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#5544 08/25/00 08:51 PM
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#5545 08/26/00 12:32 AM
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Very belated welcome, Tim. (I got interrupted during my last visit here.)
Muhammad Ali is from where I live. One of our major
downtown streets got changed to Muh. Ali Boulevard.

I like the word float, myself, but actually have always just
said there was a cloud of butterflies.


#5546 08/27/00 03:42 AM
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>if you've ever seen a Monarch migration...

while not specific to butterflies, there is this from the OED:

flight 1-e Of birds or insects: A migration or issuing forth in bodies.
1832 Lyell Princ. Geol. II. 114 A similar flight [of butterflies] at the end of the last century is recorded by M. Louch.



#5547 08/27/00 08:18 PM
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Ignoring all the things I should be doing this afternoon, I went to the web in quest of the answer to this question.

When I went to the site for The Lepidopterists' Society,
I saw that one of the committee members who established their rules for collecting lives right here in Louisville.
(This is an international committee.)

So I called him! He said, "There is none". No official group name, though if many are flying together, they are sometimes called a migration.


#5548 08/28/00 05:01 AM
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Now that you mention it, Jackie, a cloud of butterflies does sound familiar ...

Bingley


Bingley
#5549 08/23/01 03:04 PM
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[oh, what the hell...]

<< collective noun for butterflies >>

The North American Butterfly Association uses "swarm of butterflies". Collective Noun collectors seem to prefer "rabble of butterflies". de gustibus non est disputandum



#5550 08/23/01 03:41 PM
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I suggest a Flutter of Butterflies, When a baby, my younger son Spoonerized butterfly as flutterby. I rather like it myself, yes, even better than flury, swarm and "rabble" ! rabble is *not* for butterflies ... sorry tsuwm.
I Googled the society and made my bid with them, via email, for A Flutter of Butterflies" ... it is a very pretty and informative site.

#5551 08/23/01 04:36 PM
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>sorry tsuwm

no need to be -- they're not *my words. (this is the thanks I get for dredging up year-old threads....)
-joe (i am not thin-skinned) bfstplk

http://rinkworks.com/words/collective.shtml
http://www.biconet.com/lures/Flutterby.html


#5552 08/23/01 04:39 PM
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How interesting that Rhu's first post was a response to the first, last and only post of Tim_Morton. It seems Biblical somehow.


#5553 08/23/01 04:42 PM
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well, Tim didn't exhibit biblical patience, that's for certain.


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