Acraea horta photographed in Botanical Gardens, Pretoria
One tray in my butterfly collection - Nymphalinae
Butterfly, family Pieridae, photographed in Czech Republic
Hypolimnas anthedon wahlbergi form mima (top), Hypolimnas Misippus (bottom), both family Nymphalinae, part of my collection
More butterflies from my collection
When I was 8 years old, I went with my parents to visit my grandfather in Stellenbosch. Next to them lived an entomologist, working at the University of Stellenbosch. He took us (my brother and I) to see his collection of insects at the university laboratory. Seeing the little bugs tickled me in a way I cannot explain. I started collecting bugs from that day. But it soon became apparent that I did not like collecting all insects, as some of them was not very, ummm - proper to handle. So eventually I started collecting butterflies and moths. It is now 16 years I am collecting Lepidoptera, and it is still a hobby that I practice from time to time, as work allows.
On the left is a butterfly (Acraea horta) I photographed at the Botanical Gardens in Pretoria. Fortunately for him I already had some samples of that species and therefore was not interested in catching the poor little guy.
I currently have in my collection about 500 butterflies and moths, of which there are approximately 200 different species. All Lepidoptera are from South Africa, and I caught all of them myself with the exception of 3 samples.
There is a popular myth doing the rounds stating that butterfly collectors are cruel because they kill and endanger butterflies. This is so far from the truth. Any (decent) butterfly collector will not catch more than four samples of a specific species - two of each gender, in order to display the upper and bottom sides of each gender. Additional samples might be collected for abberations and different forms of a specific species. By collecting butterflies I have changed the way several people that came into my life saw butterflies. They now - for the first time ever - actually see the butterflies and appreciate them for their beauty. Before they met me they would not have looked twice at a butterfly. On the contrary, if one factory is erected somewhere, the chances are rather good that it will destroy with it a huge amount of vegitation - sometimes enough to wipe out a specific plant species on which a specific butterfly's larvae might have fed. This will cause the specific butterfly species to either migrate to another area, or for it to become extinct in that area. But no-one makes any comment on a new factory, because they do not see the indirect consequences. Like the old saying goes - ignorance is bliss...
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