June 2009
Dear Butterfly Net:
Winter is upon us, butterfly activity is low, but SABCA is still highly active...
SABCA evening, Botanical Gardens, Pietermaritzburg, 17 July 2009
LepSoc is hosting a SABCA evening at the Pietermaritzburg Botanical Gardens, starting at 18h30 on 17 July, as part of LepSoc's annual conference and AGM. Silvia Mecenero, SABCA project coordinator, will give an update on SABCA. Field survey updates will be given by the LepSoc provincial coordinators and a general LepSoc update by Bennie Coetzer who is one of LepSoc's main representatives for SABCA. A butterfly slide show presented by Steve Woodhall, author of the most recent field guide to SA's butterflies, will be included in the evening, featuring photos from the SABCA virtual museum. Moth enthusiast Hermann Staude will talk about moth records received via SABCA. Please come along and join us for this most informative and fun evening! For more info, please visit LepSoc's website: www.lepsoc.org.za
LepSoc AGM and Annual Conference, Pietermaritzburg, 17-19 July 2009
LepSoc members meet up once a year to share experiences, research and photos on their butterfly and moth activities around Africa. This year the conference takes place at the John Bews Hall, University of KZN, Pietermaritzburg Campus. It kicks off with the SABCA evening at the botanical gardens (see above). There will be a wide variety of talks on butterflies and moths, as well as a photo competition. Anyone is welcome to attend. Please go to the LepSoc website to get more info and registration details: www.lepsoc.org.za
SABCA presentation, Tygerberg Bird Club, Cape Town, 18 June 2009
Andrew Morton, LepSoc member and one of the field survey coordinators of the Western Cape for SABCA, gave a presentation on SABCA and butterflies at the Tygerberg Bird Club. The talk was well received with many questions asked.
SABCA presentation, West Coast Bird Club, Langebaan, 27 June 2009
Silvia Mecenero gave a SABCA presentation at the West Coast Bird Club. The presentation was shared with a reptile talk given by the reptile atlas (SARCA) coordinator, Marienne de Villiers. The audience learnt many new things about reptiles and butterflies.
The virtual museum is growing from strength to strength, and we have received just over 7 600 photographic records. Thank you to those of you who have made so many contributions. Please keep on submitting your photos! Please note that due to the high number of submissions that we are receiving, it is taking us longer to process and upload your photos onto the virtual museum, and the ID panel is also taking longer to ID your photos. We are looking at ways to help us process and ID your records faster. In the mean time thank you for your patience.
SABCA's second Virtual Museum competition was launched in May 2009. All photographs submitted from 6 December 2008 until 31 March 2010 will be considered for the prizes. Only photos of butterflies from the atlas region (South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland) are eligible.
There are three prize categories:
1) Person who submits the most geographically diverse number of butterfly records (as determined by the number of quarter degree grid squares covered - please click here to find out what is a quarter degree grid square).
2) Person who submits the most species rich number of butterfly records from within one quarter degree grid square.
3) Person who submits the most biologically interesting/unusual butterfly record.
There will be a first, second and third prize per category. Prizes include:
 A one year's subscription to Africa Geographic, kindly sponsored by Africa Geographic. |
 One year membership to LepSoc, kindly sponsored by LepSoc. |
Various butterfly books, including Steve Woodhall's "Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa" and "What's that butterfly?" as well as LepSoc posters, provided by SABCA.
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Please click on the Public participation link to obtain instructions on how photos should be submitted. N.B. Some extra points to remember, please, when submitting photos, which will help us to process your submissions a little faster:
**1) Please take care when giving coordinate values. There are two different formats, the one format includes spaces (i.e. degrees, minutes and seconds format) and the second format includes points (i.e. decimal degrees or decimal minutes). If your gps is set on the decimal format, do not replace the point with a space. It is very important that you give the coordinates as given on your gps, as this helps us to know when and how to convert them. If spaces are placed instead of points then our conversions will be completely wrong. Please click here to learn more about coordinates and their various formats.
2) Please do not submit more than three photos per submission. Choose the photo(s) which best display the upper and/or under sides of the wings. Do not submit two or more similar looking photos.
3) Please do not submit photos of different butterfly species as one submission, rather these should be submitted separately.
**4) Please do not submit photos of the SAME butterfly species from the SAME locality as separate records. If you are unsure that two separate butterfly pictures belong to the same species, then you can submit these separately. But if it is obvious that two or more different photos from the same locality are of the same species, then only submit ONE record, not two or more. This will greatly help reduce the workload for the ID panel, and thus they will be able to get through the online photo IDs much faster. Rather aim for the following:
1) Get photos of the same butterfly species from different localities, or
2) Get photos of different species of butterflies from the same locality.
However, because we are also interested in trends over time, you may submit photos of the same species from the same locality, provided that the photos are taken 1-2 weeks apart.
5) Please enter your info into the template as per the format below, thus: (a) surname first, followed by your initials, (b) do not place the word "province" in the province field (e.g. Limpopo, not Limpopo Province), (c) depict dates by numbers only, and (d) do not remove or alter what is given within the square brackets. Copy and paste the entire template from [begin] to [end] into the body of your email and only replace the info outside of the square brackets.
Template example:
[begin]
[SABCA]
[observer name] Botha W.
[coordinates latitude] 24 34 13 S
[coordinates longitude] 27 23 42 E
[locality] farm Doornhoek; Thabazimbi district.
[closest town] Thabazimbi
[province] Limpopo
[country] South Africa
[year] 2005
[month] 08
[day] 27
[number of photos] 2
[notes] There were many butterflies of this type flying about, and they were feeding on honeysuckle. It was overcast.
[end]
To help you target areas where we most need butterfly records from:
(1) In the coverage map below, please target the quarter degree grid squares which are blank, i.e. those that do NOT have a blue dot (blue dot = virtual museum record) or are orange-coloured (orange = non-virtual museum record, either from a collection or field survey). |
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(NB: this is a real time coverage map.) |
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(2) In the species richness map below, please target the quarter degree grid squares which are NOT blue/purple in colour. For these squares we do not have enough records of the different species that occur there, i.e. they are currently species-poor squares. We need your help to improve the species richness for these cells. |
SABCA would like to thank the following people for their contributions during the past three months - some of the most recent submissions have not been processed yet and thus have not been considered here (see previous newsletters for previous contributions):
As determined by our ID expert panel, here follow a selection of interesting records or great photos received recently:
 A first for the VM. P Webb Astictopterus inornatus Modest sylph |
 Rare form. KL Immelman Pseudacraea boisduvalii trimenii Trimen's false acraea |
 Very good record. RA Dobson Gnophodes betsimena diversa Yellow-banded evening brown |
 Very rare intermediate between forms sylvicola and hypolymnides. CK Willis Papilio dardanus cenea Mocker swallowtail |
 Most eyewatering VM record yet. J Bode Chrysoritis phosphor borealis Scarce scarlet |
 Form trophonius. D Cowie Papilio dardanus cenea Mocker swallowtail |
 In flight. P Webb Nepheronia argia variegata Large vagrant |
 Interesting life cycle shots. IC & A Sharp Acraea oncaea Window acraea |
 Pupa able to match the colour of the substrate rather like a chamaeleon. IC & A Sharp Papilio nireus lyaeus Green-banded swallowtail |
 Very nice photo. E Cloete Myrina silenus ficedula Common fig tree blue |
 Very nice photo. D Cowie Papilio dardanus cenea Mocker swallowtail |
 Nice photo. IC & A Sharp Protogoniomorpha anacardii nebulosa Clouded Mother-of-pearl |
 A photographic first. IC & A Sharp Coenyra hebe Zulu shadefly |
 Very nice photo. CK Willis Antanartia dimorphica dimorphica Northern short-tailed admiral |
 Nice shot of male showing hair pencils. IC & A Sharp Leucochitonea levubu White-cloaked skipper |
 Hard to get close to. J Bode Precis tugela tugela Dry-leaf or Eared commodore |
 Hard to get close to. IC & A Sharp Bicyclus ena Grizzled bush brown |
 Difficult to catch sitting still. ND Perrins Euphaedra neophron neophron Gold-banded forester |
Laurenda van Breda, one of our data technicians, has been very busy the last few months assisting some LepSoc members in KwaZulu-Natal with digitising their private collections. She is now busy with collections in the Free State and Gauteng. Thereafter she's off to Kenya to digitise specimens important to SABCA that are curated at the African Butterfly Research Institute. SABCA would like to thank the following four KZN LepSoc members for allowing Laurenda access to their collections, and thank you to the Natal Museum for providing Laurenda with some working space for one of the collections:
Steve Woodhall (Durban): click here to link to a previous newsletter where Steve was featured.
Doug Morton (Pietermaritzburg): Doug has been collecting butterflies on and off since his school days around Pretoria in the 1960's. He stopped for some years and got going again to interest his then small children, this in about 1979, and they both became and remain ardent naturalists. Other interests are birdwatching, photography, indigenous plants, music and scenery. His an architectural technician by profession, but would far rather bash about the bush with a net in one hand and a camera in the other. He's now in his sixties, still active, and lives in Pietermaritzburg, having moved here in 1971. His main areas of activity are the KZN midlands and Zululand, with trips to Limpopo, Mpumulanga and his old stamping grounds in Gauteng when time permits. He's moving more to photography of butterflies, but retains an interest in collecting, adding bits and pieces to his modest collection. Doug has a particular interest in the species of butterflies encountered in urban areas. His wife, Terri, is an avid gardener in their indigenous property, and their son Deryk lives in Pietermaritzburg, spending time mountain biking and birdwatching. Their daughter, Shayne, lives near London, UK and visits as often as possible, with trips to the Drakensberg obligatory.
Simon Joubert (Howick): Simon's interest in butterflies started when assisting friends studying Entomology collecting. Simon began collecting butterflies with friends Harald Selb and Johan Greyling during his military service. He has collected and bred butterflies in KZN and the EC since 1990. He has been involved with the breeding and studying of life histories of butterflies (especially Chrysoritis assisting Alan Heath) for the last 10 years. Simon's interests include breeding and photographing butterflies.
Brian Plowes (Richards Bay): Both Brian and his late father, Alan Plowes', collections were digitised.
SABCA has been very busy with other data capture and processing work. Mariette Wheeler has been appointed on a full-time contract to assist with the final checking of databases before they are uploaded into the SABCA database. Very good progress is being made, and our aim to have most of the data uploaded by the end of 2009 seems doable. The total number of records from historical collections uploaded into the SABCA database now stands at 35 006 (this does not include virtual museum and field survey records). Our overall estimate has been reduced to 450 000 - much remains to be done by the big data upload deadline of 31 May 2010, but we are confident that most data will be uploaded by the end of 2009.
Thabo Phasoana has joined the SABCA team as an ad-hoc data capturer, working on the butterfly collection housed at the National Collection of Insects (Agricultural Research Council) in Pretoria. Another new team member is Nathi Mbele who will be completing the digitisation of part of Alan Heath's collection which is housed at the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town. Mary Kirk-Spriggs is on board again, this time digitising the butterfly collection of the National Museum in Bloemfontein. Thank you to the various institutes for supporting SABCA.
Apart from processing all the virtual museum emails, Denise Lesch is now also busy with digitising the private collection of Tim Waters. SABCA has received data from the Richard Dobson and John Paul Niehaus collections. SABCA would like to thank Tim, Richard and JP very much for contributing their collection data to SABCA. Here is a little about each of them:
Tim Waters: I grew up in Somerset West, dashing after butterflies with my great friend Harald Selb. In those early days we used to bike all over S/West with the net slung across the handlebars. At age 10 we were hiking up the Helderberg mountain and I'll never forget the incredible excitement of seeing our first "Table Mountain Beauty" racing past us! As one of life's strange turns I presently found myself married and living and working as a physiotherapist on the opposite side of the planet, in Hawaii...perceived as a "paradise" for many, but sadly not so for a lepidopterist, with a measly two, yes two, endemic butterfly species! This is due to the interesting fact of Hawaii being the most isolated land mass in the world. While the surfing is certainly amazing, Hawaii is also the extinction capital of the world with many of the beautiful honeycreeper birds sadly now long gone. On my trips back to SA every few years, I love to go on a quick butterfly trip with Harald and in particular admire his pristinely organized collection and listen with envy of his recent adventures. My heart will always be in SA and I long to return. Perhaps I could have a job treating all the injuries and aching muscles of LepSoc members who've been madly charging up mountains after those lovely little creatures on the wing!
Richard Dobson: I was born in Gwelo, Rhodesia (later to become Zimbabwe), in 1956. I first became interested in butterflies at the age of 17, whilst working on a Tsetse Fly project at the National Museum in Bulawayo, under the mentorship of Dr Elliot Pinhey (keeper of Entomology at the museum). After High School in 1974, I joined the Rhodesian Air Force, and because of my frequent "bush trips", and interest in nature, I also joined the Wildlife Society of Rhodesia, where I met Mrs. Pat Pullen, who further encouraged me to take up the hobby of collecting butterflies and moths. During the Rhodesian bush war I managed to put together a small butterfly collection. However, the majority of the butterflies that I collected were sent to Dr Pinhey at the Museum in Bulawayo. I still have my original collection. I met my wife Nita at a Wildlife Society function in 1976. We dated until 1979, and got married on the 21st April of that year, we also have two children. Nita and I recently celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. In March 1980, we moved to Germiston where we lived until 1999. At the end of November 1999, Nita and I moved to Palm Beach on the Lower KZN South Coast. Both of us being nature lovers, our interest in butterflies was soon rekindled. In 2002. Nita and I opened a small butterfly farm in Palm Beach. Nita has developed a keen interest in breeding butterflies, and has successfully bred over eighty different species to-date. In 2006 I started photographing butterflies and have been going strong ever since.
John Paul Niehaus: I started my adventure with butterflies around 1971 (6 years old) in Kitwe, Zambia, where I lived. I saw a large black & yellow thing glide down in front of me and was immediately taken back by it's beauty. I rushed into the house and grabbed my fathers safari hat. After several attempts I finally caught my first butterfly; Papilio demodocus (Citrus
Swallowtail). From that day onward I was hooked. Unfortunately I did not pursue this hobby in my 20's and only took it up again in 1994 when I happened to stumble across a reference to the
Lepidopterist's Society of Southern Africa (Now "Africa" only) in a Bookstore. What I love most about being associated with butterflies & the Lepidopterist's Society of Africa is the camaraderie of the people and the adventures associated with our outings especially our contribution to helping conserve the fragile habitats these delicate creatures attempt to exist in. I am hopeful that the SABCA project will go some way to preventing rampant habitat destruction in our country and indeed the whole world! My message to people out there is to encourage kids to get in touch with
nature again. Contact & join our society - It's a good place to start.
Birds, Butterflies & Bats
By Trish & Peter Dinkelmann, serious birders who also enjoy observing other creatures and who have contributed many butterfly observational records to SABCA:
Being passionate about birds, for many years we noticed while bird watching that butterflies were more plentiful at some times of the year than others and that some flowers and trees attracted them - that led to our interest increasing and to our recording the butterflies we saw each outing.
Memorable sightings include the dozens we saw mudpuddling on the edge of a small stream at Cumberland - mostly African Migrants and Brown-veined Whites but Mocker, Citrus & Green-banded Swallowtails were also present - now we make sure to monitor the stream every visit. Also at Cumberland Heritage site near Maritzburg on 19/05/09 while walking along the top of the gorge to the view point, where one looks down on the confluence of the Umgeni River and the Rietspruit, to see what birds were on the river, we came across Vernonia angulifolia flowering like a great waterfall and at least 14 species of butterfly were present - what a sighting!!
Birding at Shongweni Resources reserve near Durban, we were looking across the settling ponds to the cliff face for birds when we noticed that a tree right in front of us was covered in butterflies and beetles - they were all sucking at a sap flow of a Rhus chirindensis (Red currant): Green-veined, White-barred, Club-tailed and Forest King Charaxes were enjoying the feast as well as large parties of Pied Pipers and Boisduval's Tree Nymphs.
Also at Shongweni we went with the Bat Society to some of the disused tunnels. After the walk, while relaxing having tea at the dam wall, we had a Deinbollia oblongifolia (Dune Soap Berry) tree in full flower and covered with butterflies of several different species, the dominant ones being the Boisduval's Nymph, with Dusky, Natal & Blood-red Acraeas also present in numbers.
In Pigeon Valley in Durban in May, while looking for the Spotted Ground Thrush, we noticed plenty of Layman about. We found one perched with its wings closed and its mate doing a dance above it, from a distance we first thought it had been caught in a spider web.
So whether birding or batting, butterflies are always worth looking at. Over the years our interests have also expanded to observe insects, dragon and damselflies, reptiles, trees and wild flowers et al.
Latest field survey news
Please click here to access the 4th SABCA Field Survey Newsletter, to find out what's been happening in the field the last few months.
Please remember to visit the SABCA website for previous newsletters and extra information:
http://butterflies.adu.org.za
Thank you all for your interest and participation!
Silvia Mecenero
SABCA Project Coordinator
Email:
Tel: 021 650 3426
[
Last updated: June 2008.
Page served: July 31, 2010, 10:17 +0200]
© Animal Demography Unit 2010
Department of Zoology -
University of Cape Town
Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
Fax number: (021) 650-3434 (best) or 689-7578 or 650-3726
Enquiries: Phone: (021) 650-3426; Email: sabca [at] adu [dot] org [dot] za
