FREAK BUTTERFLIES

Evening Star, Issue 22451, 23 September 1936, Page 11

FREAK BUTTERFLIES

THE LEPIDOPTERIST'S SEARCH _ You can see them anywhere; on hillsides, heaths, dn sunny glades in woods, and even in our cities—under the cover of darkness (writes L. Hugh Newman, in the ‘Daily Mail’). You will find them clad in knee breeches, ill-fitting jacket with bulging pockets, cloth cap, and spectacles, burdened down with a heavy satchel and other impedimenta. This travesty of humanity, with butterfly net complete, goes to make your real entomologist and the modern treasure hunter. Actually this ardent collector, so beloved of the cartoonist, is just as sane as you or I—only bis hobby is an unusual one.

Most people think that collecting butterflies and moths is to assemble as many different kinds as you can in the shortest space of time. But if you treat the next “ iepidopterist ” you meet with civility and respect, he may tell you that the secret of this pursuit is the glamorous anticipation of catching a unique “ freak of Nature ” —just that little something different that the other hunters haven’t got. Do you know that half male and half female butterflies are quite common in some species ? _ They can be very spectacular, especially if one sex is all blue and the other dingy brown. In fact, a butterfly one side blue and the other brown seen resting cn a flower head will make any collector’s heart stop beating, his hands start trembling, and bis eyes goggle—no wonder these hunters look peculiar sometimes!

Some of the pretty “ blues ” you see on chalk hills produce wonderful freaks, and it is no uncommon sight to see a score or more of treasure hunters parading a hillside, each on his own “ claim ” or ridge, examining with microscopic care the “ spots ” on the undersides of the “ blues’ ” wings.

It is these “ spots ” that tell the story, or rather the lack of them in some cases. A butterfly with no “ spots ” at all is called an obsoleta, and worth anything from £5 to £lO if it ever finds its way to the auction rooms, whereas the opposite extreme, where the “ spots ” converge into long streaks, making a striata, may bo worth double this figure. Two other types of butterfly treasures that occur in Nature are albinos and melanic, or all-black forms. As much as £64 has been paid at auction for a pair of marbled white butterflies, one being ■ jet black and the other an albino, when the normal insect should have looked something like a chess board 1 '