Field Trip Newsletter No. 1

7 December 2007
 
Dear Butterfly Net:
 
Field work has been going well in most provinces. Of course, surveys would not be possible without the collaboration of the various nature conservation and forestry institutions and organisations. A big thank you to those listed below for supporting SABCA's field work through providing permits, licenses and permission.

Accredited members of LepSoc have been very busy surveying the countryside for butterflies. Teams adhere to LepSoc's Code of Conduct as well as to various nature conservation and forestry permit conditions, which set strict limits to the number of specimens that are permitted for collection. All butterfly species within a survey area are recorded - some are collected as voucher specimens, most are only observed or photographed.
 
Each province has a LepSoc Provincial Leader who is responsible for coordinating the field survey teams for SABCA. They are:

The Provincial Leaders have been working very hard at putting together field plans, coordinating surveys and reporting back. In the next few Field Trip Newsletters I will be introducing you to them. In this issue, here's a little about:


Jeremy Dobson (Gauteng)

My interest in butterflies was sparked by my grandfather, who had a small collection of British butterflies. In my early teens I spent a couple of summer holidays in England collecting butterflies and moths, however other distractions intervened and my career as a lepidopterist lapsed for the next 30 years! Now in South Africa, my interest was resuscitated when my wife gave me Ivor Migdol's "Field Guide to SA Butterflies" as a present. I soon started catching a few butterfly specimens with my son Christopher and we are both now suitably fanatical butterfly enthusiasts. I was appointed chairman of the Gauteng Butterfly and Moth Club (the Gauteng branch of LepSoc) three years ago. When not out chasing after butterflies I am a director of a firm of Civil Engineering consultants.

News on what has been happening around the country:
 

Gauteng

The SABCA Gauteng butterfly survey is progressing well. 18 field trips have been undertaken within Gauteng so far this season, mainly by Mark Williams, Chris Dobson and Jeremy Dobson. An official LepSoc Gauteng field trip to Hillshaven was held on 28 October 2007, attended by the foregoing LepSoc members, plus Owen Garvie and Dave McDermott. Field work in Gauteng has been focusing on SW Gauteng this spring and a few interesting discoveries have been made, such as a new locality record for the Hilltop Hopper (Platylesches dolomitica) and a strong colony of Highveld Blue's (Lepidochrysops praeterita).
 
There are 44 quarter-degree blocks within the Gauteng model, with an estimated average butterfly yield of 50 species per block. This represents a total of approximately 2200 records, which will be required for a comprehensive butterfly-survey of Gauteng. At present Jeremy has about 460 of these records (170 species), or approximately 20% of the required total .
 
An appeal to all butterfly enthusiasts living in Gauteng: please forward your survey observations or records to Jeremy - he requires all records, not just those of rare or unusual butterfly species. Within Gauteng, Jeremy especially requires data from the N-E areas (Cullinan and surrounds), East Rand and Vaal Triangle regions.
 

Limpopo

Bennie and Andre Coetzer have conducted some surveys in Limpopo. During a mid-winter trip to Mphapuli Cycad Reserve in the Soutpansberg mountain range, 72 species were recorded despite the cold weather. Amongst these were a Olive-haired Swift (Borbo borbonica) and few Azure Hairstreaks (Hypolycaena caeculus).
 
Andre Coetzer is planning a trip to an area around Thabazimbi and along the Limpopo River north. It will probably be around mid January for 3-4 days but possibly longer. Andre would like to take some volunteers on this trip, and especially encourages young people (below 25 years of age) to join him because so few young people are actively involved.
 

Mpumalanga

Dave McDermott and Tim Gilbert have conducted surveys in various areas in Mpumalanga, including Morgenzon Forest Estate and Mdala Nature Reserve, and Owen Garvie went to Malelane. Amazingly, only one Danaus chrysippus aegyptius (African Monarch) was observed and no Vanessa cardui (Painted lady) at Mdala Nature Reserve - these are known to be common species. A good colony of Aloeides nubilus (Cloud Copper), a red data species, was found during a survey in this province.
 

Northern Cape

Being the largest province with the most gaps in butterfly records, much field work has taken place here. Chris Ficq and Alf Curle have conducted surveys over two months, and other survey trips were taken by Graham Henning, Peter Roos, Bennie and Andre Coetzer, Tony Brinkman and Jonathan Ball.
 

Western Cape

Roger Sutton photographing A. pallidaDave Edge, Ray Jones and Rudolf Swart have been very busy surveying the southern Cape. Roger Sutton, a visitor from the British Butterfly Conservation group, joined Dave on some surveys. Dave reports on activities as follows:
 
Southern Cape: This is Dave Edge reporting from the Southern Cape. We have quite a daunting task down here, with 62 quarter degree cells to cover (of which we had no data for 33 of them at the start!) – some 36000 square kilos! We have three field workers – myself based in Knysna; Ray Jones based in Calitzdorp; and Rudolf Swart based in Riversdale. I have the advantage of having been down here for 14 years, whereas Ray and Rudolf are only having their first season here. Their efforts are directed at getting to know the butterflies and finding as many localities as possible. This report will focus on trips that I have made in the last couple of months. Future reports will include Ray and Rudolf's findings.
 
Knysna based: The Garden route is covered from this base and I have visited 5 new localities in this period, including Buffalo Hills near Plettenberg Bay – a game reserve that has good potential; Georgeheim – a farm near Little Brak which has a lot of natural veld where I found Eritis umbra umbra; and Rooikrans – a strip of unspoilt coast west of Plettenberg Bay where Myrina silenus ficedula was spotted. Generally this area has been well covered but there are some pockets of natural veld that lie off the beaten track.
 
De Rust based: This area has a lot of unexplored territory and six new localities were found. The first new locality was in the Karoo to the north along the Beaufort West road, where I found Chrysoritis pan lysander and Chrysoritis turneri turneri. Then there was an area east of Prince Albert, which turned up a Pseudonympha trimenii ssp. intermediate between nominate P. trimenii and the P. trimenii nieuwveldensis race; and an interesting Lepidochrysops ortygia record. The next visit was to the north of Klaarstroom, which yielded Phasis clavum clavum and Chrysoritis turneri turneri. Near De Rust the most interesting record was Alenia sandaster. But the best new locality by far was an in the Swartberg, where 17 species were recorded, including a new subspecies of Aloeides pallida and Tsitana tulbagha kaplani.
 
Willowmore: This area is even less explored than around De Rust. It has a lot of Acacia thornveld, but also some Succulent Karoo and further north Nama Karoo. On the mountains there is fynbos and some grassveld. In the southern Karoo the best records were Charaxes jahlusa jahlusa and Lepidochrysops ortygia. A westerly extension of the Swartberg, turned up 15 species including the same new subspecies of A. pallida found much further to the west, and a new locality for Lepidochrysops pringlei. A farm northeast of Willowmore surprised with a new record of Chrysoritis Beulah. Southeast of Willowmore a new locality for Chrysoritis plutus was found, extending its range to the east.
 
Dave would like to thank all the farmers who kindly gave permission for him to visit their farms and provide directions and keys for gates. An area with huge potential is the Klaarstroom Conservancy north of the Swartberg where he now has access to all these farms.
 
 Andrew Morton managed to take a few breaks from surfing to fit in some butterfly surveys at Elands Bay on the West Coast. Andrew was also able to survey butterflies during a CREW (Custodians for Rare and Endangered Wildflowers) outing to the Malmesbury/Paarl area. Tony Brinkman and Jonathan Ball have also surveyed some areas. Silvia surveyed butterflies during a CREW outing to Mamre - about seven species were observed - and an outing to Harmony Flats Reserve where a group of school children assisted with the survey (these surveys were mentioned in SABCA's 2nd Newsletter). Thank you to CREW for letting us join their outings which were great fun.
 

Thank you to the participating LepSoc members who are giving up much of their free time for the surveys, and to the Provincial Leaders for working hard on getting the surveys organised!
 
However, much ground has yet to be covered and SABCA does not have enough people to survey all the gaps. So, to assist with the field surveys, the public is strongly encouraged to submit photos to SABCA's Virtual Museum, including butterflies seen in private gardens where it will be difficult for LepSoc members to survey. Photos of all butterflies, even the common species are wanted. The Virtual Museum has just launched a competition - please go this this webpage to find out more.
 
If you would like to join a survey team as a volunteer, please email me (Silvia) and I will put you in contact with the respective LepSoc survey team members.
 
More news on the SABCA field trips in the next Field Trip Newsletter next year.
 
Silvia Mecenero
SABCA Project Coordinator
Email: