Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment

Newsletter No. 2

30 September 2007

Dear Butterfly Net
 
It's been a busy three months for SABCA, as you will read below.

Data Capture

Data capture has been going ahead in full swing. Prideel Majiedt, our full-time data capturer based here at UCT, has been very busy with: data capture from specimen labels and notebooks, checking coordinates where given or geo-referencing records which have no coordinates, and putting the data in the correct format for input into the SABCA database. We have appointed Shannon Hampton as an ad-hoc data capturer to assist Prideel with finishing the data capture of Jonathan Ball's collection. Because this entails the handling of fragile specimens, both Prideel and Shannon received training by Jonathan's curator, Tony Brinkman.

We are making some progress in reaching our target of half a million records. To date, 3 333 records are complete and in the SABCA database, belonging to observations made by Peter Dinkelmann and co. Another 108 506 digitised records are currently being processed:
 
Transvaal Museum, 70 000 records
Durban Natural Science Museum, 24 320 records
Jonathan Ball Collection, 5 639 records
Dave Edge Collection, 7 312 records
Andre Claassens Collection, 703 records
Ray Wagner Collection, 452 records
RJ Bennett Collection, 80 records
 
A BIG thank you to the Transvaal Museum (Pretoria) and Durban Natural Science Museum (Durban) for contributing their valuable data to SABCA! We are also in the process of obtaining records from the South African Museum (Cape Town) and the Natal Museum (Pietermaritzburg). 80 000 records are in Britain's Natural History Museum, dating all the way back to the 19th century - we are looking for funds to be able to employ a data capturer there for about 9-12 months.

Dr Dave Edge has been hard at work in compiling his collection's database, which we recently gratefully received in digital format. Dave recently completed his PhD on the well-known and Critically Endangered Brenton Blue butterfly (Orachrysops niobe) in Knysna, and has contributed much to the conservation of this species - only 100 individuals of this butterfly remain within the Brenton Blue Butterfly Reserve. Andre Claassens, an author of a few very good books on butterflies in the Western Cape (see Books), has also very kindly sent us his record notes for data capture. A very big thank you to Dave, Andre, Ray Wagner and RJ Bennett for contributing their valuable records! Your keen participation is much appreciated. Data in private collections are very valuable to the project, and we will be most grateful to those members who will contribute their data to the project. There are various options available to collection owners on how to proceed with the data capture. Please contact me for further information.

Field Surveys

The butterfly field season has started!
 
All provincial Nature Conservation permits have been issued, and research agreements with SANParks are being finalised. Most DWAF licenses have been received for entry into state-owned forests. Permits from the main forestry companies are in the process of being received, and so far we thank MTO Forestry, Komatiland Foresty and SAPPI for their support! We thank all nature conservation authorities and forestry managers for collaborating and supporting SABCA, so that we can do the much-needed field work to help us get a more accurate idea of the conservation needs for our butterflies. SABCA also wishes to congratulate LepSoc and CapeNature on their landmark partnership agreement which paves the way for growth in our knowledge of the Western Cape lepidoptera.
 
Accredited LepSoc members are responsible for SABCA's field surveys across the entire South Africa, including protected areas. Field surveys in each province are coordinated by a LepSoc Provincial Leader:
 
Eastern Cape - Ernest Pringle
Free State - Reinier Terblanche
Gauteng - Jeremy Dobson
KwaZulu-Natal - Kevin Cockburn
Limpopo - Bennie Coetzer
Mpumalanga - Dave McDermott
Northern Cape - Graham Henning
North-West - Peter Roos
Western Cape - Jonathan Ball/Dave Edge
 
The Provincial Leaders have been hard at work putting together field plans for the first year's field work, and surveys have begun in many provinces! SABCA will be distributing brief Field Trip Newsletters every few months by email, to keep you updated with what our field teams are doing. Here is a brief taste of what you can expect:

Mpumalanga: Recently Dave McDermott and Tim Gilbert visited Morgenzon Forest Estate to check the status of a Red Data species, Aloeides nubilus (Cloud Copper) and to gather a check list of other butterflies in the area. They found a good colony of Aloeides. They also recently visited Mdala Nature Reserve, a data deficient area. A total of 24 different species were recorded, most of them typical inhabitants of dry thornveld. Owen Garvie visited a farm, aptly named "Butterfly Farm", and found 23 species.

Limpopo: Andre and Bennie Coetzer visited the Mphapuli Cycad Reserve in the Soutpansberg mountain range during mid-winter, and 72 species were recorded despite the cold weather. Amongst these were an Olive-haired Swift (Borbo borbonica) and few Azure Hairstreaks (Hypolycaena caeculus).

Gauteng: Jeremy Dobson, Chris Dobson and Mark Williams have been out doing SABCA butterfly survey work most weekends since mid August, They've had some noteworthy successes, such as a the discovery of a new colony of Lepidochrysops praeterita and a new locality record for Platylesches dolomitica.

Western Cape: I joined one of the CREW (Custodians for Rare and Endangered Wildflowers) field trips to areas around Mamre, in August. About 8 species of butterflies were surveyed. I also had the privilege of observing some endangered flowering plants. Dr Marienne de Villiers, the project coordinator for the Southern African Reptile Conservation Assessment (SARCA), also came along and a few species of reptiles were seen, including a huge but harmless mole snake! The day's outing was great fun!
 
More news on the many other surveys taking place around the country in the 1st Field Trip Newsletter later this year.
 
There will be opportunities for volunteers to join some survey teams on field expeditions. I will email these opportunities as soon as I'm informed by the Provincial Leaders - opportunities will also be posted on the website. For now, there is a chance for some volunteers to join Andre Coetzer in mid-January on a field trip in Limpopo for about 3-4 days (exact dates will be available closer to the time). He will be leading a team in an area around Thabazimbi and along the Limpopo River north. I have been asked to especially encourage young people (25 years of age and younger) to come along. There is a shortage of young butterfly enthusiasts in the country and LepSoc would welcome their particiaption and membership to their society. Please contact me if you are interested in joining and helping Andre.

Virtual Museum

The Virtual Museum has been launched!
A big thank you to our IT expert, Rene Navarro, for producing this exciting and fun interactive tool. Please click here to enter ...
 
Anyone from the public can participate, and contribute towards helping us understand the distribution of our butterflies. To participate, submit your photographic records of butterflies (or any life stage, e.g. caterpillars, pupae) to SABCA by email, together with some specific record information. Detailed, but easy-to-follow, instructions are on the website, click here to see them. Please read these instructions before submitting your photos.
 
Please note: The information that must be submitted by email with your photos must be in the format as presented in the example below! Use the template exactly as it is (copy and pasted into your email), including everything from [begin] .... to ....[end], and only replace the information that is outside of the square brackets:
 
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 Province
[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]
 
Submitted photographic records are placed online, where a panel of expert lepidopterists' will identify the records. Records and their identification can be viewed online by anyone. Make sure to visit the VM site to find out what butterfly species you photographed, or what butterflies have been spotted around the country by our contributors! There is a special request to everyone living in big towns/cities, especially to those of you living in Gauteng: due to the difficulty of our field survey teams to survey butterflies in residential areas, please can you all make an effort to photograph the butterflies in your garden and to submit these to the virtual museum. Knowing what flies around in our urban areas helps us understand the impact of development on our butterfly biodiversity.
 
Currently, SABCA has received a total of 161 photographic records. SABCA would like to thank the following people for their exciting contributions, continuing from record number 28 (see Newsletter No 1 for previous contributions):
 
RA Dobson: 48 records
AR Deacon: 16 records
IC Sharp: 15 records
A Jones: 14 records
P Webb: 8 records
B Erni & A Altwegg: 6 records
J Crocombe, B de Boer, JA Heymans: 4 records each
A Claassens: 3 records
S Adam, G Nichols, K Drummond-Hay: 2 records each
PA Palmer, G Brooks, B Potgieter, B Pryce, P Joubert, S Evans: 1 record each
 
THANK YOU! Keep the photos coming!

Meetings and Public Outreach

LepSoc held their annual AGM and Sympoisum in Onderstepoort on 11-12 August 2007. The presentations on lepidopteran and SABCA issues were excellent (a very impressive SABCA field plan for Gauteng was presented by Jeremy Dobson), there was much excitement about getting involved with SABCA, and the popular photographic competition was inspiring as always!

I gave a talk on SABCA at the KZN branch of LepSoc, in Kloof, at the end of August. There was much enthusiasm, and Kevin Cockburn and Steve Woodhall presented a very impressive field plan for the SABCA KZN surveys.

1-2 September LepSoc had a stand at Durban's annual indigenous plant sale. This year the theme was "Butterfly Gardening" and visitors were able to buy many kinds of butterfly host and nectar plants to encourage butterflies into their gardens. SABCA was represented at LepSoc's stand, and many visitors were informed about the project.

On 6 September I participated in CREW's Plant Montinoring Day at the Harmony Flats Nature Reserve in Strand (Cape Flats). 60 Grade 9 learners from Rusthof High School explored the wonders of Harmony Flats Nature Reserve. The reserve is a 9-ha plot surrounded by extremely poor communities and rampant urban sprawl. It supports a unique mixture of threatened vegetation, of which there is less than 7% left in the world. The combination of Renosterveld and Lowland Fynbos, known as Lourensford Alluvium Fynbos, is home to an astonishing variety of plants including the Critically Endangered Ixia versicolor. Both myself and Marienne (SARCA) met up at the reserve with a team from Cape Flats Nature, a partnership between the City of Cape Town's Biodiversity Management Branch, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), the Table Mountain Fund (WWF-SA) and the Botanical Society of South Africa, associated with Cape Action for People and the Environment (C.A.P.E). The project's aim is to encourage sound sustainable management practices for urban conservation areas so as to benefit surrounding communities, particularly where incomes are low and living conditions poor. The morning's activities began with talks by Rupert Koopman (CREW, Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers Project), Silvia and Marienne about the fascinating fauna and flora of the area and on the importance of conserving the reserve. Then it was off to the field, and the hunt for flowers, butterflies and reptiles was on. Two species of butterflies were observed at the reserve: the African Monarch (Danaus chrysippus aegyptius) which is common throughout South Africa, and the Silver-bottom Brown (Pseudonympha magus), also common but restricted to coastal and inland low-altitude fynbos. It is hoped that further surveys at Harmony will uncover more and special butterfly species, considering the special plants that occur in the area.
 
Thank you all for your interest and participation!
 
Silvia Mecenero
SABCA Project Coordinator
Email: