March 2009
Dear Butterfly Net
SABCA has now be going for two years, only another two years left and much still to do...
SABCA & SARCA Expo, Kirstenbosch Old Mutual Summer Sunset Concert Season, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, 25 January 2009
On 25 January, SABCA and SARCA (Southern African Reptile Conservation Assessment) had an exhibition linked to the Kirstenbosch concert for that evening, "Prime Circle". This is part of SANBI's exciting new venture of featuring conservation projects during the summer concert season at the gardens. There was an audience of 10 000+ people. The huge pythons that SARCA had on display help to attract some interest in our stands. Thank you to LepSoc members Andrew Morton and Jeff Crocombe for assisting with the stand, and to Laurenda (SABCA data technician) and Myrna Stoltz for helping out with the Kids Zone.
 
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Winners of SABCA's first virtual museum competition have been announced (click here to see the announcement of the winners ). Once again, well done to our winners in each of the three categories. Here's a little about some of the winners:
 Chris Willis: I work for the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) based in Pretoria and am responsible for managing SANBI's nine national botanical gardens. I am married with two children, and have qualifications in botany, zoology and conservation biology from the universities of Cape Town and Pretoria. I have been working professionally in the field of natural sciences for the past 22 years, including six years spent lecturing in botany at the University of Venda, Limpopo Province. I have only been involved in what I call my 'mid-life crisis' – photographing butterflies, since December 2007, after a family visit to Mountain Sanctuary Park in the Magaliesberg. I am definitely a late starter in this field, so need to make up for lost time! SABCA has allowed me the opportunity to indulge in my passions of nature photography and hiking, exploring South Africa and at the same time learning about South Africa's butterfly diversity and making a meaningful contribution towards butterfly conservation. I am working towards developing an illustrated checklist to the butterflies of South Africa's national botanical gardens, and SABCA's virtual museum, together with Steve Woodhall's Field guide to butterflies of South Africa, has enabled me to fast-track my knowledge and understanding of South Africa's butterflies. A special word of thanks to SABCA's expert panel members for the time they sacrifice towards identifying all the contributors' submissions as well as for their encouraging comments. |
 Ian & Allison Sharp: We are a father/daughter team but also supported by the rest of the family. I have been working in conservation for some twenty years and am interested in all aspects of the environment. Allison is studying her theory in preparation for a PPL on helicopters. Throughout the years we have as a family partaken in all sorts of surveys including SABAP 1, BIRP, spider survey and SARCA. Having a specific interest in entomology, SABCA was an opportunity not to be missed. The great thing about SABCA was that it was photographic and I have always been a keen photographer. Allison is our in-house computer buff so the preparation of photographs for submission and sending of hundreds of e-mails is mainly her responsibility. |
 Frieda Visser: I am a retired florist and entrepreneur with a passion for hiking, photography and botanical painting (upcoming botanical artist). I knew that I could contribute to the SABCA project, and I am pleased to have succeeded. |
 Ralda Heyns: I am a butterfly and nature lover. The eye-catching, sometimes scarce, romantic and wandering flight of butterflies, have been my passion for years. Not wanting to catch butterflies to take a closer look, I started photographing them for identification. Trying to get a specific butterfly identified, my husband and I searched on the internet and discovered SABCA. We then saw the atlas project. The first photographs were sent for identification purposes only, and some more photographs followed. Very excited, I tried to identify more butterflies, gathering older photographs, adding coordinates, etc, etc. My aim is not to add to my 'life list' of butterflies seen, should I not have a photograph as proof of identification. My Southern African 'life list' is currently + 200. This is the way I became involved in the atlas project. Acknowledgement herewith to my husband, Louis Heyns, for supporting me in my passion and for sending the photographs to SABCA on my behalf. Conservation of butterflies became very important to us and I wish to thank SABCA for giving us, the public, a chance to participate. |
 Cameron McMaster: I live in Napier where I am actively involved in growing indigenous plants and bio-diversity conservation. I am a registered tour guide and take visitors on botanical tours, mainly in the Eastern Cape. I was an active lepidopterist many years ago and am fairly familiar with the butterflies of the Eastern Cape where I discovered some new species many years ago. Two have been named after me and I also have two plants named after me as a result of my botanical explorations. |
We hope that you are enjoying the new virtual museum features! Another map feature has been added, where data can be divided into two different time periods. The virtual museum now has about 5 500 photographic records! Thank you to those of you who have made so many contributions. We have on board a new virtual museum assistant, Denise Lesch, who has taken over from Geron Barnes to process all the emails that we receive.
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):
CK Willis: 470 records
G Aiston: 113 records
R Heyns: 102 records
P Webb: 88 records
G Diedericks: 74 records
Y Bode: 55 records
J Bode: 37 records
K Drummond-Hay: 32 records
JA Heymans: 28 records
JC McMaster: 22 records
ML De Wijn: 16 records
J Butterworth: 14 records
J Van Rensburg, J Crocombe, D Maphisa, D Cowie, C Rautenbach, IC & A Sharp, FG Visser: 6-10 records
ND Perrins, GH Thomson, DA Clulow, K Cole, J Du Preez, K West, S Adam, PSR Courtney, J Gosnell, N Helme, MJ Hyman, K Webster, G Beetge, B Dee, DN Hiles, V Jacobs, C Kurten, I Mecenero, C Phillips, JF Pretoriuis, A Rebelo, M Soroczynski, E Summersob, J Theron, S Theron, JW Van Zyl, CK Willis C.K. & P Xaba P: 1-5 records
As determined by our ID expert panel, here follow a selection of interesting records received recently:
 Not seen at mud very often. Heyns R. Colotis subfasciatus subfasciatus Lemon traveller |
 It is always good to know of new colonies as these butterflies are very localised. Maphisa D. Durbania amakosa sagittata Amakoza rocksitter |
 Very good specimen. Willis C.K. Belenois creona severina African common white |
 It might be a common butterfly but this is surely the best looking specimen ever! Webb P. Cupidopsis cissus cissus Common meadow blue |
 Great photo. Webb P. Catacroptera cloanthe cloanthe Pirate |
 A common butterfly in the east, but I think this might be a range extension! They breed on White ironwood (Vepris lanceolata) which is becoming an very popular garden plant. Willis C.K. Papilio nireus lyaeus Green-banded swallowtail |
| To enter and browse the Virtual Museum, please click on the Virtual Museum link. |
Other data capture and processing is progressing well. The Ball collection has been completed. Lungelo Ndaba has been processing (formatting and geo-referencing) various databases that we are receiving. There is a backlog in doing a final check of these processed databases before they get uploaded onto the SABCA database. Thus SABCA will be appointing an assistant soon, to help with this final process, so that the upload of records can be fast-tracked. The total number of records uploaded into the SABCA database stands at 29 081.
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Last updated: June 2008.
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© Animal Demography Unit 2012
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