Newsletter No. 16

March 2011
 
Dear Butterfly Net

This is SABCA's final newsletter. SABCA's four-year term has sadly come to an end...but before withdrawal symptoms start to set in, please take note that some of its activities are set to continue...please read below for more information.

Upcoming events

3rd Butterfly Census Week, 23 April - 1 May 2011
South Africa's third Butterfly Census Week (BCW) is taking place around the end of April. The BCWs are set to become a regular biannual event, through LepSoc! The aim is to get the censuses as big and popular as the ones carried out in the UK, US and Canada, which have already been running for a number of decades. Please register your team today - lots of fun is to be had, so please get your family and friends involved too! We look forward to your participation and hope to attract the biggest number of teams yet! So don't delay and REGISTER. Please go here for more information and to register: http://sabca.adu.org.za/bcw3.php

LepSoc Annual conference, Kirstenbosch NBG, Cape Town, 23-26 September 2011
LepSoc is holding their annual conference in Cape Town this year and will include the SABCA outcomes. For more information, please visit the LepSoc website: http://www.lepsoc.org.za/

Animal Demography Unit roadshow for its citizen scientists, latter half of 2011
The ADU is organising a roadshow in South Africa, from about mid 2011, in celebration of its 20th year anniversary. The roadshow will be an opportunity for you, the citizen scientists helping out on the various ADU projects, to come along and meet with us and with each other, get an update from us on the status of all the citizen science projects at the ADU, and to provide you with an opportunity to share any of your experiences. SANBI has kindly agreed to let us make use of various national botanical gardens as the roadshow venues. The roadshow is set to kick-start in Cape Town at Kirstenbosch NBG around June/July. More details are to follow shortly. We look forward to meeting you!

Virtual Museum

The VM is set to continue post-SABCA, under LepSoc's lead. So please continue submitting your photographs - every record is valuable!
 
The virtual museum has received about 17 100 photographic records. Thank you to those of you who have made so many contributions. Most members of the ID panel have been very busy with the conservation assessments for our ~800 taxa, thus there is a back-log with the IDs of your photos - things should be back on track soon. Thank you for your patience!
 
SABCA would like to thank the following citizen scientists for their contributions during the past three months (see previous newsletters for previous contributions):

Here follows a small selection of interesting records or great photos received recently, as determined by our ID expert panel:


Not common, first for VM.
IC & A Sharp
Platylesches picanini
Banded hopper
Good record, first for VM.
P Webb
Telchinia burni
Pale-yellow acraea
Nice photo.
A & H Hodgson
Charaxes varanes varanes
Pearl charaxes

Good photo.
D Maphisa
Junonia orithya madagascariensis
Eyed pansy
Good record.
IC & A Sharp
Kedestes callicles
Pale ranger
Amazing form.
P Webb
Acraea horta
Garden acraea

Nice photo.
A Hankey
Metisella willemi
Netted sylph
Mud-puddling.
IC & A Sharp
Papilio ophidicephalus ayresi
Emperor swallowtail
Robber fly eating butterfly.
C Willis
Belenois aurota aurota
Brown-veined white

Amazing concentration of butterflies.
IC & A Sharp
Catopsilia florella
African migrant
Nice photo.
P Webb
Kedestes nerva nerva
Scarce ranger
Good photo.
IC & A Sharp
Libythea labdaca laius
African snout

Conservation assessments

A very successful author's workshop was held in mid January to work through problematic taxa - a few of the taxa turned up the heat in the room, but in the end all problems were sorted out amicably. SANBI's red listing experts, Tilla Raimondo and Lize von Staden, facilitated the workshop and provided excellent input. The workshop was held at the University of Pretoria and once again we are hugely grateful to the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering for offering their computer lab for our use, and to Willem and Leonie van Jaarsveld for looking after us so well!
 
All of the assessments for our ~800 taxa have been completed by the authors, who worked very hard at meeting the deadlines. Currently, main chapters, as well as the assessments, for the Red List and Atlas publication are being reviewed. In the next couple of months the manuscript will be undergoing editing. We are still aiming to publish the book by year-end.
 
Thank you to everyone involved in the preparation of this book. All your hard work and dedication is very much appreciated!

Final words

SABCA has been an exciting project to work on! Much has been accomplished, specifically compiling a comprehensive database of butterfly distribution records for the atlas region (about 360 000 records), as well as producing distribution maps and conducting conservation assessments for each taxon in the atlas region. The Red List and Atlas publication, which is based on this large database, will be a valuable resource to conservation managers, EIA practitioners, policy makers, researchers and all those interested in butterflies.
 
Please remember that, although SABCA has ended, components of it will continue, namely the VM and the butterfly censuses. LepSoc (Lepidopterists' Society of Africa) will be responsible for leading these two activities into the future. LepSoc does a lot of important work for butterfly and moth conservation and research. Please join the society as a member (there are various levels of membership for you to choose from), so that you can keep track with and even participate in lepidopteran activities in our country and on the African continent. Please click here to go to the LepSoc membership page.
 
During the course of the year, I will continue sending out the odd notification on butterfly-related events, such as the censuses, the LepSoc conference and the ADU roadshow, as well as inform you when the Red List and Atlas has been published.
 
I'd like to thank you all for being part of the SABCA journey these last four years. It's been a great project and a huge team effort. Thank you all for your interest and support!

Please remember to visit the SABCA website for previous newsletters and extra information:
http://sabca.adu.org.za
 
Silvia Mecenero
SABCA Project Coordinator
Email: