PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Please note: The SABCA project has ended. However, the coordination of the Virtual Museum and Butterfly Census Weeks have been taken over by the Lepidoptertists' Society of Africa (LepSoc). Please visit the LepSoc website for more information and please consider becoming a member of this society so that the work done on butterfly and moth conservation in South Africa and the rest of the African continent can continue:
 
www.lepsoc.org.za
 

 
Previous atlas projects for birds, frogs and reptiles, show that the public can play an extremely useful role in species conservation. Similarly, the public can contribute greatly towards butterfly conservation. Anyone can become involved with SABCA in any of two ways:

1) Submit photos to the Virtual Museum

Even if you do not know your butterflies, you can contribute greatly to SABCA, provided you have a digital camera and access to the internet. SABCA urges members of the public to take digital photographs of the butterflies (at any of their life stages i.e. caterpillars, pupae or as adult butterflies) they see in gardens, on holiday and those killed on the roads. Together with the details of where they were taken, the date and the observer's name, these photographic records can be submitted to the project's "Virtual Museum".
 
Please follow the seven easy steps below for submitting your photographic records of butterflies to the SABCA Virtual Museum, using the new online submission procedure:
 
STEP 1
Go to: http://sabca.adu.org.za/
Clink on the button "Virtual Museum", on the left hand side navigation menu bar.
 
STEP 2
To be able to submit photos using the new online system, you need to be registered with the ADU (i.e. have an ADU number) so that you can login.
 
Complete the registration form (an asterisk denotes a required field). You will need to input a valid email address as this will be your username. Please note, if you share an email address with someone else, then only one of you can make use of the email address. The second person should get a separate email address so that photos can be submitted under that person's name.
 
Once you've completed the registration form, press the "Save" button at the bottom. A confirmation email will be sent to you with your password (this may take up to a few hours, or a few days if you regitser over a weekend). Once you receive this confirmatory email, you are ready to Login and upload your photos into the Virtual Museum - please go to Step 3.
 
STEP 3
Click on the "LOGIN" link on the left hand side navigation menu bar. Enter your email address and password, and press the "Login" button. (If you have forgotten your password, please email our IT manager, Rene Navarro, so that he can help you: Rene.Navarro@uct.ac.za)
 
STEP 4
On the left hand side navigation menu bar, you will see "UPLOAD" with a few subsections below it:
- Data upload: where you upload your photos into the virtual museum.
- Search: this will list the records you've uploaded online.
- User profile: here you can manage/update your login account with the ADU.
 
To upload photos into the Virtual Museum, click on the "Data Upload" link on the left hand side navigation menu bar. There are two pages to the data upload.
 
STEP 5
Page 1:
 
Complete the required fields in each section. Please read the instructions carefully.
 
For Section 4, once completed for a particular locality, you can save this locality in your own personal gazetteer for future use. A gazetteer is a list of localities (place names) together with their locations in latitude and longitude coordinates and additional descriptive information. Once saved in your personal gazetteer, you won't have to complete Section 4 for that particular locality again. You can then simply select it off your gazetteer list in Section 3, press the "Save" button in Section 3 and move on straight to Page 2 of data upload (Step 6).
 
In Section 4, if you are not sure of the latitude and longitude coordinates, please use the Google Map tool in Section 5. Here, you can zoom in to the exact spot where you photographed your butterfly. You can also switch between map view formats to help you find the correct spot. Once you've found your spot, click on it and the coordinates will be automatically selected and inputted into the field below the map. You do not need to copy the coordinates into section 4.
 
Once you've completed Page 1, press the "Save" button at the bottom of the page and move on to Page 2 of data upload (Step 6).
 
STEP 6
Page 2:
 
Warning to IE (Internet Explorer) users: Due to Microsoft's lack of web-standard compliance the file upload used in page 2 of this facility does not work with IE6, IE7 or IE8. However, you can use any of the following free internet browsers (click on the browser name to go to the page where you can download the browser): Google Chrome, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari.
 
Complete the required fields in each section. Please read the instructions carefully.
 
Photos of different butterfly species from the same particular locality must be submitted as separate records. If submitting records from different localities, please ensure that you complete Page 1 of Data upload first, for each different locality before moving on to Page 2. (In other words, you may not submit records from different localities at once on Page 2). The locality in use is shown at the top of Page 2 in the section "Collection Information")
 
Aim for the following:
(a) Get photos of the same butterfly species from different localities, or
(b) Get photos of different species of butterflies from the same locality.
However, because we are also interested in trends over time, you may submit photos of the same species from the same locality, provided that the photos are taken 1-2 weeks apart.
 
Remember to select "Butterflies (SABCA)" as the project you are submitting photos to.
 
Ensure the date for each record is correct - this must be the date of finding and photographing the animal, NOT the date of processing of the photograph or submission of the record. Then select up to three photos for each record. Please remember to crop your photos before uploading them. All photos must be in JPG (jpeg) format.
 
The "Notes" field is optional. Here you can send us any interesting information on the animal's behaviour, foodplant, abundance, the climate, time of day, altitude, etc.
 
Once you've added all the records for that particular locality, press the "Submit" button at the bottom of the page. If you need to upload more than three records, in Section 6 you have the option to upload more records for that particular locality. Your records will then be uploaded into the Virtual Museum.
 
Your records will take from one to a few days before going live because all submitted records need to be confirmed by us first.
 
STEP 7
Please note, the new Virtual Museum allows for records to be submitted towards other projects too. (e.g. reptiles, mammals, birds, trees, odonata). So, for example, if you photograph butterflies, reptiles and frogs at a particular locality, these can be submitted together for that particular locality - just make sure that you've selected the correct project for each record submitted under that particular locality.
 
Some notes:
 
- Do NOT kill or harm butterflies in any way. Do NOT remove butterflies from the wild or transport them away from their natural habitat. If the animal is already dead, e.g. a roadkill, it can still be useful.
- To learn more about coordinates and their formats, please click here.
- Describe the location in words, as detailed as possible: For example: "Vrekbok Farm, 20 km north of Pofadder, Northern Cape".
- Do not combine photos taken at different localities or on different dates, these must be submitted as separate records
 - SABCA covers South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland only. However, you may submit photos from anywhere in Africa.
 
Photographing butterflies:
 
- Butterflies are best photographed in the early morning, or when it is cool or overcast.
- To get a photo, creep up slowly on the butterfly. Get as close as possible while keeping the picture sharp (in focus).
- Avoid your shadow from passing over the butterfly because they are very sensitive to movement.
- A zoom lens on your camera will be very useful.
- A photo can also be taken through a viewing scope.
- Try and take photos of both the upper and under sides of the butterfly wings (especially for the small Lycaenid butterflies). The undersides are usually most important for identification purposes.
- Pictures that are badly out of focus cannot be used.
- Your photographs will appear on the project website and will not be subject to copyright, i.e. people will be free to download and use them, with appropriate acknowledgment.

3) Contribute data from own private butterfly collection

People with private butterfly collections are encouraged to contribute their data to SABCA. Currently, there are five different methods for data capture - click here to download the document specifying the methods. Please also contact the project coordinator in this regard.