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Tūhura is more than just a butterfly museum, but butterflies have always been important here. One of the first large insect donations to the museum was a collection of India butterflies in the 1880s.
Visitors of the Tūhura Otago Museum usually ask to see “The Butterflies” or “The Butterfly Museum”. Everyone on the team understands that this means going to the exhibition of tropical forests, where you can see vivid butterflies imported from Costa Rica and the Philippines, but the glorious diversity of butterflies is also on display in the animal attic. In fact, there are five whole cases of butterflies and moths up there, with specimens from India, Britain, Java, South America and Africa.
I was curious about why these places were presented, but I quickly realized that a gallery inspired by the Victorian era would reflect the standards and collection activities of the time.
Currently, national and international laws regulate the trade and collection of animals, protecting species from stealing hunting, trafficking and introduction of pathogens or parasites. Much of this legal structure, including the United Nations Convention on International Trade of Threatened Species, only entered into force from the mid -twentieth century; Therefore, trade was not regulated before this time. The European settlers were able to acquire memories of animals from the countries they visited on their way to New Zealand. Beautiful and light butterflies and moths were a popular choice and finally reached many private halls and museums, including this one.
The first donation of insects to otago museum was the Collection of Butterflies, Moths, and other insects from India, Made by John Arthur Brown in March 1869. The Museum’s Assemblage of Indian Butterflies Was then Further Augmented by Percy Fulton 1884 and 1888. From Archival Records, We Know that a Branch of the Fulton Family Moved from Ireland to India, Serving As Soldiers and Judges. Several family members, including Percy, later immigrated to New Zealand in the nineteenth century, bringing their butterflies with them. Together with the collection of African and British butterflies, the Fultons later donated, these initial donations reflect the museum’s historical ties to colonial settlements.
I would love to know more about the origins of our older insects, but many of the specimens displayed in the animal attic have a catalog number and a label that claims that “India” or “Africa”.
On the other hand, modern collection practices tend to add specific details to sample labels, including the name of the collector, the date, the precise location (sometimes with latitude, longitude and altitude), ecological notes on the type of area in which the sample was found and if there were other associated species. Museum employees, such as me, then make this information available to researchers and conservation managers cataloging sample labels and transcribing them into a researcher database.
This is an ongoing project – Tūhura has over 100,000 butterfly and moth samples in its storage room, most of them collected in New Zealand. In fact, it is one of the most significant Lepidoptera collections in this country, so we are really a “butterfly museum.” But we are much more.
Some of my favorite insect specimens around the world are on display next to butterflies in the animal attic. There is a beetle of the Goliath of Africa, a colossal insect of Fiji (before it is thought to be the largest species of insect of the earth), and several velvet worms from New Zealand/Ngāokeoke – Voraz Night predators that immobilize insects with gulant before supporting their ideas. They are also misleadingly cute and in their own phylum (Onychophora).
You can learn more about butterflies and other insects in our rainforest and in these galleries: South Land, South People; Nature; and the animal attic.
Choose an insect case randomly and see what you stumble.
In Lee Lau is the technician of natural science collections at the Tūhura Otago Museum.
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