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A few words about
the creator of
learnaboutbutterflies.com
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Hi, I'm Adrian
Hoskins. I live in Hampshire, on the south coast of England. Within
a few miles of my home are a huge variety of
butterfly
habitats
- forests, coppiced woodlands, grasslands, heaths, chalk quarries, meadows,
farmland, Iron
Age hill forts, riverbanks, sand dunes and sea cliffs - I've recorded 48 of the 65
British species within 30 miles of
my home.
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Photo by Sanduni
Hoskins
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In 1982, I became a founder member of the Hampshire branch of
Butterfly
Conservation. I retired from
branch activities a few years ago to release time for
family commitments, but served for several years on the
branch committee and in various roles including Conservation Officer
and Editor of the Annual Butterfly Report. I also devised
the branch butterfly recording system which has since been
adopted by the national organisation.
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My passion for
butterflies has taken me on many travels - as a lad I explored most
of Britain by motorbike, then spent several years travelling around
Europe, in particular the beautiful French Alps. I had however
always dreamt about visiting the tropics so in 1990 I decided to go on a "once
in a lifetime" safari in Tanzania. The idea was to see and
photograph the lions, elephants and rhinos, but I found
that I was using more film on butterflies than on mammals
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My next step was to
visit the Arima valley in the northern range mountains of
Trinidad.
There I found myself awestruck by the rainforest and it's infinite wonders. I saw my first
Morphos, Owl butterflies, Daggerwings, Glasswings and Heliconiines, not to mention hummingbirds,
oropendolas, and a host of other avian delights. The
haunting siren wail of cicadas, the high pitched chirping of
thousands of tiny frogs, and my "discovery" of the incredible
Siculodes aurorula were things that
will stay in my mind until the day I die - irreplaceable memories
that make material things in life pale into insignificance.
Siculodes
aurorula
THYRIDIDAE, Arima
valley, Trinidad, April 1992
For the last 18 years I've been
very privileged to be able to spend time studying and photographing
the stunning butterflies found in the rainforests of
Costa Rica, Trinidad, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Malaya, Borneo,
India, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Ghana. I now research and
lead
butterfly watching holidays
to many of these fabulous regions. A selection of
Trip Reports are
available.
My personal "life list"
of butterflies, swollen by the recent learnaboutbutterflies adventure in Peru, now stands at 2319
verified species. I go to considerable lengths contacting
specialist taxonomists to ensure that every species is accurately
identified. Accumulating
species lists is however only a very minor part of my interest. What excites me
most is capturing the beauty and character of each species on camera, and discovering as much as I can about their
fascinating behaviour and
ecology.
Tropical rainforests are full of beautiful butterflies, but
rainy Britain still has much to offer !
This in my opinion is the most beautiful butterfly on
Earth - the Peacock Inachis io
Despite my love of the
tropics, there are few things more precious to me than the pleasure
of walking in my local woodland Stansted Forest, or strolling around
the heaths and chalk grassland habitats that lie within a few miles of my
home in Hampshire. Most of the photographs of British butterflies
which can be found on this website were taken within 20 miles of my
home, and I strongly urge readers to get to know their local
habitats intimately, and to participate in local conservation
issues.
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"Why
are you interested in butterflies ?"
I'm not
"interested" in butterflies, I love them. I cannot find
words adequate to describe my passion for these incredibly
beautiful creatures, so perhaps
the best way of answering the question is to quote the
legendary explorer and naturalist Alfred Russell
Wallace, who in his book The Malay Archipelago wrote
the following :
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"During
my very first walk into the forest at Batchian, I had seen
sitting on a leaf out of reach, an immense butterfly of a
dark colour marked with white and yellow spots. I could
not capture it as it flew away high up into the forest,
but I at once saw that it was a female of a new species of
Ornithoptera or "bird-winged
butterfly," the pride of the Eastern tropics.
I was very anxious to get
it and to find the male, which in this genus is always of
extreme beauty. During the two succeeding months I only
saw it once again, and shortly afterwards I saw the male
flying high in the air at the mining village. I had begun
to despair of ever getting a specimen as it seemed so rare
and wild; till one day, about the beginning of January, I
found a beautiful shrub with large white leafy bracts and
yellow flowers, a species of
Mussaenda, and saw one of these noble insects
hovering over it, but it was too quick for me, and flew
away.
The next clay I went
again to the same shrub and succeeded in catching a
female, and the day after a fine male. I found it to be as
I had expected, a perfectly new and most magnificent
species, and one of the most gorgeously coloured
butterflies in the world. Fine specimens of the male are
more than seven inches across the wings, which are velvety
black and fiery orange, the latter colour replacing the
green of the allied species.
The beauty and brilliancy
of this insect are indescribable, and none but a
naturalist can understand the intense excitement I
experienced when I at length captured it. On taking it out
of my net and opening the glorious wings, my heart began
to beat violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I felt
much more like fainting than I have done when in
apprehension of immediate death. I had a headache the rest
of the day, so great was the excitement produced by what
will appear to most people a very inadequate cause."
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The
butterfly discovered and described by Wallace "Ornithoptera
croesus" is illustrated below
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"Why
did you create this website ?"
Firstly I wanted to be able to
communicate my passion for the natural world, and to stimulate a
deeper interest in butterflies and the conservation of their
habitats - particularly the rainforests. The role of the website is
increasingly concerned with environmental and conservation issues,
and I hope that by encouraging further interest in butterflies via
my photographs and articles, that website visitors will also take a
deeper interest in rainforest conservation, and take practical
measures to help conserve them. Details of how you can help can be
found on the
Rainforest,
Save the Rainforests, and
Climate
Change pages.
You
can contact the various rainforest conservation organisations via
the
Links
page.
Secondly, as an
enthusiastic photographer and writer, I wanted to share a few of my
images and experiences, and publish my occasional discoveries about
butterfly ecology and behaviour.
I
hope that you enjoy looking at the photographs, and that the
articles inspire you to make discoveries of your own.
More
information about the aims, methods and current status of the
website can be found on the
Website Status page, and the
Code of Practice page provides details of the
learnaboutbutterflies philosophy on subjects such as collecting,
introductions, site publicity and ecotourism.
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FEEDBACK - learnaboutbutterflies very much welcomes your feedback.
If you experience any technical problems, discover any inaccuracies, or would like
to offer any comments, please click
here.
Due to the high number of messages received I regret that I am unable to
reply to everyone, but rest assured that all messages are read
and appreciated. |
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