My Butterfly Collection

I first became interested in butterflies and moths when I was in 8th grade at Cassopolis High School in Cassopolis, Michigan.  On the school 

bus one morning was a kid with a box in his lap.  Everyone wanted to know what was in the box.  When he opened it, inside was a large, beautiful 

Cecropia moth.  I had never seen such a thing and was duly impressed.  The kid was Jack Bannow (deceased 1999), who happened to be in my grade at school.  

We became friends and spent the summer collecting butterflies and moths.

The next year I won first place in the science fair in the Biology category with my butterfly collection.  This photo of me with my collection was published

in the South Bend Tribune newspaper in the spring of 1966. The biology class had been split into four person groups and tasked with creating an

entry for the fair.  My group was me, Dennis Fuson (deceased 2010), Terry Closson (deceased 2001) and Mike Miller (deceased 2019).  I suggested we do an insect

collection since I had been catching butterflies and moths all the past summer.  The others asked how they could contribute and I said you can

add to the collection in the spring when the bugs start hatching.  None of them did anything except Mike did contribute a Zebra Swallowtail from

a 4H collection he and his sister had made.  I had no clue how to allocate tasks for a group, so I made the poster, made the display cases in wood

shop (which class was shared with me by Dennis and Terry) and displayed my net and mounting equipment, which I also made.  When the display

won first place, all four of us got an A for the assignment.  Dennis and Terry tried to take the blue ribbon away from me in shop class and cut it

into four pieces.  The shop teacher (I can't remember his name) interfered and told them he watched me build the cases in his class and never

saw them offer to help.  He said them getting the A in Biology class was more than they deserved.  That put an end to that.

That original collection was given away in 1970.  When my oldest son was about eleven years old I taught him how to catch and mount butterflies.

He did well and won a red ribbon (second place) in the 1985 Cass County 4H fair with his collection.  They told us it would have been a blue ribbon

if he had just included a few insects other than Lepidoptera.  A few of his specimens still exist in the center two cases below and are the only specimens I did not personally catch.

This is what is on my living room wall.  Close ups of each case are below.

This collection is from Japan.  Most were caught within a mile of the Fukushima power plant where I was working in 1995.  The rest were

caught near the Tokai power plant.  I wonder how their descendants are doing after the Fukushima disaster.

This collection is mostly Michigan butterflies with a few from California.  Some of these date back to the 1980s.

This collection is all moths from Michigan.  Some of these date back to the 1980s.

This collection was caught a few miles from Cancun, Mexico in 1998.  I saw a single owl butterfly go across the highway once on all of my trips there.

I never was able to find one to catch.  I didn't get the Morpho until my fourth trip in 2010.  My first three trips were in October or December

and the morphos were apparently not flying then.  The fourth trip was in April and they were everywhere.

This is a photo of a live sphinx moth I caught outside my office one morning in 1997.  Sphinx moths rest with their hind wings covered

as in the right photo where it is amicably clinging to my finger, so it is necessary to lightly bump them to get them to slightly spread their wings.

This one was released after the photos were taken.

On July 5, 2004 I was working on the back porch when this flew in and landed in my daughter's hair.

I had her remain motionless while I ran in and got the camera.  After taking photos this one was placed on the screen

where it stayed until the following morning.

Five days later she brought this in to show me when it came in to our back porch light.

I took the photo below and released it.

After all these years, I finally saw a tulip tree moth when it came in to the back porch light in the spring of 2015.  I had looked on the many

tulip trees in my woods for cocoons from time to time, but the only one I found hatched into a Promethea moth.  I took this photo where I 

found it and then added it to my collection.  These, the Prometheas and Cecropias rest with their wings closed above the body, so I blow 

on them to open their wings for the camera.  If you zoom in on this one at full size you can see individual hairs on the body and the antennae

are awesome.

I found this in my garage in Cass County, MI in 2016.  It is about an inch across.  If you click on it and zoom in, you will see that it is a 

perfect specimen.  The head, eyes and antennae are hidden underneath the shoulder.  It was identified for me by Leroy C. Koehn as Oreta rosea.