TREASURE HUNTING THAT IS DIFFERENT

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 70, 19 September 1936, Page 27

TREASURE HUNTING THAT IS DIFFERENT

You can see them anywhere; on hill-

sides, heaths, in. sunny glades iri woods, 1 and even in our cities—under the cover . of darkness,, writes L. Hugh Newman in the "Daily Mail." . You will find them clad in knee breeches,- ill-fitting jacket with' bulging pockets, cloth cap and spectacles, burdened down.with a heavy satchel and other impedimenta. This travesty of humanity, with; butterfly net complete, goes l to make your real entomogist and the: modern treasure-hunter. : Actually this ardent collector,.so be-, loved of .the' Cartoonist; isjust as -sane* as you or I—only his hobby is an unusual one. Most'people think that. coUecting butterflies and moths is to assemble as many different kinds as you can in the shortest space of time. ; But if you treat the next "lepidopterisf'lyou meet with civility and respect,'he may tell you that the secret . of this:pursuit is the glamorous anti-

: cipatioh of catching a unique "freak of '■• Nature-just'.that little' something dif- '. ferent that the other hunters haven't r' '■ ' '■ '■ ; Doybu.knpw that half male and half female butterflies are' quite 'common in some,'species? They can be very spectacular; especially if one' sex is all blue an* the'other dingy brown..

In fact, a butterfly-one side blue and the other, brown seen resting ■on a flower-head will" make any collector's heart stop beating, his' hands start trembling, and his eyes goggle—no wonder these hunters look; peculiar sometimes!

Some of the pretty "blues" you see on chalk hills produce wonderful freaks, and it is no uncommon sight to see ri score or more of treasure-hunt-ers '■ parading a hillside, each on his own "claim" or ridge, examining. with microscopic care'■: the. "spots", on thei undersides of the "blues'" wings.

It is these "spots" that tell .the story, or rather the lack of them in some cases. A butterfly with no "spots" at all is called an obsoleta, and worth anything from £5 to £lO if it ever finds, its way to the auction rooms, whereas the opposite. extreme, where the "spots" converge into long streaks, making a striata, may be worth double this, figure. . . _ ' • Two other types of butterfly treasures that occur in Nature are albinos and melanic, or all-black forms. As much as £64 has been paid at auction for a pair of marbled white butterflies, one being jet black'ahd the other an ablino, when the normal insect should have looked something like a chess board!