Hopefully you all had a good break over the December holidays, filled with memorable butterfly and moth related experiences. I don’t think many South African lepidopterists will look back at 2016 with a great deal of fondness – I’m sure 2017 will be better!

As agreed at last year’s AGM, Council are looking at options for a new, revamped logo for the Society. I’d hoped to have this ready for this edition of ABN, but we’re not quite ready yet. Several alternative designs for the new logo have been drawn by Hans Bloemmen, a Belgian artist-friend of Jan Praet, the Highveld Buttermoth Club chairman. We are attempting to retain the character of the original motif, while giving it a new, fresh look. The new logo will (hopefully) be approved at the next Council meeting on 3 February. We are also some way away from agreeing on a new “shortened-name” for the Society; as many of you are aware, the attempt by our marketing intern, Lulu Dlamini, to achieve consensus from our members had mixed results! Council have adopted “LepSoc Africa” as an interim measure: this is a direct abbreviation of our formal name and sets us apart from the North American Lepidopterists’ Society, which also refers to itself as “LepSoc”.