Welcome to May’s newsletter!

We’ve had some great butterfly sightings in the Johannesburg region, and general abundance is well above the recent average in many areas. For the first time in years, I’ve had to clean insect splatter from my car’s windscreen!

Welcome to July’s newsletter!

July’s edition of African Butterfly News represents the completion of nine years of this newsletter – you’ve received 54 editions of ABN, which commenced in September 2016: nearly 4 500 pages, containing about 3 700 articles by more than 300 authors.

Welcome to September’s newsletter!

Spring has sprung in South Africa, and a few interesting butterflies are already on the wing.Six and a half years ago the English common names project commenced (ABN 2019-2). I’m verypleased to say that the project is now almost complete: a comprehensive list of English commonnames has been developed for all African butterflies (species and subspecies), and the Englishnames panel have reviewed and approved the list. It’s now up to you!You should have received a link to the provisional list, but it is also included under the PROJECTSsection of this edition. Anyone with an interest in this subject – including non-LepSoc Africamembers – are invited to comment and to provide alternative names. The only proviso is thatalternatives must be accompanied with a brief motivation as to why they should be used ahead ofthe listed provisional name.

Welcome to May’s newsletter!

Apologies for the late appearance of May’s newsletter: I’ve been on a lengthy Zambian butterfly expedition and I’m now busy sorting out five weeks’ worth of emails and other correspondence. I usually trawl Facebook and the various LepSoc Africa WhatsApp groups in search of butterfly-related photographs and news articles, but I’ve probably missed several items this month: if you see anything from April that should be included in the next edition of ABN, please let me know.

Welcome to July’s newsletter!

It is mid-winter in South Africa, and butterflies are relatively scarce. There is however plenty of news from further north, and LepSoc Africa has been exceptionally busy with numerous projects and butterfly-related initiatives.