Welcome to July’s newsletter! July marks the sixth anniversary of the LepSoc Africa newsletter: the 36th edition of ABN. During this period, we have published nearly 2 500 pages, incorporating more than 2 000 articles by over 200 different authors. There have been more than 700 000 words and, incredibly, in excess of 3 500 000 letters or punctuation characters. Thanks to everyone who has contributed!

Welcome to September’s newsletter! On the Highveld at least we’ve experienced a long, but relatively mild winter - not that it is necessarily over yet. Anyway, our local butterflies are already flying in fair numbers and it’s time to dust off your nets and cameras and to get out into the field! A reminder that the LepSoc Africa Annual General Meeting will be held, via Zoom networking only, on Wednesday 14 September at 18h00 South African time. If you haven’t yet done so, please drop me an email at jchdobson@gmail.com and I will send you a link a couple of days before the meeting.

Welcome to November’s newsletter! After an initial flush of early spring butterflies on the Highveld, the weather reverted to the new normal: excessively hot and excessively dry. Fortunately, rain has been experienced over much of South Africa since late October, and there have been lots of butterflies. The Butterfly Index recorded its highest average October score, countrywide, since the commencement of the project five years ago.

Welcome to May’s newsletter!

The 2021 – 2022 season is coming to an end in South Africa. Despite exceptional rainfall over large parts of the country, this hasn’t been a particularly good butterfly season in my opinion. While there have been a few notable sightings and discoveries, these have been few and far between.

Talking of rainfall, our thoughts go out to anyone who may have been affected by the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal.

Welcome to March’s newsletter! Much of Southern Africa has experienced exceptional rainfall over the last few months; while this will undoubtedly benefit butterfly emergences in the weeks to come, it has thwarted a few planned trips by our members so far this season.While there haven’t been too many unusual sightings in the last two months, there is plenty of news to report on!