what we've been doing? We are building up for the NEXT stage of the campaign, which will go live in three weeks. It's very exciting.
We will keep you posted as soon as we can. Did you see this video of coppers in Wellington in a predator-free area (Miramar Peninsula)?
This video, made by Zac Warren in Masterton, shows two coppers courting. But are they L. salustius - or L. edna? Your donations to the Butterfly Discovery Project are going to help sort this confusion of names out!
We have now raised $6,490.27 here on Givealittle. With the matching donations from the MBNZT of $2,227 it makes a total of $8,717.27. Add the $50,000 pledged from the GV Hudson Memorial we have a total of $58,717.27 - a great start for Stage One of our project to find the right PhD student.
These funds are being held in trust in a separate MBNZT bank account. For Stage 2 we plan to launch a new crowdfunding campaign to boost the funds needed for DNA and lab costs for the project.
Please follow our social media and the e-news for updates, and in the meantime, Merry Christmas to you all and a very joyful New Year.
Wow, exciting news, we hit our goal of our 100th donor by the last day of October so a big thank you everyone!
We are now aiming for another 100 donors by 31 December so please share this page or ‘Like’ our Facebook page and share it.
All donations will be matched right now! Your $5 becomes $10.
In case you missed the radio interview about our project on RNZ, it's on our homepage:
https://www.nzbutterflies.org.nz/project/butterfly-discovery-project/
Meantime please enjoy this photo of gorgeous boulder copper butterflies, taken by Zac Warren..
We have exciting news! The Moths and Butterflies of NZ Trust has just announced that it will match all donations, to a level of $5,000.
By donating now, you can make a real difference. With a donation of even $5 it will be matched to make it $10. This will be a great boost!
Dr George Gibbs has already pledged $50,000 as seed money in memory of his grandfather, renowned entomologist GV Hudson. Added to the more than $4,000 funds raised here the project is well on its way to getting the $130,000 needed to get this project started!
Please spread the word to other butterfly and nature enthusiasts through our Facebook page or print the QR code poster from our website. Display the poster on a noticeboard at your workplace, library, school or local noticeboard.
Our butterflies are counting on you!
“Name me the ‘common bird’! Name me the ‘common plant’! It’s bullshit,” says outspoken entomologist Ruud Kleinpaste.
If he sounds angry, he is! He wants to see the common copper butterfly correctly named, for a start.
“We need to be nature literate,” he says. “We’re living in this world and if we don’t become nature literate, this world will be in serious trouble.”
He’s concerned Aotearoa is well behind most countries around the world in identifying our endemic species. Which is why we’ve started the Butterfly Discovery Project to fund a PhD student to study our coppers.
Ruud says we can’t afford not to contribute to this project: “Have you ever considered going through this life without having a name?”
So far we've raised $50,000 through a generous donation, plus $4,327 here. Givealittle means helping to save a lot. Please pass this message on to friends and colleagues.
(Ruud pictured with Vicky Steele, MBNZT trustee, on our awardwinning stand at the Ellerslie International Flower Show, 2015)
Woohoo! We just hit over $4,000 plus we have a pledge of $50,000!!!
This brings us so much closer to the halfway mark of $65,000! Thank you to the 67 awesome people who have donated towards saving our copper butterflies. We are aiming for 100 donors by October so please share on social media or email to your friends and family if you love nature, as the more people who donate, the more it helps when we apply for funding :-)
With huge thanks to Dr George Gibbs, the funding for a PhD scholarship to study and identify copper butterflies is one enormous step closer. Dr Gibbs made a $50,000 pledge to the Butterfly Discovery Project in recognition of his grandfather, who first introduced him to the world of insects and butterflies. “I would like the donation to be thought of as a memorial to the work of G V Hudson – the first truly endemic entomologist to apply himself to the question of endemic copper butterfly variations.”
There is a fascinating article in the Spring issue of BUTTERFLIES (out very soon) about the work of G V Hudson. The magazine goes out to subscribers and you can join here,
or you can read the latest copy of the free e-news we send out here.
If we identify our butterflies they can then be part of New Zealand’s conservation strategy. If not, they continue to ‘fly’ under the radar and may become extinct.
Well, we just can’t have that!!!!
Thanks again,
Angela Moon-Jones
Project Manager
Little by little, we are getting there! To celebrate, we bring you this beautiful image of a copper on federation daisy 'Double Act' taken in the grounds of Paripuma, Seddon.
I was just looking at this image this morning (it's on the shortlist for our 2023 Calendar) and wondering which copper it was. It's a glade copper, Lycaena feredayi, or could it be L. enysii? One day, and with help from people like you, we will know for sure! Thanks so much for your support. As I write this we've reached $1,000... our first milestone. The more people that spread the word, the better.
