A female
Monarch, or Milkweed, butterfly
(Danaus plexippus)
The Museum holds a small, but nevertheless important
collection of British Butterflies. It is mainly made up of specimens
collected in the heydays of 'the Natural History collecting
mania' of the Victorian and Edwardian times. The main part of
the collection came from Carleton Rea, a local expert in Flora
and Fauna, who presented three large cabinets of Lepidoptera
sometime around 1945. Other collectors of note include A. Ford
and J. E. Fletcher of Hallow.
The collection was increased in 1970 when the Museum agreed
to take the insect collection housed at Malvern Library. These
were originally given to the Library by the Malvern Field Club
in 1934. Most of the specimens had been collected by the Reverend
Day and Mr Walter Sanders.
The Museum has representatives of
all the British Butterflies that are found flying
in Britain today, together with the ones that are
now rare. Sadly, some of these species are now extinct
in these Isles. We have a drawer of all these butterflies,
which shows the male and female of each type, along
with variants and unusually coloured specimens.
During the Autumn
of 1968, a female Monarch or Milkweed (Danaus plexippus) was
captured in Malvern. These are very rare vagrants, who originate
on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States of America. It
is believed that this is the first genuine record of this species
for the County of Worcestershire. It was first spotted in a
garden in the Barnard's Green area of Malvern on the 19th October
1968, and remained in the locality for a week until it was caught
by children and accidentally crushed. It was then taken along
to Mr Jack E. Green, the local County Organiser of the National
Lepidoptera Survey, who painstakingly restored and mounted the
insect and then kindly presented it to the Museum.
The butterfly collection is an important source of reference
and is used by local wildlife groups, the Biological Records
Centre, the people who are currently working on the new National
Butterfly Atlas and increasingly, it is being used by contemporary
artists for inspiration for their works and installations.
