Tangents
Chasing <i>Butterflies </i>
The Yam-fly Butterfly. Photo: Mirza S. A. Habib
How many types of butterflies are there in Bangladesh? Which is the largest? Which is the most colourful? Comprehensively answering these questions is a long, arduous task. For most countries, it takes ten to fifteen years to construct a baseline inventory of its butterflies. One must include photographs and precise locations, and the identified types must be validated by experts. For example, Hong Kong has about 350 types of butterflies, Malaysia has about 1500 and India has between 1500 and 2000. For the past three years, Mirza S. A. Habib, Maruful A. Chowdhury, M. Shahtabul Islam, S. Hasnain Mamun and K. Farhad Iqubal have been making a baseline catalogue of the butterflies of Bangladesh. Photographs of 61 species from the first phase of their project, covering eight districts, were recently exhibited at Drik Gallery. I spoke with Mirza, the group's leader. Knowing how difficult they are to photograph, my first question is: “Which butterfly was the hardest to photograph?” Mirza points me to the photo of a Yam-fly butterfly. “This took me four days to photograph. It spends time on the top of bamboo trees. I saw it and waited, until on the fourth day it dropped to ground level for a few seconds. It must have felt sorry for me,” he jokes. The exhibition shows some common butterflies, but also some rare, unusual ones including a Yam-fly with a distinctive shape. A Blue Mormon, at 150mm (six inches) across, is probably the largest. A Longbanded Silverline sitting on a tea leaf has spectacular stripes. I ask Mirza about the damaged wing of a Lemon Pansy. This leads to a general discussion about butterflies. Their lifespan is only 2-3 weeks. Older ones lose parts of their wings. There are five families of butterflies worldwide. They serve an important role in nature as pollinators. (So do bees, but butterflies efficiently pollinate a wider variety of plants.) Butterflies live and lay eggs in “host plants” and get their food in “nectar plants.” A type of tree can be host to only one type of butterfly. Our group of naturalists photographed at accessible places whenever possible, such as village and urban roadsides, universities, botanical gardens and near bodies of water. Every photograph includes the GPS location. They accumulated about 100,000 butterfly photos in three years. Parallel to butterflies, they are also cataloguing dragonflies and frogs. I ask about challenges of such a project. “Passion drives us,” replies Mirza. This makes the physical demands of the work - often requiring dawn to dusk attention - bearable. Mostly it is a game of patience. The best way to photograph a butterfly is with its wings spread. But it may not oblige easily, spreading its wings only when resting, or when stressed, for example, with an approaching storm. Finances - particularly for purchasing gear - are also a challenge. The group has just published a book titled Butterflies of Bangladesh. Sponsored by HSBC Bank, it is a colourful, informative addition to the collector's bookshelf.
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