Butterfly Collecting

I’ve just been reading in the BBC History magazine about a wealthy lady of the 17^th century, whose abusive and estranged husband successfully challenged her will following her decease. He claimed that she was not of sound mind when she left all her property to her cousin. Among the evidence he cited of her madness was that she was obsessed with the collection of butterflies and moths.

The lady, Eleanor Glanville, was in fact a serious naturalist, recognised even in her time by the top butterfly expert in England and she regularly communicated with leading collectors throughout the country. However, back then, butterflies were seen as symbols of ‘shallowness and frivolity’ and the sight of Eleanor perpetually chasing round the countryside with her net, swung the court’s judgement in her husband’s favour.

Times have changed somewhat. Now we don’t catch the butterflies and pin them to a board with a card for identification. Instead, we ‘chase’ them with cameras. And, of course, we’d expect any woman nature photographer to be treated with the full respect that everyone deserves.

I’ve collected a good number of butterflies with my cameras over the years.

Here I offer some images of the Green-veined White butterfly. I came across these in a glade by the river where the two specimens were flitting about and supping from Herb Robert. I’ve presented standard nature shots of this species before but this time I’ve ventured into some subtle toning of the images. Maybe this is ‘shallow and frivolous’ but I feel happy with the way they turned out.