The story of a great explorer --- “Boys be adventurous!” PART 1

▲Detani's Great Orange Tip (Hebomoia leucippe detanii) male UP（Preserved in RIEB, Tokyo）

The story of a great explorer

   --- “Boys be adventurous!” PART 1
    Now the majority of Japanese butterfly enthusiasts are old-timers. But you can still find not a few young people who love butterflies if you look around carefully. There seems to be constantly some proportion of butterfly lovers in any age group as if it were an inherent part of the Japanese culture.

    Thanks to the advancement of information technology and telecommunication, it is now very easy to find such butterfly lovers in the　younger generations and to communicate with them. Frequent talking with them has made me realize that many of them are considerably introvertish. Although overseas trips, supported by the strong Japanese Yen, are easy to make now, they are reluctant to go abroad to chase exotic butterflies. In other words, as they are so blessed with much information and many specimens at home in Japan, they do not have to go all the way around to overseas. But as a middle-aged butterfly lover, I greatly enjoy to go out in fields and to watch live butterflies in the wild. Sometimes you may feel erroneously that everything has been unveiled and studied in butterflies. But in fact it is only the tip of an iceberg that we have already revealed. Many striking species still unknown to us are surely flying in some places on earth.

    Today I would like to introduce a great Japanese butterfly hunter and explorer, Mr. DETANI Hiromi (1955-) who now lives in Bali, Indonesia. He is very famous for discovering the conspicuous new subspecies detanii of Hebomoia leucippe. Born in Osaka, western Japan, he was an earnest insect collector even as a young boy. When he was an undergraduate student at Hokkaido University, he started overseas collecting trips in tropical islands. After visiting Okinawa and the Philippines, he went to Indonesia for the first time when he was in the graduate school.
Fascinated by the amazing diversity of butterflies and the nature in Indonesia, he eventually dropped out of the graduate school, and started to explore from island to island. His trekking in deep tropical rainforest for days and wondering from a small island to another by small boat were literally “explorations.” He has discovered many new species and subspecies, and has revealed their life histories.

▲Map of Peleng island

   In 1982 he visited Peleng, a small island east of Sulawesi. All over the island from the inland to the coastlines was covered with thick tropical rainforest. When he went there, a timber company was constructing a road to carry out timbers from the inland. He was very fortunate to reach the inland forest deep in the island. There he encountered an incredible sight. A flaming red butterfly slashed through like a red lightning on the green canvas of the rainforest. The butterfly occasionally fed on flowers together with the ordinary Great Orange Tip (Hebomia glaucippe).

   The Great Orange Tip (Hebomia glaucippe) ranges from India to Indonesia widely covering the Oriental region. On its extreme south- western distribution edge, the sister species Hebomia leucippe is found. These two species had been thought to be allopatric with each other. But in Peleng island, the red Hebomoia is seen together with the Great Orange Tip (Hebomia glaucippe). After the careful examination, now the all-red Hebomoia is treated as a subspecies of Hebomia leucippe.

Recently interesting forms (hybrid of glaucippe and leucippe or merely a form of leucippe) have also been discovered from Peleng. This great mystery is still unsolved.

▲ Hebomia glaucippe (Left); Hybrid? A form of leucippe? (middle); Hebomoia leucippe detanii(right), all from Peleng island (Preserved in RIEB, Tokyo)

   When you talk about explorers, you often imagine them as muscular and tough guys. But Mr. Detani is a silent person of a medium height and build. He looks not like a man in the jungle, but like a man in laboratory coat at a university. His untiring passion for unknown butterflies must have driven him to numerous explorations.

    Butterfly Society of Japan is eagerly hoping appearances of many kins of Detani, young butterfly hunters full of frontier spirit.

(to be continued)

A Giant with 100 eyes

A Giant with 100 eyes
 ～On the first anniversary of Tohoku earthquake

(March 11, 2011)

▲Ypthima argus UN

▲Ypthima argus UP

   Look at the two pictures above. They are of a specimen of Ypthima argus, which is very common throughout Japan except for southernmost islands. Thus, very few butterfly enthusiasts, if any, in Japan pay much attention to this species. But this time the author has a reason to show this specimen with some emotion. The collection data of this specimen is as follows:

“Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Ottozawa, O-kuma town, Fukushima, Japan, June 3, 2006”

▲A view nearby the collection site of this specimen. Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is seen on the north. These buildings are now devastated by the tsunami and subsequent explosion (June, 2006)
    One year has passed since March 11, 2011, when the catastrophic Tohoku earthquake and the tsunami devastated the Pacific coast of northeastern Japan. On the first anniversary of this disaster, here first of all, the author would like to express his sincere condolences to the estimated 20,000 victims. Among the fortunate survivors, many have had to move far away from their homes because of the disastrous Fukushima nuclear plant event. Former residents near the plant are not allowed to have the slightest hope to go back home in any near future. There seems to be a long way to go before the survivors recover their normal lives. The earthquake and tsunami were natural disasters. But the nuclear plant accident was completely different in nature as it would never have happened without humans.

    Now many Japanese people have started to think and question ourselves again. Were we not too proud of ourselves and of our abilities that we could control nature? Do we still remember the basic truth that we are mere small beings on earth which could barely sustain our lives only by the great blessings from the awe-inspiring nature?

   The scientific name of the species “argus” derives from Argus, the giant with 100 eyes in Greek mythology. The sleepless giant with numerous eyes would see all human activities. Soon in May, numerous “giants” will fly over the grasslands just around Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, where the entry is now strictly restricted because of the high-level radiation. They will show their usual skipping flights over the ground, silently watching the workers busy struggling over the spill to make progress in the seemingly endless recovery work at the plant.