The collecting of endemic butterflies, or any other endemic living organisms for that matter, is officially frowned upon in New Zealand and sanctioned only by permit if on reserve land. This impediment to the would-be collector, who instinctively does it for the pleasure of seeking and discovering new creatures in new places, making a collection, and reminiscing over what has been found during the long winter nights, has had the effect of suppressing interest in the insect fauna among the informed public of New Zealand. ‘Amateur’ entomologists are rarer here than the endangered species they might help to document. Conservation is not the issue. The Entomological Society of New Zealand has a collecting code which offers a guide to collecting ethics but does not forbid it. My European colleagues see little or no benefit in the bureaucratic approach and feel it is counter-productive when it acts as a deterrent to the Victorian pursuit of insect collecting. Brian and Hamish Patrick are two passionate enthusiasts who have clearly not been inhibited by New Zealand bureaucracy.
Described as a butterfly book of the ‘wild and expansive Pacific Ocean’, the new Patrick book is a welcome addition to the meagre popular literature on such a colourful component of Pacific natural history. No tropical island visitor can but fail to notice the butterflies—the largest, most brightly coloured and by far the most visual of all insects. And, moreover, on tropical islands they fly throughout the year with little regard for seasonality. Tropical butterfly houses, which Brian Patrick has contributed to during his wide-ranging career, are an attempt to replicate the brilliance of a tropical island experience in a temperate environment. The book comprehensively surveys the butterfly fauna of island groups south of the equator, chosen largely on the basis of the localities visited by Brian and Hamish, including the Hawaiian group and Pitcairn, but excluding the western groups of New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands, or our neighbours, Norfolk and Lord Howe, or far away Easter Island. In this geographical context, and with the title bestowed upon it, the inclusion of the butterflies of New Zealand may raise some eyebrows despite the fact that it is undeniably part of the ‘South Pacific’. While it shares little of the tropical Pacific climate or its flamboyant fauna, its butterflies are what father and son authors, Brian and Hamish, have been studying passionately for many years, and this book has given them the opportunity to reveal the fruits of their very extensive butterfly collecting efforts.
With a few notable exceptions, the tropical butterflies of the Pacific Islands can be easily identified directly from good quality colour images. The book admirably fulfils this requirement with full colour representation of every species known from the islands; many from life, the remainder from museum specimens painstakingly photographed by Birgit Rhodes at Landcare Research Ltd, Auckland. Others included to complete the coverage are from historical specimens in the Natural History Museum, London, as in the case of two species from the Marquesas which are only rarely collected. The small, almost square format, hardcover and comprehensive illustrations make this an ideal, user-friendly volume, to travel with—in short, a handy field guide.
The butterflies are presented in the conventional scientific (systematic) format, that is, family by family, not on a geographic regional basis, meaning that each chapter is a mix of Pacific Island and New Zealand fauna (apart from Chapter 1: Papilionidae and Chapter 6: Hesperidae, neither of which occur in New Zealand). From the point of view of the scientific nomenclature used for naming species, however, it has to be said that the authors’ approach to taxonomy for the New Zealand species has some novel twists to it. For the tropical Pacific Island species they apply accepted names as published, whereas for the New Zealand species a raft of names are allocated according to the authors’ concept of a ‘species’, without regard for the International Code for Nomenclature, and without appropriate diagnoses in many cases (other than the colour illustrations). Reactions to their approach will predictably range from a sense of relief that at last there is a published guide to the species categories that Brian has been employing for many years when discussing conservation issues or writing generally on biodiversity in New Zealand, through to a sense of frustration that, in future, some taxonomist somewhere will have to systematically tackle the species question and publish the results before we will be able to enjoy a new insight into the meaning of the intriguing variability that Brian and Hamish have identified. Either way, New Zealand natural history studies should benefit.
So what have the authors done to deserve this nomenclatorial response? First, they have not consistently accepted the latest published revisionary publications or provided reasons for their choice of which revision to follow. For example, while the Australian lesser wanderer is called Danaus petilia in the Patricks’ book, following a recent molecular/morphological revision (Smith et al. 2005) (formerly D. chrysippus petilia); the common blue is referred to by the trinomial Zizina otis labradus in the book whereas a recent revision of Zizina (Yago et al. 2008) provides molecular and morphological evidence to establish Z. labradus as a distinct species, distributed throughout Australia, Melanesia and Polynesia, while also confirming Z. oxleyi as the endemic New Zealand species. Second, the resurrection of former names bestowed by Doubleday (1843), Fereday (1878), Butler (1876), Bates (1867) and others as names for various copper butterfly entities, without a full explanation for their reasoning and neither a morphological nor molecular diagnosis for the new ‘species’, nor citation of any type series, opens the gate for misrepresentation and confusion. Third, well-established species names that have been in published use for geographically widespread species over many years are reintroduced here with a new restricted meaning, e.g. salustius Fabricius (1793), assumed to have been collected on Cook's Endeavour voyage, or boldenarum White (1862), collected in Hawke's Bay by William Colenso, which the authors suggest should now be restricted to North Island populations only; or again, enysii Butler (1876), which is likewise suggested as appropriate for the North Island populations only.
It seems likely that the biological phenomenon that is being recorded here, as a result of the Patricks’ comprehensive nationwide trekking while intensively collecting butterflies over many years, is the accumulation of evidence for a recent diversification of copper butterflies responding to the fluctuating Pleistocene climate—a truly fascinating situation that is in need of serious scientific analysis. The good news is that Hamish is embarking on research that has the potential to achieve just that. Maybe he has already unearthed some cautionary tales as we see on p. 88 for a ‘new species’ of tussock butterfly (Argyrophenga ‘western tussock butterfly’) which has a ‘stop press’ box inserted that notes recent research (DNA sequencing by Hamish Patrick) has indicated this is not a new species but the distinctive form may result from ‘adaptation to high altitude and foodplants’. Food for thought and topics for research here.
Species definitions and nomenclature apart, which are likely to remain topics of debate for time immemorial, in my view the Patricks’ book provides ample evidence of what can be gained by an enthusiastic approach to the good old-fashioned art of making insect collections. As Brian and Hamish say: ‘We love observing and collecting butterflies as we explore a new place’ … ‘the wonder, thrill and surprise … cannot be matched by other experiences’ (p. 10). Their publication is the outcome of their natural history philosophy and will inevitably lead to greater understanding of the forces that have shaped the New Zealand biota. It will enable more people of all walks to enjoy the butterflies of the South Pacific.