www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I had assumed, and would also hope, that butterflies and moths are protected by law and that killing them other than for licenced research projects would be illegal.

Therefore I was quite shocked to discover that the Amateur Entomologists Society is advertising a leaflet at http://www.amentsoc.org/leaflet.htm
on killing and setting butterflies and moths.

Can anyone tell me if this practice is legal?

Robin

The answer is "it depends". Captive-bred individuals are not covered by the Wildlife and Coutryside Act, whereas wild individuals are. This is described in a little detail at:

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/law.php

The AES has an exhibition every year (October 7th this year) and you'll see large numbers of set specimens for sale, along with livestock, books etc. In their defence, I'd say that the AES do make every effort to ensure that traders are not breaking the law, and that no restricted species are offered for sale.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

- Pete

I can understand that before the advent of colour photography then killing and mounting specimens was the only way to record butterflies but I can't really see the point now. I remember seeing a huge display of tropical butterflies at the Natural History Museum once, and found it rather distasteful.