Dunedin is now the butterfly capital of New Zealand with the arrival of 55,000 butterflies and moths to Tūhura Otago Museum’s Natural Science collection.
This officially makes it the largest publicly housed collection in the country.
"With this collection we have now acquired, we will have the largest publicly housed collection of butterflies and moths in New Zealand," Tūhura Otago Museum marketing manager Kate Oktay said.
The collection was donated by former staff member and consultant ecologist Brian Patrick who has dedicated the last 50 years to amassing the massive collection.
The collection includes 55,000 butterflies and moths, 2700 invertebrates and additional butterfly and moth specimens for comparison from Taiwan, Japan, Australia and the Pacific.
Given the size and significance of the collection, which has effectively doubled, the museum was able to act as a research resource.
"The collection really strongly aligns with a range of research endeavours that are under way. It’s really important for local and national scientific research."
Manaaki Whenua Landcare research and Ahi Pepe MothNet were among the research collaborators.
"It’s a really good story for science," Ms Oktay said.
The collection would create opportunities to examine links between habitats, the distribution across sites and to expand the Pacific biodiversity story.
She said it was a valuable opportunity to compare species of today with how they occurred in the past.
It allowed them to see 150 years into the past.
Mr Patrick had spent the last 50 years and more than 4000 expeditions researching and collecting the specimens.
He also donated all of his hand-written diaries to the museum.
"I just love Otago Museum, it’s a wonderful institution for the public and the intellectuals in our society."
Mr Patrick said the collection greatly reflected New Zealand’s biodiversity and how it had changed.
He said it was important to have a proper scientifically-named collection to back up the observations.
