Bashee River Buff shows butterflies are free, but mostly elusive

SOMETIME towards the end of December 1863, Colonel James Bowker spied something yellow fluttering among the trees tops, in what was then the edge of the Cape Frontier.

Ever the naturalist, the colonel netted the butterfly, together with two other specimens.

That moment 154 years ago has slipped into lepidoptery lore, for that species of butterfly hasn’t been seen since.

But unlike Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster and those other cryptids lurking in the shadows across the globe, scientists have evidence these butterflies did exist because they now sit in two museums.

Over the last 150 years, Bowker’s butterfly, which was named the Bashee River Buff, has become the Holy Grail among local collectors.

Butterfly collectors have gone searching for this insect with its sulphur yellow wings, but have always returned with empty nets.

Now, the plan is to try something new in the search and it could just prove why the Bashee River Buff hasn’t been seen since that day the colonel caught them close to the Mbhashe River, in the Eastern Cape.

The man behind this search is known by many as the Butterfly Whisperer. He is retired professor Mark Williams and has an uncanny ability of finding lost butterfly species. So far he has rediscovered four butterfly species. It was his discovery of the Waterberg Copper that made international news in 2013.

This small butterfly was originally discovered in 1980 near Alma, in the Limpopo province. In 1990, a survey of the site found that the butterfly had disappeared.

Lepidopterists however suspected that the Waterberg Copper wasn’t extinct and, in a hope of finding the butterfly again, the Lepidopterists’ Society of Africa issued a Wanted poster.

The reward on offer was R10 000. Williams took up the challenge and turned to science for help. He logged on to Google Earth. He began scrolling through satellite images searching for likely spots that might hide a Waterberg Copper colony.

What he was looking for was the right vegetation type and elevation. A particular plateau, not far from Bela Bela, caught his eye. It was enough for him to get into his car and go and check it out.

“I chose one of the hiking trails, and when we hit a bunch of rocks, the butterfly jumped up,” recalls Williams.

The Butterfly Whisperer had done it again.

Then, just months after bagging the Waterberg Copper, Williams was in the Eastern Cape, searching for the Bashee River Buff. This time the quarry was to prove far more elusive.

“The Bashee River Buff has bashed me,” says William. “It was like looking for a needle that looks like a piece of straw in a haystack.”

Bowker’s butterfly, the Holy Grail among collectors.