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https://theconversation.com/theft-lies-and-butterflies-the-englishman-who-stole-thousands-of-specimens-from-our-museums-265975>
"
Review: The Butterfly Thief – Walter Marsh (Scribe)
In August 2025, there was a plague of Monarch butterflies near Nannup in
Western Australia. Thousands of winged creatures arrived – attracted to two
invasive weeds, cotton bush and milkweed. In a time of a bitter loss of bees
and butterflies in our ecologies, the multitude of fluttering wings was sweetly
poignant. But not all butterflies represent a happy tale.
Back in 1947, it was discovered over 3,000 collected museum specimens had been
stolen from three Australian museums by independent butterfly collector Colin
Wyatt.
Wyatt had stolen the butterflies over multiple visits the previous year, by
pretending he was researching the collection for a book. He then hid the stolen
insects in his hat or pockets.
Worse still, he relabelled the important taxonomic specimens, using incorrect
collector names and locations. In some instances, he swapped real butterflies
for fakes – often closely related species, that in one famous case he painted
to change its appearance. Wyatt’s theft had ongoing ramifications for insect
collection research, where accuracy is critical for understanding distribution,
evolution and diversity.
Journalist Walter Marsh has excavated the story of this heist in
The Butterfly
Thief. Through meticulous research, Marsh fleshes out the character of Wyatt,
who stole these butterflies (including many holotypes) from Adelaide, Melbourne
and Sydney museums. A holotype is like a first edition, where that butterfly
was the first to be collected, named and described by a Western collector."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
