About us
Butterfly Planet (www.butterflyplanet.com) belongs to Butterfly Art Inc.
Butterfly Planet supplies collectors, scientists, artists and enthusiasts worldwide with quality dead, dried, preserved butterflies, other insects and arachnids.
We guarantee both high quality products and excellent service while providing you with the specimens you are looking for.
Because we care for insects and the environment and strive to protect insects and their habitats to make this a sustainable, environmentally conscious business. We support people in third world countries to keep their jungle land intact and set up butterfly farms instead of taking down the forest to cultivate agricultural monocultures.
Some might think then, if we care so much about butterflies, then why would we collect them and furthermore support the collecting of insects to others?
We have been world over to collect and study butterflies and insects in their natural habitats. Throughout the years we witnessed first hand the depletion of butterfly populations in different regions. It was a very disheartening experience.
Seeing land owners slash and burn the jungle on their land to convert it to an agricultural crop producing property like coconuts or rubber showed that this was the primary culprit for the dwindling butterfly and insect populations.
Insect populations do not get hurt by predators and people catching them, they get diminished by the loss of their habitat, mainly the food plants for their young.
We have established relationships with farms in Papua New Guinea, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Tanzania and the Republic of Central Africa.
Insect collecting is more vital today than ever before. Here are the reasons why:
1) Dead insects, butterflies and all arthropods contribute greatly to our understanding of those species. Not only is it vital for us to know what organisms are out there but what can we do to ensure the conservation and preservation of these essential organisms on this planet.
2) Museums, amateur and professional entomologists, collectors and enthusiasts can and do contribute immensely to the knowledge that we as humans need in order to make informed decision about how we behave given the reality that climate change is a reality that will have a negative impact on humanity.
3) Since butterflies are seasonal and some only fly every 2 years, it makes it even more important to understand them. By collecting them, we can study their biology, their ecology, their interaction with the environment, their anatomy, their population dynamics and most importantly, their classification. By knowing who we co-exist with, we can make better decisions about how we live and treat mother earth.
4) Even though humans have been cataloguing and collecting insects for over 200 hundred years, we have not classified them all. We are constantly discovering new undescribed species. We could not do this without the act of collecting insects.
5) By having a comprehensive, fluid and ever growing scientific collecting of insect specimens allows humans to determine which species is vulnerable, threatened, common or endangered. By creating status for each species, we can create a robust plan of action to help preserve and conserve those vulnerable species that has a positive impact on the population.
6) As a lover of butterflies or all things insects, if you feel sad or apprehensive about whether you can feel morally right about your desire to own dead insects that have been collected, here are some things to consider:
- Read the article in our Disclaimer and Environmental Notice called, Killing Butterflies to save butterflies
- Plenty of studies have been conducted and population dynamics have taught us that because female insects can lay hundreds of eggs, butterfly/insect collecting does not have an adverse effect on the populations of butterflies no matter how small the group is. The only PROVEN method for a species extinction is habitat destruction and pollution.
- ALL Arthropods are invertebrates. That means they lack a central nervous system. Creatures that do not possess a spine by definition cannot possess nerve clusters like we see in vertebrates. This means that pain is not experienced the same as in vertebrates.
- The reason why we do not use end of life specimens in our art or for collectors is because firstly, to find a dead butterfly in the wild before a scavenger finds it is very difficult if not next to impossible. Butterflies that have reached their end of life are almost alway broken, tattered and lacking much colour. For this reason this, the old insect is unfortunately lacking much in terms of scientific information that any student of would need. Many dealers and art workers claim that their specimens were obtained from after life specimens. While it is possible and some do, the most are misleading the public or have been mislead themselves in order to make the sale.
- We have after life wings of butterfly farms that we are involved with. There is a marked difference in quality from an old specimens that died and then decomposed versus a specimen that was collected and preserved immediately. Lets face it folks, no matter what your thoughts and feelings about this topic are it is undeniable that your eye is attracted to the specimens that are perfect and that are mounted symmetrically. We as humans are designed to appreciate perfection and symmetry.
- We do not gas our insects. We see that that the this method is unethical and does not preserve the integrity of the specimen. Hence we do not do it nor buy from farmer/ranchers/breeders who do. For those who want to know how the insects are preserved, here are the various painless ways we do it: some insects will have their thorax compressed; some insects will get a shot of hot water or alcohol; and some insects will be placed in the freezer.
- Insects breed like insects. To compare the lifestyle and biology of vertebrates to invertebrates would be like comparing apples to oranges. They are too different each other to use the same criteria for analysis. No vertebrate can reproduce like an invertebrate. No invertebrates can "feel" like a vertebrate. This is why ants can lose their traumatically and still live but no vertebrate can avoid toxic shock syndrome. To derive the same emotional response to invertebrates as vertebrates is a product of a lack of eduction and understanding of their biology. To apply the same criteria for the preservation and conservation of invertebrates would be an error in logic and reason. That would be a mistake.
- By having an art piece on your wall made with sustainably raised specimens of insects or butterflies will create a conversation with those who see your art. This will surely lead to the all important topic of the ethics of butterfly or insect collecting. Here at Butterfly Planet, we believe that education is the most important for the survivability of these beautiful creatures.
- Purchasing art that has insects/butterflies grown by a farmer, rancher or breeder ensures the survivability of the insect species for their is an incentive created to continue this conservation work. And at the same time, you get to have and appreciate a work of beauty everyday no matter where you are in the world, night or day. This has a powerful effect on our own inspiration and motivation to make this planet a better place for all.
- There are dozens of forest dwelling families in vulnerable areas around the equator who directly benefit for the species they are able to produce on their land and supply Butterfly Planet. By supporting Butterfly Planet, you are supporting these families who are farmers, ranchers and breeders of butterflies and or insects. By supporting these families, you are supporting the forests that they live on to remain conserved. By supporting the conservation of their forests that they live on, you are supporting ALL life that resides in that ecosystem to remain longer here on this planet. That is how YOU are part of the SOLUTION to detrimental effect of human activity on insect diversity.