Flutter of excitement as butterflies land at QVMAG

 

There was a flurry of excitement at the Queen Victoria Art Gallery this month latest shipment of butterfly specimens from the Lambkin-Knight collection arrived.  

This delivery forms part of the Lambkin-Knight collection donation, featuring 600 butterflies and 150 stick insects. 

In 2021-22 the institution announced the Butterfly Brilliance fundraising appeal to raise funds for new entomology cabinets, of which this latest shipment will be stored, to preserve the collection for future generations of researchers, and support vital butterfly research across Tasmania. 

As part of the appeal, the Butterfly Brilliance pop-up exhibition launched at the Art Gallery at Royal Park, showcasing Australia’s fifth-largest butterfly collection, developed by butterfly researchers Trevor Lambkin and Ian Knight. 

Through 50 years of research, Lambkin and Knight built an extensive collection of more than 12,000 butterflies from across Australia, Southeast Asia and Oceania. 

In 2020 Ian Knight and Trevor Lambkin graciously donated this private butterfly collection to the institution. 

General Manager of Creative Arts and Cultural Services Shane Fitzgerald said the latest delivery welcomed an incredible range of species to the institutions collection.  

"The Lambkin-Knight collection is an outstanding showcase of butterfly research from across the globe," Fitzgerald said. 

"Since the arrival of this latest shipment, our team have been working to re-house all specimens into our new suite of entomology cabinets, acquired through the Butterfly Brilliance fundraising appeal, to preserve this magnificent collection for generations to come." 

 

Image: Stick insects as part of the recent Lambkin-Knight butterfly collection delivery to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery.  

QVMAG Museum Collections Officer Simon Fearn said that many of the specimens in this shipment came from the Torres Strait Islands.  

“The most exciting ones are these stick-like ones,” Fearn pointed out. “There’s bound to be some new species there. It's going to be of great scientific interest.”  

He noted that these butterflies and insects are of growing relevance to researchers and scientists.  

Image: Butterfly specimens within the recent Lambkin-Knight collection delivery.  

“With the sea level effects in the region, the natural habitats of these butterflies – mangroves, low-lying coastal plains – are slowing going underwater. So, there’s a real race to try and document the fauna.”  

“This is a nationally and internationally significant collection. And some of the specimens were collected in the 1960s, from Melbourne, Brisbane, and Townsville, in areas that have all been cleared for housing.   

“We now have a unique record of what we’re losing as urbanisation continues... so it’s a very valuable collection as time goes on.”  

Issued 14 November 2023.