Butterfly conservation—The need for a captive breeding institute

There is increasing evidence that local invertebrate populations persist only because of occasional immigration. Demands on land are so great that suites of reserves within the natural dispersal abilities of most species are unlikely to be obtained. Thus there may be little alternative to occasional reintroduction of stock if some species are to be preserved. Moreover, there may be occasions when a species is threatened with extinction due to destruction of its last habitats, and the absence of other suitable sites to which it could be transferred. In such cases there is a need to maintain stocks in captivity for use in future reintroductions. Indeed, this has been the approach followed by vertebrate conservationists, where the ideal of habitat conservation is often prohibitively expensive. Recent methods of rearing butterflies on artificial diets have allowed cost-effective production of large populations of butterflies and moths, even when their natural foodplant is unavailable. These populations may be considerably larger than their natural counterparts. Since it is more efficient to use resources to produce a number of species on one site, it is proposed that the maintenance of stocks of rare species be entrusted to a Captive Breeding Institute established for this purpose. Since the techniques employed have commercial potential in mass-production of species of economic importance, it is hoped that the Institute will be largely self-financing after its initial foundation. In this manner resources will not be diverted from the essential work of habitat conservation.