Gentle beauties: A picture from Jamiun’s collection of a Jewelled Nawab, or ‘Charaxes Delphis Concha’ (left) and a Tawny Rajah (‘Charaxes Bernardus Repetitus’). — Bernama
KOTA KINABALU: More than 400 species of preserved butterflies are housed in the Borneensis collection room of the Institute for Tropical Biology and Conservation at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) here.
Senior Curator of Borneensis Gallery Petherine Jimbau said some of the species on display at the gallery included a pair of the national butterflies Rajah Brooke’s birdwing (Trogonoptera brookiana), which are listed in Appendix II of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).She said the exhibition section also displayed a poster of the Sabah state butterfly – the Golden Kalibambang, or its scientific name Troides Andromache – after it was chosen as the official butterfly of Sabah on Sept 13 last year.“The Borneensis Gallery welcomes the Golden Kalibambang specimen as a reference for students and researchers in the future.
“The preserved butterflies were obtained from research, fieldwork and expeditions by staff, lecturers and students to be used as a reference for researchers from home and abroad, and some were even donated by foreign researcher friends,” she told Bernama.
The gallery, which was launched on March 13, 2016, also showcases the diversity of flora and fauna found in Sabah, especially specimens that are hard to find, unique and endemic.
It also carries out various activities, receiving more than 10,000 local and international visitors a year.
She said among the activities carried out at the 430sqm Borneensis Gallery are study tours, guided tours, courses related to flora and fauna, specimen identification and preservation activities, as well as environmental education camps (Borneensis Friends Programme) for secondary school students and exhibitions.
The gallery also houses other preserved animal species, namely the marmoset, pangolins, moon rats, kongkang, Dutch monkeys (preserved dry/taxidermy), Borneo pygmy elephant and orangutan skeletons among others.Photographer Jamiun Micheal, 43, said he began actively collecting and photographing butterflies in 2012 but his interest in these insects began in his teens.
Jamiun said he has recorded 196 species of butterflies so far.
He said the process of identifying the butterflies is quite complicated and required scientific books as a reference.
This is in addition to communicating with butterfly experts in Singapore and sharing pictures on his social media so that the community abroad could provide information on the species.
“I hope to be able to identify pictures of butterflies that are still in storage that do not have an ‘ID’ because some butterflies are difficult to identify if only based on pictures; some need to go through tests such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA),” he said.
Jamiun said to get pictures of butterflies, he would go into the forest or any forest reserve area because some species are only found at a certain altitude.
He said some are also located in lowland and residential areas while certain species are found near rivers.
He said his challenge now is to get pictures of the Golden Kalibambang in its original habitat, which can only be found in the highland areas in Sabah and Sarawak.
The pictures of butterflies taken by him can be seen on his blog, jamiun.com.
