A collector and retailer of butterflies was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence, while storing numerous protected species.
It was by scrutinizing the sales announcements on the internet that the inspectors of the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) ended up going back to this man, after “several weeks of investigation”. This butterfly hunter has just been given a three-month suspended prison sentence by the Toulouse court. The connoisseur of Lepidoptera, hunted mainly in the Pyrenees, but also in the Alps. He then traded in his catches which he pinned.
Papillon Apollo, Damier de la Succise, Serrated Magician,… so many species, each rarer than the next, were found at this man’s home during the search. A total of 74 specimens and 11 species of protected butterflies were seized.
115 protected species for sale
The investigation also revealed that this collector had sold 917 kinds of insects, of which 115 were protected species during the past three years. The man exported Lepidoptera to eleven different countries. Now that the case has been tried, this man’s hunting list will join the Toulouse Natural History Museum.
The French Office for Biodiversity also recalled that butterflies “play a role in the pollination of many flowers” and that they are “in sharp decline”. It is therefore strictly forbidden to capture and trade in protected butterflies since it is a crime. Note that catching all other kinds of butterflies is prohibited “because it is not a huntable species”.