ALFRED FAHRINGER spent two weeks at the
Gunung Leuser National Park in August 2014.
He is an avid butterfly collector since age
seven. Alfred has worked and lived in Asia
since 1991, settling down in Singapore in 2007.I discovered Dr. John Grehan in the
USA, a leading global scientist on
Hepialidae moths. She turned out to
be a specimen yet unknown to science,
belonging to the genus Endoclita. In
Sumatra, only four species have ever
been recorded, and from those, all are
specimens discovered more than a
century ago. In fact, no new Sumatran
species has been discovered in the
last 60 years.
With this new discovery, I must go
back to Gunung Leuser again, back to
the land of the dinosaurs in northern
Sumatra and to possibly find a male
specimen to complete our knowledge
of this new species. Her specialty will
help to preserve these mountains and
help her live on in her home on our
extremely fragile planet, for hopefully
the next 70 million years. agbefore they went extinct. This butterfly
was definitely my dinosaur, and she is
the prize that made all the sweat and
effort worthwhile!
Trembling with excitement, all I
could determine on site was that she
was most likely a Hepialidae species.
Through my efforts to find her identity,above View of Gunung
Sinabung, which is another
five hours’ drive before
reaching Gunung Leuser
below Aflred and porter,
Usman unravelling butterfly
specimens after their trek