Entomologist Blanca Huertas, Senior Curator of Butterflies at the National History Museum in London, is constantly discovering new species of butterflies thanks to her research both in the field and among the 5.5 million specimens that make up her institution’s collection, which she believes is crucial to understanding the present and future of the planet. She argues that studying these insects helps us to understand the effects of climate change.
In 1994, having just started her biology degree at the UPN, the National Pedagogic University in Bogotá (the city where she was born “one sunny day in December,” as she says), Blanca Huertas decided that she wanted to collect and study butterflies. It wasn’t easy. “They are very fast, and some fly very high. You need specialised tools,” she says. But importing a net from the United States like the one she needed was out of reach for a family with four children and more pressing priorities. So the family got to work and made her one out of old clothes, the first and most special butterfly net she has ever owned. And today she is an entomologist in charge of the butterfly collection at the Natural History Museum in London, the oldest and largest in the world: 40,000 boxes containing 5.5 million specimens.
It was only when the handle (from an old broom) finally broke that the Colombian scientist stopped using that old butterfly net, which reminds her of her family’s support and her determination. She used it to collect a Heliconius—a black butterfly with red and yellow bands that she describes as having a “slow and graceful” flight. It is perhaps the most studied group of tropical butterflies (the ones she specialises in), so she tries to avoid them. “I’m interested in the ones that nobody pays attention to, the little brown ones,” she adds, referring to the coffee-coloured species. She continues to do fieldwork to help expand her museum’s collection but admits that she does much less than she used to because of her responsibilities as a mother, “limited budgets,” and bureaucratic hurdles. “We collect in understudied areas and work in collaboration with colleagues around the world,” she says. “There are hundreds of species yet to be named,” she stresses.
“Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil are the places with the most butterflies and are the “hotspots” of diversity on the planet. Forty percent of the world’s butterfly diversity comes from Central and South America.”
Huertas moved to London to do a master’s degree in Systematics and Biodiversity (at Imperial College) and a PhD (at University College London). She joined the Natural History Museum in the British capital as a volunteer in 2003 while doing her postgraduate studies and was offered a full-time position in 2007. “Officially I’ve been at the museum for half my life,” she says. There she has earned the nicknames “Madame Butterfly” and “Guardian of the Butterflies.” However, Colombia is always present because it’s her native country and also “the most butterfly-rich country on the planet, a world power in terms of biodiversity,” she points out. “Forty percent of the world’s butterfly diversity comes from Central and South America,” she says.
To safeguard, modernise and disseminate its butterfly collection, the Natural History Museum in London has a collections-based research programme, and works with DNA sequencing and genetic research. Huertas argues that science can be done in collections. “I have discovered more than a dozen species that we didn’t know about, and this year there will be many more new ones,” she says. They had been in their boxes for a century or more, and still had no name. “It’s possible that, in some cases, they don’t even exist anymore,” she says. One of her most recent finds is a new genus called Saurona, after the Lord of the Rings villain.
Her team is currently focusing on climate change, endemism and extinction. As Huertas explains, butterflies are the best insect group for this purpose because they are so well documented, with millions of data points available since the 17th century, making it possible to analyse changes in ecosystems and climate. “There are studies that show a dispersal of species to traditionally cold areas, and changes in size and reproductive cycles or strategies in others,” she describes.
“To safeguard biodiversity, we have to protect habitats. Forest destruction, logging and land conversion to agriculture are driving populations and species to extinction.”
Dr Huertas links the significant decline in monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) populations to the degradation of their habitats. “Forest destruction, logging and land conversion to agriculture are driving populations and species to extinction,” she says. Her formula for safeguarding biodiversity is to protect forest habitats and water sources and control timber extraction; prevent the introduction of non-native species, “including plants that don’t provide food for butterflies, birds and other native predators”; encourage people not to use fertilisers and to care for biodiversity; make the public and governments aware of the role of butterflies in the food chain. “And support the scientists who study them,” she concludes with a wink.
Blanca Huertas, a woman and a Latina, admits that her path has not been an easy one: “I am proud of my achievements, such as being the first Latina woman to be in charge of the largest butterfly collection in the world, or being vice president of the oldest scientific society, the Linnean Society.” She is also a member of the Butterfly Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and of the Scientific Names Committee of the North American Butterfly Association.
“My goals are to continue to advance our knowledge of butterflies, especially those in the tropics, to continue to train more young scientists, to inspire girls and to encourage minorities to work in science.”
Aquella niña que aparcó su entusiasmo por plantas y escarabajos cuando las mariposas se cruzaron, revoloteando, en su camino puede decir hoy que ha cumplido su sueño de trabajar en un museo, nada menos que en uno de los más prestigiosos del mundo. “Tenemos que mostrar el verdadero valor de las colecciones, no solo en el pasado sino para nuestro presente, y su enorme importancia para entender el futuro del planeta”, defiende. Sus objetivos siguen siendo ambiciosos: “Continuar entrenando más científicos jóvenes, inspirar a las niñas y apoyar minorías a trabajar en ciencia”.
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