The Price Of Obsession: Black Market Butteflies (PHOTOS)

Most people view butterflies as beautiful, angelic creatures. Then there are those who regard them as dollar signs with wings. Serious collectors are willing to pay high prices for the most desirable of the species. As a result, butterfly smuggling has become a booming underground trade.

So, who lusts after butterflies, anyway?

Wealthy collectors pay young catchers to parachute onto remote South Pacific islands. There they gather butterflies so rare most museums only dream of them. Meanwhile, poaching gangs roam central Asia, and other parts of the world, as helicopters scour Russian mountaintops in search of their elusive prey. There are even rumors of vaults in Japan filled with hundreds of one of the most treasured butterflies, Queen Alexandra's Birdwing. Commercial dealers stow them away in anticipation that they'll soon disappear. Once that happens, their price will skyrocket. Think of it as the wildlife trade's version of the future's exchange. Dealers are betting on extinction.

My new book, "Winged Obsession" (William Morrow), tells the tale of Yoshi Kojima, the world's most notorious and successful butterfly smuggler. A wily con artist, Kojima eluded arrest for over ten years. He finally met his match in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse with U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent Ed Newcomer. Kojima was caught in a web of his own making - one tinged with sex, greed and obsession.

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ORNITHOPTERA CROESUS: $200 - $280 per pair

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Alfred Rusel Wallace first observed this butterfly during a visit to northern Maluku in 1859. However, it took him three months to catch an Ornithoptera Croesus. Wallace must have brushed up on his netting skills, because he caught more than a hundred of these butterflies shortly after. The butterfly is commonly known as Wallace's Golden Birdwing.

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Alfred Rusel Wallace first observed this butterfly during a visit to northern Maluku in 1859. However, it took him three months to catch an Ornithoptera Croesus. Wallace must have brushed up on his netting skills, because he caught more than a hundred of these butterflies shortly after. The butterfly is commonly known as Wallace's Golden Birdwing.

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Wow! THAT much? Worth it

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Comments

[neinitsmine]

11:01 PM on 04/24/2011

I dealt with Kojima back in high school a few years ago- got a beautiful Parides gundlachianus and an Agehana elwesi back when the specimen was relatively knew to the trade. Ornithoptera specimens tend to fetch a higher price due to their sheer size and beautiful coloring, however $200 for an O. croesus is a bit ridiculous. I'd expect to pay that for an aesacus. I've never bought anything illegal however, nothing interesting about P. chikae when I run the risk of going to jail.

[neinitsmine]

11:12 PM on 04/24/2011

I meant "new".

[RomeuSrgio Osrio]

10:39 AM on 04/22/2011

Why do you call it Butteflies? (your title)

[ScooterBob]

02:11 PM on 04/11/2011

Humans have always been, and will remain, a collecting species. This, at times, regrettable tendency to grasp the newest, rarest or most unobtainable object often results in diminished supply. Fine if we are talking about iPads. Tragic, if we are speaking of living and often endangered species. One only needs to look at stories such as this, or the dramatic impacts to rare and endangered tarantulas (fed by an insatiable pet trade), to realize that this trend is a sadly self-limiting obsession.

[schildpad]

03:16 AM on 04/08/2011

I collect bugs - but I would never pay for endangered species, and I am proud to say that lepidoptera is totally unrepresented in my collection.

[bcmom]

12:01 PM on 04/07/2011

Okay now I have heard everything. We as a human species sinks lower and lower into the abyss. We are becoming bottom feeders.

[Olga Cruz]

09:52 AM on 04/06/2011

Yes they are beautiful. But this is horrible. People know they're near extinction, but they only keep on hunting them more and more as the price per pair increases due to rarity. this. is. disgusting.

[Ihsanullah Totakhail]

05:11 AM on 04/06/2011

Great

[Adam Dray]

10:48 PM on 04/05/2011

I like the Atlas Moth more.now thats a bad ass bug

[ButterFlyGirlFly]

12:58 PM on 04/05/2011

Simply beautiful and stunning creatures. I have always enjoyed watching and looking for Butterflies.

[Ldyandrea]

12:44 PM on 04/05/2011

A good book on this is The Dangerous World of Butterflies. Very interesting reading.

[edva]

12:22 PM on 04/05/2011

Only a human would prefer dollars over nature, over existence, over life itself. How utterly sad.

[hazbro24]

11:24 AM on 04/05/2011

Investment opportunity: get some of that fancy new paper and a 3-D printer and make life like replicas to mount for display.

Leave the real ones alone.

[PDXTransplant]

11:22 AM on 04/05/2011

Humans are stupid.

[PotholesInMyLawn]

10:53 AM on 04/05/2011

Wow the Precious!

Looks like the US just filled it's vaults with some as well... ( Bet they will not throw away after the case is done)

4 years from now you will see the Great US Butterfly tour, A collection of rare butterflies coming to a city near you.

They are pretty....

[espressobeans]

09:56 AM on 04/05/2011

Sad and creepy. To love something so much you have it killed? Go visit the butterflies in their exotic habitat but stop molesting them. Some people have too much money and don't know when an obsession goes too far.