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The monarch butterfly man – Tom Skeates
The monarch butterfly man – Titirangi’s Tom Skeates
From his corrugated iron hut in the bush a couple of kilometres from Titirangi Village, Tom Skeates bred and released hundreds of amber-winged monarch butterflies. He was responsible for a great surge in their numbers around New Zealand and his enthusiasm was infectious.
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Retiring to Titirangi in 1930, Tom saw his first monarch butterfly eggs at his brother Albert’s house, on the underside of a plant imported from South America. He was instantly fascinated by the entire process: the eggs, the bright green caterpillar that hatched, the awkward metamorphosis of the chrysalis and then, finally, the emergence of the butterfly itself. He began to study the lifecycle and threw himself into increasing the numbers of the butterfly.
In the summer of 1935-36, after collecting larvae and pupae from around Titirangi, he liberated his first monarchs.
In the following 10 years until his death, he travelled around Auckland schools releasing monarchs to the delight of school children. He mailed chrysalises and swan plants to schools he could not visit. And he did much to increase both the public and scientists’ store of understanding about the butterflies. He showed, for instance, that they could live for weeks and were capable of flying hundreds of kilometres.
In 2014 Waitākere City Council paid tribute to some of the West’s settlers with a set of large artworks. One (reproduced, right) was dedicated to Tom.
Jacqui Knight, secretary and trustee of Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust, wrote in the Autumn 2015 issue of Butterflies and Moths of New Zealand, “We know that the first monarchs were reported in New Zealand in the 1840s, and that they flew/blew here. But few people know about Tom Skeates, who in the early 1900s worked so hard to ensure that the monarch was here to stay .... He bred monarchs inside his house, using both swan plant and asclepias curassavica (tropical milkweed or bloodflower). His house was as eccentric as Tom himself. It was built in a grove of tall native timber and in fact built around one particular tree. Sadly, the house was pulled down some years ago and all evidence of this treasure has been lost. As Tom bred more and more monarchs he would pack the butterflies into purpose-built boxes, carefully padded, and take them by bus to various parts of the city to release.
“Tom’s knowledge was extensive, and he was willing to share it. For many years, from about 1929, he learned about the monarch and contributed articles to newspapers and school journals .… He visited schools and parks and released monarchs in the Auckland Domain and Albert Park.”
Caryl Hamer, a child neighbour at the time recalled, “Our family lived across the road from Tom Skeates. He and my mother were great friends.” Tom used to invite Caryl and her sister over to watch the monarchs wriggle their way out of their chrysalises. “He always let us use the thick grassy slopes behind his house to romp and roll down. He also bought a section full of native trees up the road, making a series of wandering paths through it, with rough wooden seats where you could sit and listen to the fantails or watch the fat kereru balancing on the high branches. There was a wooden sign on the gate with ‘Paradise Regained’ on it.”
Patron of the Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust, Sir Bob Harvey also has a soft spot for butterflies: “The monarch was in my life as a young boy in the very heart of Auckland. At school the windows were festooned with chrysalises which we had carefully tied with cotton thread and hung on the windows .... we would have had 100 or more monarchs waiting to hatch. Releasing them was a great pleasure”. It is special to recall that Tom Skeates, a local man was so influential in the establishment of the monarch butterfly population in New Zealand.
– Fiona Drummond
Legends of the West, the legend of Tom Skeates (1874 - 1945), Illustrated by Jared Kahi. © Auckland Council.
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