Note 1.

Gloria J. Brons

President of the Canadian Butterfly Breeders and Exhibitors Association, a member of the Entomological Society of Alberta and of the Edmonton Reptile & Amphibian Society, Past President of the Chamber Toastmasters, and was honoured to be one of those nominated for the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce Small Business Owner of the Year awards in 2004.

Gloria Brons is the owner/operator of Butterfly Wings' Wishes and in this role has travelled throughout Alberta, Canada offering classroom presentations on Butterflies and Bugs or Reptiles & Amphibians to over 5,000 students in 2004 alone. Her mission is to increase awareness and educate whoever will listen about the world of insects and other not so cuddly creatures.

Note 2.

Paul Cherubini

Paul's expertise and encyclopedic knowledge of the Monarch has been of immeasurable value to the commercial butterfly farming industry. He is generous with his findings and comprehensive knowledge of butterflies, especially Monarchs.

Paul received his B.S. degree in entomology Univ. of Calif. at Davis 1979. He has been employed as a technical representative for chemical companies in California.

Paul has been intimately involved with Monarch study and science going back as far as 1967, when he tagged over 50,000 Monarchs with Dr. Fred Urquhart up until 1977. Paul devised a new tagging system in 1989 that made it possible to recapture 10% of the fall migrants tagged in the various western States. This high recapture rate made it possible to determine what percentage of tagged monarchs released in different western states were going to California overwintering sites vs. Michoacan (Mexico) sites for the winter.

Paul worked on the continental divide tagging project (see www.swallowtailfarms.com) that demonstrated eastern and western Monarchs will migrate to overwintering sites in both northern California and Mexico. This project also demonstrated that lab reared Monarchs migrate equally as well as wild Monarchs.

Note 3.

Paul Chesterfield

Creative Designer and webmaster for the IBBA website; nature photographer; co-author of The Commercial Butterfly Breeders Manual and The Advanced Guide to Commercial Butterfly Production; co-author of The Really Big Butterfly Coloring Book; and website designer for many butterfly farming businesses. Paul retired from service with the British Government and has continued working hard to provide the IBBA with a beautiful and extremely useful website for the members. Paul administers the IBBA Mailing List and is one of the most valuable assets we have, in addition to being a kind and generous comrade!

Note 4.

Dr. Frank Davis

Because of his expertise and knowledge he generously offers the insect-rearing world, the IBBA is fortunate to have Dr. Davis as an Advisor. Dr. Davis was keynote speaker at the IBBA's 2006 Annual Convention in Monterey, California. Dr. Davis has tailored a special insect pathology service for butterfly rearers to identify the parasites associated with butterfly farming.

Dr. Frank Davis was born and raised in The Mississippi Delta on a farm. At the age of 25 he received his Ph.D. and took a position as a research entomologist with the United States Department of Agriculture/Agriculture Research Service in Starkville, the home of MSU. He was assigned to the Corn Insect Pest Group.

He worked as the entomologist on a team with plant breeders and plant pathologists to identify and develop corn/maize germplasm with insect and microbial resistance for 35 years (retiring at the end of 1999).

To be successful in identifying and developing insect resistant plants, they needed a consistent source of the insect(s) to artificially infest each plant in the pre-selected growth stage with the insect's eggs or neonates so that all plants in an experiment had the same opportunity to be heavily damaged. So, in the latter half of the 1960's, Dr. Davis began to develop a facility design and system for rearing the southwestern corn borer, a pyralid moth. Back in those days, he designed this facility and then with the help of his technician and some students, they built it.

Dr. Davis says, "This started my insect rearing ventures. In those first years I/we learned about rearing by obtaining a degree from the "University of Hard Knocks". We fell in many pot holes of rearing from diet contamination by microbes to suffering the consequenses of environmental equipment failures. However, I was determined along with some talented and devoted technicians and students to make continued improvements to our rearing system so that we could successfully rear the number of quality insects needed for research in a timely fashion at the lowest possible cost."

In the 1970s they added the fall worm (a noctuid moth) to the rearing and then in the 1980s, they added the cotton bollworm and the tobacco budworm (both noctuid moths). At this point they needed to develop equipment for reducing the amount of hand labor in the rearing system.

They successfully did this plus we worked out solutions to problems within the system that needed fixing. Dr. Davis says "Today, I am proud to say that we have one of the best rearing systems for a mid-sized program (thousands of adults per week per species reared) in the world. It is a model system that many laboratories have adopted for rearing their lepidopterans."

After retirement in 1999, Dr. Davis asked MSU to convert his adjunct professor status within the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology to an emeritus status. They did and he began to plant the seed for developing some formal education for the world wide insect rearing community.

Well, the seed sprouted in 2000 when Dr. Davis and his colleagues sponsored two workshops titled "Principles and Procedures of Rearing Quality Insects".

Important Note About Dr. Davis:

Dr. Davis was given the Fellow Award, the highest award presented by the Entomological Society of America. This award has been given to only 191 scientists since 1934.

Note 5.

Steve Genua

Staff Forester, Potomac Electric Power Company Transmission-Line Right-of-Way Integrated Vegetation Management Programs.

Steve worked with the IBBA, Potomac Electric Power Company and the Washington Area Butterfly Association to convert 5.21acres of densely-wooded power right-of-way to butterfly habitat, in a butterfly enhancement project. The project selectively introduced as many native butterfly nectar and larva host plants as possible, along with the naturally occurring herbaceous vegetation.

Note 6.

Peggy Hatcher

One of the early board members of IBBA; co-author of the IBBA bylaws; IBBA board member and past President of the IBBA. Peggy is owner of Butterflies Over Texas. Peggy's contribution to the IBBA is priceless in many areas. Peggy worked hundreds of hours as a volunteer to craft the by-laws.

Note 7.

Harry Pavuulan

Dr. Pavulaan has performed the most comprehensive field research on Rhode Island butterflies and has now brought forth his findings both for the enjoyment of serious butterfly enthusiasts as well as for the scientific entomological community. He brings to light the purest statistics on species biology, markings, distribution, host plants, flight patterns and other facts, including all known English and Latin names for each studied butterfly.

Dr. Pavulaan has written numerous technical papers and articles, and authored the Virginia Butterfly Atlas and has contributed much to Butterflies of North America and the Atlas of Eastern Butterflies. Dr. Pavulaan reviews and writes articles that pertain to raising and releasing butterflies.

Note 8.

Jon Timko

Entomologist with DuPont. Has raised insects and butterflies since childhood. Jon is a past President and Vice President of IBBA, and Board member for six years. Jon operates Flutterbies, Inc. in Delaware. Jon has created numerous industry posters, brochures, and taped the CA convention speakers for a DVD set. Jon has invested much in creating the Industry Database for IBBA.