Yoshikazu Yoshida Butterfly Collection.  Part 1

⇒ Specimen List

Introduction

⇒ Image Gallery

Mr. Yoshikazu Yoshida (21 December 1936 – 15 December 2023) was an amateur researcher who devoted many years to the study and collection of butterflies (Lepidoptera). He was born in Komagome, Toshima-ku, Tokyo, in 1936. After graduating from the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Tokyo, in March 1959, he entered the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in April of the same year. Thereafter, he held a series of senior administrative positions, including Chief of the Engineering Section, First Engineering Department, Water Resources Development Public Corporation (from July 1978); Deputy Director-General of the Iwate Prefectural Department of Agriculture (from September 1981); Director of the Construction Planning and Coordination Office, Structural Improvement Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (from April 1985); Director of the Improvement Division of the same bureau (from November 1985); Director of the Engineering Department, Agricultural Land Development Public Corporation (from April 1987); and subsequently Director of the Operations Department of the Agricultural Land Improvement Public Corporation. He retired from public service in June 1989 as an official attached to the Structural Improvement Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. After his retirement, he worked at Kurimoto, Ltd. from August 1989 to December 2002 as a business advisor, Director and Chief Engineer, and later as an advisor.

Alongside his professional career, Mr. Yoshida maintained a strong interest in insects, particularly butterflies, from his student days onward, and continued research and specimen collection for many decades. In addition to extensive surveys conducted throughout Japan, he actively undertook fieldwork overseas, becoming deeply involved in the study of butterflies in E and SE Asia, with a particular focus on China. He devoted special attention to elucidating the morphology and ecology of immature stages, placing great importance on records obtained through both field observations and rearing experiments. This research approach constitutes one of the most distinctive features of the present collection. Mr. Yoshida also maintained a long-standing and close association with the well-known lepidopterist Mr. Motohiro Harada, with whom he conducted multiple joint surveys in Japan and abroad. Specimens and knowledge obtained through these survey activities made significant contributions to both his research and the formation of his collection.

The Yoshida Butterfly Collection is of high academic value in terms of both its geographical and temporal breadth. Specimens from Japan include material collected over an extended period ranging from the early Shōwa era to the Reiwa era, providing essential baseline data for examining regional variation and temporal change. The overseas component of the collection consists primarily of specimens from East and Southeast Asia, especially China, but also includes butterflies from South America and South Africa, resulting in a collection of considerable diversity.

After his retirement, Mr. Yoshida served for many years as a research project collaborator at the University Museum, The University of Tokyo, where he made substantial contributions to the organization and databasing of the museum’s insect collections, thereby greatly advancing the systematization and public accessibility of specimen data. Although he passed away in December 2023, the Yoshida Butterfly Collection was donated to the University Museum, The University of Tokyo, by his family in April 2025, in accordance with his wishes. It should be noted that the specimen lists accompanying this collection were largely compiled by Mr. Yoshida himself during his lifetime and have served as essential foundational data for the preparation of the present catalogue.

The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, is currently promoting the systematic databasing of its insect collections and making them publicly available through the web and printed publications. This catalogue of the Yoshida Butterfly Collection has been compiled as part of this ongoing effort. The collection comprises approximately 16,100 butterfly specimens housed in 172 large German-style specimen drawers. As a first stage of publication, specimen data for 6,800 individuals have been made publicly available through the museum database within the Web Museum section of the University Museum’s official website.

It is our hope that this catalogue will serve as fundamental reference material for a wide range of research fields, including butterfly taxonomy, ecology, biogeography, and conservation biology, while also conveying to future generations the scholarly achievements accumulated by Mr. Yoshida over his lifetime and demonstrating to society at large the importance of scientific specimens and museum collections.

Acknowledgments

In preparing this catalogue, we are deeply grateful to the family of Mr. Yoshikazu Yoshida for donating his invaluable butterfly specimens to the University Museum, The University of Tokyo. We also extend our sincere thanks to Mr. Motohiro Harada, Mr. Yasunori Kishida, Mr. Motomu Teshirogi, and Mr. Hiroshi Tsukiyama for their generous advice on specimen identification and locality information. For assistance with publication on the museum’s website, we are especially indebted to Ms. Junko Takakura. We would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt appreciation to all those who contributed to this work. The construction of this database was supported by a JSPS Grant-in-Aid (JP24HP7006) and the UTokyo Digital Archives Project.