New Hope for Brenton Blue Butterfly. (2 November, 1996)

Good news for the endangered Brenton Blue butterfly (Orachrysops niobe) is that Dr Z Pallo Jordan, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, has requested that development be delayed at the only known breeding colony near Knysna. The developer of the news in Brenton-on-Sea had initially given the campaign to save this timid creature until the end of July to raise sufficient money to purchase five plots containing the breeding site. Now it is hoped that enough people will respond to the Blue's plight and purchase R300 competition tickets to raise the necessary R900 000. The prize is a sixth plot at the breeding site. If this amount is not raised, the breeding site will be relocated - a seemingly impossible task, as the butterfly's primary source of food, the Indigofera, grows only in particular areas, and the Brenton Blue's association with the Camponatus ant, found at Brenton-on-Sea, is not entirely clear.

Tickets can be bought from the Wildlife Society of Knysna at tel (0445) 825-156 or 810-237. Entries close late November. Own correspondent.