Just three-quarters of a century ago, every child on vacation across France was chasing butterflies with a fine-meshed net. Today, with the exception of a few protected areas in Provence, where butterfly hunting is forbidden, our children can only find out about butterflies on the Internet, and even then only in the case of tropical species. For adults, it's no longer necessary to stop and clean the windscreens of our cars every fifty kilometers, as was the case half a century ago. The agricultural pesticides that destroy their caterpillars mean that their winged forms no longer brighten up our gardens. Only the exotic species, some of which are bred in greenhouses or reproduce in the most inaccessible jungles of Asia, Africa or Latin America, still attract researchers and collectors with a net in hand. Fortunately, when well preserved in entomological boxes and protected from light, collections from centuries gone by can reach us in all their splendor of form and color.
