For months, Scotland Yard's sleuths followed a shimmering trail of 1,600 butterflies that led from Australia to England. They were stolen from three Australian museums, and much of the thief's bag of exotic loot was irreplaceable. Among the missing butterflies were specimens rare beyond priceĀan Adaluma urumelia, silky white tinged with blue; an Ogyris zozine splendida, the only one of its black and metallic-blue type ever known to have been netted; several Diana Moonbeams, whose dull purple shading excites collectors just as a light excites a moth.
The Yard called in entomology experts of the British Museum. Who might have engineered this...