It has a wingspan of up to 11 inches and is noted for its graceful, birdlike fl ight. They’re called Goliaths because they’re huge, the second-biggest butterfly in the world (first is Queen Alexandra). With the help of Speart, The Post gathered a list of the most coveted and rare butterfl ies, many of which are on endangered lists and are illegal to capture or sell: The US Fish and Wildlife Service conservatively estimates that the illegal butterfl y trade is worth about $200 million a year. The book follows the efforts of undercover agentĮd Newcomer as he struggles to gather enough evidence against the kingpin of butterfl y smugglers, Yoshi Kojima, who claimed to make hundreds of thousands of dollars off illegal sales of multi-colored wings. Speart, a mystery writer by trade, found that her fi ctional crime world resembled the bug world to a discomfiting degree: serial killers and obsessive bug collectors share similar profiles. Some of them have hard times holding down jobs, a number of really obsessed ones have signs of Asperger’s,” says author Jessica Speart, who penned this “Orchid Thief”-style expose on the bizarre subculture of illegal butterfl y smuggling. With $45,000 you could get a new car, place a down payment on a nice condo, even snatch up a lock of Justin Bieber’s hair on eBay - or you could illegally purchase the corpse of an endangered yellow crested spangle butterfly.īelieve it or not, there are people - mostly rich, male and from Japan - who will invariably choose the butterfly.
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