The masthead
About ButtyFly
ButtyFly is an independent editorial publication devoted to butterflies — their biology, their habitats, the people who study them, and the practical craft of watching them closely. We publish species profiles, field reporting and observational guides for readers who would rather spend an hour in a meadow than an hour scrolling.
What we are for
Small animals, long sentences.
Most writing about insects is either a picture caption or a scientific abstract. There is very little in between, and the gap matters: the people most likely to record a butterfly, plant for one, or argue for the protection of a verge are usually not researchers, and they are not served by either extreme.
So this journal occupies the middle. We assume a reader who is intelligent, patient and unfamiliar with the terminology. We explain the vocabulary rather than avoiding it, we name our uncertainties rather than smoothing them out, and we do not pretend that a subject is simpler than it is.
That editorial position has a consequence: we publish fewer pieces than a general-interest site would. Eighteen articles is a small body of work by design.
Founded 2016
Ten volumes published, the current one numbered XI.
Edited in Bristol
Contributors work across Europe, the Mediterranean and the tropics.
Fortnightly note
One article every other Thursday. No daily posting, no feed-filling.
No advertising
No trackers, no pixels, no sponsored content. Funded by readers.
Editorial policy
How this journal is made
Sourcing
Species accounts are compiled from standard taxonomic literature and regional field guides. Where a fact is contested — the boundary between the viceroy and the monarch as a mimicry system is the best-known example — we say so in the text rather than choosing the tidier version.
Conservation status
We use IUCN Red List categories: Least Concern (LC), Near Threatened (NT), Vulnerable (VU), Endangered (EN), Critically Endangered (CR), Data Deficient (DD) and Not Evaluated (NE). A global assessment is reported as a global assessment. Where the only available listing is national, we mark the entry regional and do not describe it as a global status.
Independence and funding
The journal carries no advertising and accepts no funding from commercial suppliers of field equipment, optics or travel services. This constraint is deliberate. Reviews of equipment, where we publish them, are bought at retail price.
On bylines
Bylines in ButtyFly name editorial roles held by the masthead rather than making claims about identifiable individuals. Where a piece reflects a specific research programme, the programme is named in the text and the reader is pointed to the primary literature.
Corrections
We get things wrong, and we would rather fix them than defend them. Corrections are published at the foot of the article concerned, with the date and the substance of the change, and are not silently folded into the text. To report an error, write to the editorial desk and include the article title and, if you have it, the sentence in question.
Substantive corrections — a wrong identification, a wrong figure, a misattributed quotation — are also noted in the fortnightly email so that readers who have already seen the piece are told.
Masthead
Who writes here
Six contributing editors, working across systematics, field ecology, conservation practice, photography and the cultural history of natural history.
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