Vladimir Nabokov, the author of Lolita and Pale Fire, was a butterfly-collector. He did some serious work on the neotropical blues, described a new species, Lysandra cormion, and was the first to capture a little moth now known as Nabokov’s Pug. Late in life, he wrote sensuously of his days in the field with net and satchel, capturing as few writers have done that earth memory we have of nature with its still vivid scents, sounds and colours.
