Bernard d’Abrera (b.1940), the British-born Australian entomologist, natural history photographer and publisher, is arguably the best known ‘Butterfly Man’ in the world. Like the famous ornithologist / naturalist, John Gould (1804-1881) he is regarded by many as the most prolific publisher and original author / illustrator in the world, of works devoted to his particular field of natural history. But where John Gould employed the services of many artists and colourists in his 41 volumes, Bernard d’Abrera is responsible for almost all of the photographs, as well as all the text in his 31 volumes (to date) on the Butterflies and Moths of all faunal regions.

A double-major graduate of the University of New South Wales (1964-65, History & Philosophy of Science, and History), he commenced his series on the Butterflies of the World in 1966-67, with Butterflies of the Australian Region. Since that time he has successfully completed most of the Butterflies of the World in 20 volumes and has one volume (Vol. 3, Lycaenidae - in prep) remaining to complete his revision of the Butterflies of the Afrotropical Region in that series. In 1985 he completed the classic monograph on the Hawkmoths of the World Sphingidae Mundi and has also successfully completed two volumes on the Saturniid moths Saturniidae Mundi (a 3rd volume now in preparation, for publication sometime in 2008-09). He has recently published (2005), a New & Revised edition of Birdwing Butterflies of the World. All of d’Abrera’s books are based on the peerless collections held in the British Museum (Natural History) in London (where he has laboured continuously for 37 years), as well as from smaller institutions such as the Museum of Victoria in Melbourne, the MRAC at Tervuren in Belgium, and private collections around the world.

In 1982 Bernard d’Abrera and his wife Lucilla, founded Hill House Publishers TM, as a necessary means of taking under their control all stages of production of his books, in order to develop and improve the finished quality of the final work. As the work progresses, the quality of production reflects the lessons learned in the art and science of colour printing. These are now being applied by Hill House to all their publications, including the world-famous BM(NH)/John Gould Facsimile Series, as well as to their facsimile reproductions of antiquarian maps, the Atlas of the Dutch Indies (for KNAG), and other historical documents and prints.

Since his earliest volumes, Bernard d’Abrera has steadfastly been concerned with the need for strict observance of the rules of philosophy in the science and craft of pure taxonomy, sensu Linnaeus, in the study of all orders of natural history, where the ‘species’ is the terminal taxon, because of its scientifically demonstrable natural fixism. He is thus an unapologetic Aristotelian in that he professes the axiom of typology, in which ‘like-begets-like’. Therefore, for the last 25 years, he has been an outspoken foe of all cod-scientific theories of ‘Origins’ (itself, by definition, a serious metaphysical concept, beyond the remit and competence of the physical sciences) that broadly comprise Evolutionism. Thus, he suggests that such baleful and irrelevant theories seriously compromise any true scientific study of the natural world, which should only be based on collection & curation, observation & measurement, laboratory experiment & prediction, and a generous helping of common sense.

In 2001, in his now famous Concise Atlas of the Butterflies of the World (Hill House Publishers) the author launched a systematic and scholarly critique of what he sees as the patently unscientific, profligate, and self-serving posturings of the quasi-religion of Evolutionism. He did so on the basis of wishing to free himself and his readers from the neo-Darwinian hegemony and hubris of the scientific establishment, and ‘the viscid, asphyxiating baggage’ with which that establishment continues to burden and impede the true and profitable study of the natural sciences. He further argues that genuine natural science should be based solely on the living fauna & flora (which is also represented in museums), and not on tendentiously speculative and unprovable theories of the past that are best consigned to the realm of pure science fiction.

Bernard d'Abrera 2007