Cabbage White Butterfly. Christos Zoumides, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
White Cabbage Butterfly. Christos Zoumides, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Beer-for-a-Butterfly 2023 Contest

The Beer-for-a-Butterfly Contest is back for its 52nd year, after a 2-year pandemic halt. The contest is open to the public and participants are tasked with finding and collecting the first Cabbage White butterfly of the year in central California, one of the first butterflies to emerge in late winter. At the end of the contest, one winner is awarded with a pitcher of beer (or its equivalent). The Beer-for-a-Butterfly Contest, hosted annually by Professor Arthur Shapiro, has been contributing to climate change research and long-term studies of butterfly life cycles since 1972. In that time Professor Shapiro has lost the contest just 4 times, most recently in 2017 to CWS affiliate Jacob Montgomery, then a graduate student and now a project manager at California Trout. Montgomery was on his way to the farmers market when he found the butterfly and collected it, not realizing he'd just secured himself a rare win for the contest. Now for 2023, the contest rules are as follows: 

  • Specimen must be captured on or after Jan. 1, must be an adult and must be brought in alive to the Department of Evolution and Ecology, 2320 Storer Hall, during work hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
  • The receptionist will check to ensure the specimen in alive, and, if it is, place it in a refrigerator pending verification as a cabbage white. If you cannot turn in your specimen right away (say, if you capture it on a weekend or holiday) you can keep it refrigerated for a few days — do not freeze it.
  • Provide the following information with your specimen: date and location of the capture, and the exact time; and your contact information (name, address and phone number, or email address).

 

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