Moth enthusiast curates rare moth, butterfly collection at Ned Smith Center near Millersburg

Aug. 28—MILLERSBURG — Encased in a series of cabinets, dozens of moth and butterfly displays sit in neatly arranged frames and mounts, waiting to be unearthed for its next showing.

More than 18,000 of the winged specimens — representing a wealth of origins, genuses and species — are preserved in the archival room of the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art, a nature preserve and educational center near Millersburg.

The creatures form the basis for the center's moth and butterfly exhibits, which are named the Faye Arleen and Lawrence Joseph Kopp Collections, after the two siblings who dedicated much of their lives to rearing the insects on their Klingerstown farm.

The collection is curated by John "Mothman" Laskowski, who is himself an ardent admirer of lepidopterans and a member of the Ned Smith Center board of trustees.

"Everything here comes from the Kopps," Laskowski said.

Included in the galleries and in the vast archival collection are rare species such as the regal fritillary butterfly, Speyeria idalia; the peacock moth, Automeris io; and the Atlas moth, Attacus atlas, which is among the largest moth species in the world.

"Larry had one of those photographic memories," Laskowski said. "He knew all the genus species names of all these organisms by heart. He didn't use common names."

Born and raised in Klingerstown, Faye and Lawrence Kopp dedicated innumerable hours to collecting and rearing the specimens. While Faye Kopp focused on collecting native Pennsylvania species, her brother's interests were global. Lawrence Kopp traded and sold to collectors around the world, assembling a vast array of exotic moths and butterflies from the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australasia and the Indo-Pacific region.

During the peak of their production in the 1970s and '80s, "Larry and Faye were raising as many as 30,000 cocoons in addition to the specimens," according to a label at the Ned Smith gallery.

Laskowski, an amateur entomologist, spends much of his time curating and maintaining the expansive collection.

The public part of the collection, housed in the center's gallery spaces, is divided into three sections: an interactive mobile display in the hallway; a mobile display with dangling Ackermann mounts; and an exhibit in the Olewine Gallery that focuses on the Kopps' history.

One frame in the archives displays a group of Menelaus blue morpho, Morpho menelaus, a species of the Morpho butterfly whose wings are a striking, iridescent blue color.

"It's based on the reflectivity of light going through the cells in the wing scales," Laskowski said. "They don't change color — the light reflected back to you is different."

Another frame, dating to 1971, features a collection of the sunset moth, Urania ripheus, a species endemic to Madagascar with a complex, multicolored wing pattern.

"Larry reared the exotics on their farm, and that's where I learned the process of how to do that with him," Laskowski said. "Faye only collected specimens off of their 125-acre farm. All her collection is primarily in the Ackermann mounts, and they're all native, indigenous specimens that she seemed to favor."

Mothman

Laskowski, 76, has spent most of his life studying, admiring and collecting winged organisms. He traces the beginning of his obsession to a chance encounter with a Luna moth when he was 5 years old.

One morning, when he went out to feed his family's sheep, Laskowski saw something dangling near the lamp outside the barn. Upon closer inspection, he saw it was a large, striking-looking winged insect that he later understood to be a Luna moth, Actias luna, which thrives in eastern North America.

"I looked up, and here below this light was this big, green Luna moth," he said. "First one I ever saw. I was mesmerized. Something clicked, and from that time on, I just favored moths — even over butterflies."

Since that fateful encounter, Laskowski has embarked on a career as an amateur moth researcher, collecting the specimens using a setup of sheets and floodlights.

A former biology teacher at Penn Manor High School in Millersville, Laskowski often incorporated his passion for moths into his lessons.

From the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s, he also hosted "road shows" in his spare time during the summers. These trips consisted of stops at state parks, schools, nature centers and day cares, where he made presentations about his prized moths.

His moniker, "Mothman," was coined by a Lancaster-based reporter in the early 1980s, and the name has stuck since.

Now residing in Halifax, Laskowski continues to cultivate his talents by curating the gargantuan collection of lepidopterans at the Ned Smith Center.

"We are an authentic museum," he said. "Everything that happens in that room (the archival room) is monitored. There's humidity and temperature controls in there, and it gets inspected by the museum association."

Looking ahead, the Ned Smith Center will present a special exhibit of its butterfly and moth collections in October 2023 in celebration of the center's 30th anniversary.

In addition to its galleries, the 535-acre center features hiking trails, public hunting grounds, a nature-inspired play area and an open-air amphitheater. A variety of educational programs, concerts and other events are offered at the center year-round.

For more information, visit nedsmithcenter.org.

Contact the writer: hlee@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6085