About the author...

My name is Christopher Jonko. I am passionate about nature, hiking, traveling and photography, and my greatest passion is butterflies and moths.

How did it start?

I became interested in butterflies and moths at the age of 13, during a vacation spent with my grandparents in the countryside. At first, it was just a childish curiosity. Many years later, it turned into a fascination that lasts to this day.

Engineer, teacher, programmer with the soul of a naturalist in one

I am an energy engineer and teacher by education. I have been professionally active in IT sector for several decades. I combine two seemingly distant fields: lepidopterology and programming, finding fulfillment in both of them.
I have been a member of the Polish Entomological Society since 1994. In 2010, the Society honoured me with its gold award for my special contribution to its advancement and for promoting interest in butterflies and moths.

I’m not a professional lepidopterologist, but…

Even though I have no biology education:

I cooperate with scientific institutions in Poland and abroad, I participate in scientific grants - recently in the Caucasus, I participate in national and international scientific conferences, I give lectures, visit schools and tell children about butterflies and moths, I organize the European Moth Nights cyclic event in Europe, I participate in several international projects, including European Red List or Red Admiral migration, I collect data for the atlas of the distribution of Polish butterflies, I advise on planned nature reserves, I wrote a chapter on butterflies for The Book of the Beech Forest and articles for several international scientific journals such as Journal of Animal Ecology or PeerJ.

That's me with the net and camera!

In my free time I hike in the mountains, travel, and take photos of nature, not only on a macro scale. These are my favorite forms of relaxation. I always take an entomological net and a camera with me, although I usually prefer to use the latter. I like talking and meeting people who share my passion. If you are one of them, this place is for you. If not - look at the butterflies on my website, get to know them better, I think that this may change quickly.