About Us
Long before we have established Marinduque Lepidoptera Farm, my late husband, Dr. Carmelito Pe Sevilla and I have always been a nature lover. Upon our retirement, we purchased a vacant lot beside our house and I developed it as a garden where I sell flowering plants, orchids and ornamental plants that I grow as a hobby.
In 1999, my daughter, Shelah who was then working as a researcher at a business school was given an assignment to make a case study about the butterfly industry in the Philippines. She was fascinated with her new found knowledge that the host plants of some butterfly species are common such as citrus plants, soursop, sweet potato etc. She told my husband about it. My late husband, being an enthusiastic gardener, gathered all the citrus plants he can in the neighborhood and planted them in our garden. Few months passed and we observed that the plants in our backyard are already eaten by larvae. We thought of constructing a very small cage with net and placed some potted citrus plants inside together with the larvae to observe them and to protect them from predator. We found it very therapeutic watching the development of larvae each day. Aside from tending our plants in our garden, most of our time was spent on watching the larvae until it turned into pupa and eventually into a beautiful butterfly. Later on, my husband thought of finding a milkweed plant because he remembered when he was young, he normally sees larvae on its leaves. We found out that it’s the Tiger Monarch that feed on it. We were happy to see some larvae on the leaves of our mildweed plants. We put the potted milkweed plant inside the cage together with its larvae. You just can’t imagine our excitement on looking forward how its pupae will look like. Unfortunately, when the the 2 larvae we were observing were about to pupate, we couldn’t find them anymore inside the cage. We thought it was eaten by ants but we couldn’t find any trace of it. My husband and daughter relentlessly looked for it and they found 1 pupa few meters away from the cage under a dry leaf. That’s when we realized that species of butterflies behave differently from one another. We decided to learn more about butterflies and this eventually led to the construction of bigger breeding cages and a large-scale development of plantation of butterfly host plants.
From its humble beginning in 1999, our company has grown and known to be a reliable source of butterfly supply locally and internationally.
Business with Social Responsibility
With success of our butterfly farm in the town of Gasan, many people from the inner most part villages of our town have followed suit in breeding butterflies realizing its commercial potential. Most of them however are subsistence farmers and they normally struggle to keep the operations of butterfly breeding once their cages are damaged by typhoons which hit our province several times a year. Once the crops have been destroyed, it’s difficult for them to start all over again. So I thought of initiating the establishment of a cooperative so that all the butterfly breeders in our town will be organized. This way, it’s easier to get the assistance of the government and none-government agencies. To date, Gasan Butterfly Breeders Multi-Purpose Cooperative has 70 active members. Through the kind assistance of our Governor Carmencita O. Reyes, the 150 butterfly breeders in our town were given nets and larvae cages to support their production. This help from our provincial government is instrumental in making Gasan butterfly breeders the top supplier of pupae and live butterflies in Marinduque.
It is my sheer joy to give back to my community. This is just the beginning of the realization of my dream to professionalize the backyard butterfly industry in our town. I hope to do more in the future.
