From backyard butterflies to california’s biodiversity crisis: how one entomologist is racing to document species before they disappear

Chris Grinter’s journey from curious child watching butterflies in suburban Chicago to managing one of the world’s most important insect collections illustrates both the wonder of scientific discovery and the urgency of our biodiversity crisis. As senior collection manager of entomology at the California Academy of Sciences, Grinter oversees a vast archive that preserves everything from tiny moths to massive butterflies—specimens that serve as crucial records of Earth’s vanishing species.

Grinter’s passion ignited during a transformative visit to Chicago’s Field Museum, where he recalls having his “mind blown.” What started with butterflies soon expanded into the hidden world of moths, which outnumber butterflies 15 to 1. This fascination led him to volunteer in fieldwork and eventually to spearhead the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI), an ambitious race against time to document every species in California before they disappear forever.

The CalATBI project has revived large-scale biological exploration unseen in decades, with Grinter’s team traveling tens of thousands of miles across California and collecting hundreds of thousands of specimens. Their fieldwork hasn’t been without challenges—from getting vehicles stuck in Mojave Desert sand to sampling insects in 100°F heat. Yet these efforts continue uncovering new species, even in urban gardens, highlighting how much of our natural world remains unknown.

For Grinter, this work represents both scientific discovery and civic duty. As species face unprecedented threats from climate change and habitat loss, his collection serves as both a library of biodiversity and a call to action for conservation efforts across California and beyond.