Three butterfly species extinct, 14 endangered

Three butterfly species have become extinct, according to a report on Thursday.

Another 14 were critically endangered, Beeld newspaper said.

This was according to information contained in a new butterfly atlas covering South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland.

The atlas was a combined effort by the University of Cape Town, the South African National Biodiversity Institute, and the Lepidopterists' Society of Africa.

There were 657 different butterfly species in the three countries, excluding the sub-species.

Half of the species occurred nowhere else in the world other than in South Africa, Lesotho, and Swaziland.