PHOTO PROVIDED Rick Mikula, the world’s leading butterfly expert, poses with a butterfly in his mouth, a technique he developed. On Saturday, April 6, Mikula gave his final lecture at The Clinton County Conservation District to turn his focus to his health.

MILL HALL — “As soon as that first butterfly was born in my house, I said, ‘this is all I’m doing for the rest of my life,'” said Rick Mikula. And as he will tell you, it worked out pretty good, because if you go to any search engine and type in “butterfly expert” he comes up first on the list.

On Saturday, April 6, Mikula, the world’s premier lepidopterist (a person who studies or collects butterflies and moths), gave his final lecture at the Clinton County Conservation District to focus on his health. Mikula, who is known for his ability to attract crowds with little more than his personality, a few homemade props and his butterflies, filled the room with people of all ages who were eager to learn about the flying insects he’s so passionate about.

“I have been playing with butterflies for the last 44 years. A lot of people will say it’s entomological research — no — I’ve been playing with a bunch of bugs,” said Mikula, who jokes that all those years are the reason he’s slouched over. Over those 44 years, he has been featured on Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel, quoted in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and profiled in People magazine. He’s also responsible for designing the butterfly features at Hershey Park, Dollywood and Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland.

“A lot of people assume I must have started when I was a very young child with Coke bottle glasses and all that, but no, it didn’t happen that way,” said Mikula. In reality, it began with a question. While on a walk with his wife Claudia, who shares his passion, he caught a passing butterfly. To his surprise, it had a silver question mark on its wings.

“I thought that was the most incredible thing I ever saw and had to see what it was called, so I went out to the mall, bought a book on butterflies and looked it up just to find out it was called the question mark butterfly. I could’ve figured that out,” he said in his characteristically playful tone.

The more he researched butterflies, the more mistakes and inconsistencies he found in the literature.

“I found so many mistakes that I decided to write my own.” he said. Since then, he has authored, co-authored and ghost written several books, including the award winning “The Family Butterfly Book” and a series of children’s books for Scholastic.

He will be the first one to tell you that anyone can be a butterfly expert like him.

“No one knows anything about butterflies,” he said.

Everyone, young and old, leaves his lectures an expert, thanks to his demonstration where he dons a butterfly costume, outfitted with props to teach their anatomy, which he says, “Not only will you not forget, it will haunt your dreams for the rest of your life.”

“We don’t think there is anything more important in the field of conservation than education,” said Wade Jodun, former Clinton County Conservation District manager, “This is how you change hearts and minds.”

While demonstrating for the audience how to make butterfly cages out of various household items, Mikula said, “If you raise just one caterpillar with your children — they will tell their children about it.” He believes that raising butterflies is a great educational family experience that doesn’t cost a dime.

Natural resource conservationist Charly Bloom, whose own interest in conservation began through educational events she attended as a child, said, “You never know what kids you’re going to touch with what you do. I grew up going to the conservation camps they used to hold. That was always something that hit me very hard. So making sure we do stuff like this, with people like Rick sharing their expertise, is valuable because you never know who you’re going to inspire.”

While visiting a school in Bucks County, a music teacher approached Mikula to share how he inspired him.

“He came up to me, and he said, ‘Mr. Mikula, I have to thank you,’ and when I asked why he said, ‘I saw you when was in second grade and that is when I decided to become a teacher.'”

It is the second and third graders that Mikula says he will miss most.

“They can’t wait to get outside and try everything,” he said. The children, like himself, have an unquenchable desire to learn, which is what lends to his fondness for teaching them.

Even after all these years he says he’s still amazed when he sees a butterfly come out of its chrysalis.

“A lot of people love everything he does and so do we — he will be greatly missed,” said District Manager Susie Peters.

In terms of his legacy, Mikula said he wanted it to be that the people he interacted with thought of him as the nicest guy they’ve ever met. And it seems like, once again, things worked out pretty good for him.