Photo by Becky Polaski The butterflies pictured above are part of a collection of thousands collected since the late 1940s by Jerry Undercoffer. Undercoffer’s collection is currently on display at Lyn-Clare Flower Shop in St. Marys, which is owned by his wife Jean.

By  Becky Polaski

Staff Writer

Thousands of butterflies from the personal collection of Jerry Undercoffer are currently on display at Lyn-Clare Flower Shop, located along the Million Dollar Highway in St. Marys. The flower shop is owned by Jean, Jerry’s wife.

The butterflies cover a wide range of sizes and colors and come from all over the world. Some of the butterflies have coloring that would allow them to blend in with the bark of a tree, the wings of some look like two penguins standing back to back, and others come in a variety of bright colors such as yellow, orange and blue.

 Undercoffer passed away several years ago and since that time the butterflies were kept at home by his wife. Mrs. Undercoffer joked that Jerry had been collecting butterflies since before he was born.

Several of the butterflies in Undercoffer’s collection date back to the late 1940s. Almost all of them include two tags, one indicating where and when the butterfly was caught and another listing the type of butterfly.

“I think there are only one or two that aren’t labeled,” Jean Undercoffer said. “Some he bought in. Most of them he caught.”

Mrs. Undercoffer noted that her husband collected butterflies wherever he went and often lost track of time doing so. Many of those butterflies are from Pennsylvania, California, Canada and Mexico.

“We had a Mexican student that spent his senior year at Elk County Christian High School,” Mrs. Undercoffer said. “We kept in touch with him and went back and forth several times.”

There were several butterflies in Undercoffer’s collection that he caught while visiting that student in Mexico in the early 1990s.

In addition to the butterflies that Undercoffer caught himself, he also bought several from a variety of other locations and also traded with individuals to expand his collection.

“Back when the Iron Curtain was still up he traded with a young kid out of Russia. They traded back and forth,” Mrs. Undercoffer said.

She noted that she would frequently hike or ride her bike while he looked for butterflies.

“The Quehanna road is good. That is a nice place,” Undercoffer said. “I’d ride my bike back and forth. There is a lot of milkweed down there right by the road.”

Even though she was present when many of the butterflies were caught, Undercoffer added that she had a part in catching very few of them.

“I never enjoyed catching butterflies,” Undercoffer said. “I enjoyed being with Jerry.”

Mrs. Undercoffer explained that less than a year after her husband died she tried to sell the butterflies to Carnegie Mellon University.

“Two guys from Carnegie Mellon came up and they said they would be back in 2.5 to 3 weeks because they wanted them,” Undercoffer said. “They never came back.”

After continuing to store the butterflies at her home, Undercoffer made the decision in October to put them on display at Lyn-Clare Flower Shop.

“Back in October we didn’t know what to put out (in the front room of the Flower Shop),” Undercoffer said. “I said I wasn’t putting Christmas stuff out because I hate (decorating for) Christmas before December and so the suggestion was made to put the butterflies out here.”

While Undercoffer is unsure how long the butterflies will remain on display, she noted that a variety of people including girl scouts and school groups have already stopped in to see them. A guest book is located near the display for individuals to sign when they visit.

While Undercoffer is still looking for a museum to take the butterflies she explained that she does not want to break up the collection.