Paintings made entirely of the butterflies' wings are on display in a private butterfly museum built by a 67-year-old lepidopterist in Fushun, Northeast China's Liaoning Province. Photo: screenshot of the video posted by Pear Video

A 67-year-old lepidopterist in Fushun, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, has built a private butterfly museum with hundreds of specimens on display and paintings made entirely of the insects' wings.

Wang Xilin said that he has spent 35 years building his collection of butterflies that he caught in 21 provinces and municipalities, according to a video posted by Pear Video on Sina Weibo on Monday. 

Wang not only has a vast collection of butterflies expertly displayed in glass frames hung on his museum's walls, he has also used tens of thousands of butterfly wings to make works of art, including a large canvas depicting a tiger and another of two pheasants.

In the video, Wang introduces his artwork of five peonies of different colors, made by using a razor to cut butterfly wings into the required tiny shape and sticking them on the canvas.

"I used over 2,000 Papilio maackii wings just to make the leaves of the peonies, which took me half a year to design and complete," said Wang.

Although some netizens applauded Wang's creativity, many others thought his hobby was rather cruel.