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Post by nomad on Jul 25, 2013 12:53:59 GMT -8
A. S. Meek collected many Delias butterflies in the Owen Stanley Range of the then British New Guinea. Perhaps the most beautiful was Delias sagessa. Here is a specimen he collected at high altitude in 1905 [ OUNHM collection ] Delias sagessa Owgarra
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Post by nomad on Aug 8, 2013 9:50:47 GMT -8
A. S. Meek's Journey to the mountain of the Stars. Even today the Star Mountains of Central West New Guinea are a very remote area and few lepidopterists or other Westerners have visited this region. It is quite remarkable then that Alfred Stewart Meek reached the second highest Peak of the Star Mountains , Mount Goliath in 1911 and which is known today as Mount Yamin and has a recorded height of around 4540 meters, one of the largest mountains of New Guinea. Even today as far as I can ascertain, there is no recorded ascent of the summit of this mountain and nobody seems to agree on its actual height. When Meek approached the mountain he would have seen a snow capped peak but apparently the snow has long since vanished. This was Meek's dream trip ten years in the making. The year before in 1910 Meek had travelled up the Oektawa River with a Dutch expedition to try to reach the Snow Mountains but failed and could only collect up to between 3000-4000 feet and there the butterflies were disappointing. Early in 1911 Meek set off with another Dutch expedition up the wide Eilanden [ Island ] river. Meek seems to have got on famously with the Dutch, especially with the one of the leaders of the 1911 Eilanden party, Captain Van der Van. Meek was a very professional collector who was only interested in collecting specimens to make a living, although he clearly loved his work. Meek did not want to climb the highest mountains in New Guinea to reach the top, his main desire was to reach good collecting ground and set up a camp and explore the area for specimens. It is interesting that in preparing for his 1910 expedition to the Oektawa River, Meek had heard of the British Ornithologists expedition to the Snow Mountains using the same river. He wrote " however the news did not disturb me much in completing my preparations. There was plenty of room for many expeditions in the enormous mountain range I intended to reach [ Catstensz Snow mtns], and the only serious drawback of another party having been in this place was this, that the natives might possibly be spoiled by them in one way or the other." Whether or not it really bothered Meek to have another expedition using the same route. He need not have worried. The B.O.U. were directed to the Mimka River and never reached the Snow mountains and Meek himself failed to reach them. He also was unable to get on good terms with the natives he met, who then were timid and semi hostile. It is also worthy of note that A. F. R. Wollaston, who was with the ill fated B.O.U. expedition, mentions Meek as an Australian and not a British collector. IF the B.O.U had been allowed to, use the Oektawa River in 1910 then it is highly probable that Wollaston and Meek who would have been both collecting for Lord Walter Rothschild would have had a meeting in New Guinea. As has been mentioned elsewhere Meek set up his collecting camp at 6000 on Mount Goliath and found life there very trying. It was very cold and the mountain was often enveloped in mist. Food was also hard to obtain and mainly consisted of tinned meat with rice. Meek cleared a large area of three acres for his camp and chopped down many giant forest trees. This action did not endear Meek and his party to the local natives who viewed the clearance as some sort of take over bid of their land. The natives were never friendly and Meek would have been always on his guard against an attack. In spite of this, Meek spent three months on the mountain from January to March. Meek's collecting camp on Mount Goliath at 6000 feet. Meek is the tall fellow standing on the left. This is the only photograph I can find of Meek in the field. Meek mentions the collecting was glorious and it had to be to atone for his hardships there. Although butterflies were usually scarce those of the Pieridae genus Delias were not. Meek was very happy to discover many new Delias butterflies. Meek discovered Delias hapalina, Delias mesoblema. Delias alepa, Delias catisa, Delias nais, Delias fascelis, Delias pheres, Delias leucias, Delias frater and Delias catocausta. Also the new subspecies hypomelas conversa and Delias Meeki neagra. A very impressive list. Perhaps among these Delias catocausta and Delias mesoblema may be singled out. Delias catocausta remains a rare butterfly today and Meek obtained a long series of both sexes. Delias mesoblema seems to have a very limited distribution and has yet to be found elsewhere. A specimen of Delias fascelis fascelis captured on Mount Goliath by Meek. [OUNHM coll] On a previous expedition to the Owen Stanley range in Papua, Meek had to leave his high collecting camp because his native collectors caught measles which they had no resistance to and this time several of his native collectors became ill with beri-beri due to their poor diet and he was forced to withdraw. Meek himself became ill with exhaustion and with the stress of losing three of his young collectors to beri beri. Alfred Stewart Meek was undoubtedly the best single collector to ever visit New Guinea and the most successful. Lord Walter Rothschild said of Meek stay on Mount Goliath " Mr A.S. Meek is to be congratulated in having successfully accomplished the task we mutually agreed on some ten years ago".
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Post by nomad on Aug 17, 2013 2:50:12 GMT -8
Into the Interior of Papua New Guinea, Meek's Butterflies of the Owen Stanley Mountains. All of the Meek Delias specimens shown in this thread are in the OUNHM collecton. It has been one hundred and ten years since Alfred Meek first collecting expedition to the Owen Stanley mountain range of Papua New Guinea and now seems a good time to reevaluate the lepidoptera that he discovered there. New Guinea is justifiably famous for its giant Ornithoptera and the lovely Pieridae genus Delias and they formed the major part of Meek's butterfly discoveries. I have also included some of his other notable lepidoptera captures to add further interest to this thread. Much information on Meek's expedition to the Owen Stanley Range, of the then British New Guinea, can be found in Meek's remarkable 1913 book ' A Naturalist in Cannibal Land '. Where it has been possible, I have used information from some of Meek's correspondence with Lord Walter Rothschild that may not have always been included in his book. Walter Rothschild purchased many of Meek's specimens for his Tring museum and with Karl Jordan described many of his butterflies. The German, Emil Weiske [1867-1950] was the first collector to make a large collection of specimens from the Owen Stanley Range. Weiske camped at 3000 feet on the south side of the mountains at the Aroa River in late 1899 and early 1900. Most of the lepidoptera that was discovered by Weiske was described by Carl Ribbe [ 1860-1934 ] and then the bulk of the Weiske collection was bought by Walter Rothschild. The collection contained many gems including new Delias and a few males of the very beautiful Graphuim [ Papilio] weiskei, which convinced Lord Rothschild to send another collector to the Aroa River. The Aroa River Jan-April 1903. Meek did not take the idea of an expedition deep into the interior of New Guinea lightly, as this was certainly a very dangerous and expensive thing to do. Rothschild records that " After several years of vain endeavours, I at last persuaded Mr Meek to undertake the very difficult journey to the headwaters of the Aroa River ". Meek reached the head of the Aroa River at the end of January 1903 and after finding Graphuim Weiskei at 3000 feet, decided to camp there and explore the area for lepidoptera until the beginning of April. He was very successful in capturing Delias and found all the species discovered by Weiske including such rarities as D. Bornemanni and D. itamputi. Unlike Weiske, Meek obtained a good series of the eight species of Delias that the German collector had discovered including the elusive females. The exception was Delias Discus neyi where only one male was taken. Meek obtained one female of the green form of Graphuim Weiskei and was surprised to learn later that in the long series that he had taken of this species, there was no others. Among the Ornithoptera captured was a female of the then very rare O. Goliath titan [Weiske had also managed to take a female at the Aroa] and a series of both sexes of the tailed O. meridionalis. Although the collecting was very good, Meek realized that to find new butterflies he needed to go higher where no other collector had yet penetrated. Meek returned to Port Moresby to gather supplies and there engaged a young collector that he would come to have a long association with, Albert Frederick Eichhorn. Delias bornemanni a rare species. Meek Aroa River 1903. Almost impossible to obtain today. Delias itamputi. Another rare Delias butterfly. Delias microsticha microsticha & Delias kummeri kummeriNorth of the Aroa River at 6000 feet May 1903. Meek arrived north of the head of the Aroa river [ Owgarra] in May where he set up his collecting camp to at around 6000 feet and at this height it became very cold at night but during the day the collecting was wonderful. Almost everything that he took was new. Within a short two week period he discovered a new ornithoptera, a female of the great banded Troides as he called it, later named by Rothschild as O. chimaera. Meek and Eichhorn captured seven new Delias, ligata, sagessa, clathrata, microsticha, mira, eichhorni and meeki. The day-flying moths were lovely with several new species of a new genus Eubordeta. Eubordeta miranda was especially striking [ see plate two]. A new butterfly of the strange Riodinidae family was found, Dicalleneura amabilis [ plate two] among a few others. However Meek had only been at his camp a short time when a measles epidemic, rampant on the coast, spread to his collecting boys who then, because of the cold, they caught pneumonia and when one died he was forced to withdraw to the coast to save the others. Meek's Lepidoptera from the Aroa River and Owgarra 1903. Unusually the specimens figured are photographs. Anagabunga River = Owgarra Nov 1904 to Feb 1905. Rothschild was very keen for Meek to return to Owgarra to capture a male of the new Ornithoptera chimaera. Rothschild wrote " After all the hardships undergone and the personal dangers upon an expedition in the interior it would have been very natural if the hard luck experienced had discouraged A. S. Meek entirely from going into the mountains. But our friends spirit is not easily dampened, and the fine things he found up there did not leave him in any peace. We were agreeably surprised to hear from him that he has made preparations to revisit the high regions in order to make a thorough collection of lepidoptera and especially to discover the male of Troides Chimaera" However Meek was still ill from his last expedition. On August the 10th 1904, he wrote from the Island of Samarai in British New Guinea that he was not fit to start for the mountains and could not stand a lot of knocking about and that he had lost a lot of blood. He mentioned that last time the leeches were really bad and that he had made canvas boots for his native collecting boys. This time there would be no Eichhorn and he thought his new assistant might prove useless! Meek had taken many thousands of nocturnal moths on his 1903 expedition with many new species too numerous to mention and hoped again to make a large collection. On October 17th, Meek wrote to Lord Rothschild that he was a few days away from his previous high camp at Owgarra by the Anagbunga River . It appear on the way up he had some difficulties with the local natives, it does appear he was molested for he said " A week ago I foolishly struck a native with my hand [ instead of taking a lump of wood ] and accidentally struck his teeth. Now I have a beautiful hand that will take months to heal. It is funny how ones blood goes bad in this country". It is notable that even when Meek's life hung by a thread in difficult situations, he never used or allowed mortal force on the natives, which indeed happened with a number of other well known Scientific expeditions. Meek mentions a sketch of beautiful Delias that Rothschild had given him, which had a large orange patch on the underside of the wing with a black dot in it , of which the great museum collector particularly wanted [ D. discus neyi ]. Meek had only taken one specimen on his last camp at the Aroa and wrote that he was probably now too high but had noticed two further specimens lower down but could not capture them. Meek was often cold, wet and miserable and his blankets were usually soaking wet and mentioned it was not good for his health and would Rothschild please send more insect boxes because he would not go this high up in New Guinea again. What is often forgotten and is truly staggering, is the fact that Meek managed to set thousands of butterflies, moths and other insects in often appalling conditions and deliver them safely down rugged mountain tracks to Rothschild and Jordan thousands of miles away. Those were the days before collectors delivered their specimens in those papered triangles. Meek would often set his specimens by poor light through the night. So those Meek specimens shown here and all those in the World museums were set by his own hand in the mountains and Islands of New Guinea! On October the 21st Meek had reached his high camp at nearly 7000 feet and collected down to around 5200 feet. The cold at night was very intense and Meek and his collecting boys found it hard to keep warm. Meek's camp was in an idyllic position on a spur high up on the side of the valley and when the sun was shining it made a very pretty sight looking down the valley which was all grass, extending low down, being divided into paddocks with villages resembling farms and meadows of England. The natives here often came in groups and were often bold, but not threatening and Meek wondered if he could get through his stay here without any trouble. Meek had bought two large stag hounds to keep the camp clear of natives when he was in the field and had to reimburse several natives when they were bitten, in turn one of the dogs was bitten by a snake and died. It rained every afternoon and Meek was thankful for his new airtight collecting boxes and his new acetylene lamp. He set up the Acetylene lamp in front of a sheet on a ridge overlooking a precipice. There were any amount of new species of moths especially among the Geometridae and that many resembled European species but not all. Meek captured a remarkable large new species from the Saturniidae family, Parahodia [ Eurhodia] gyra, which have a brown ground colour but with an intense striated yellow pattern and large white eye-spots on the forewings. Although Meek found new and beautiful day flying moths he thought they were disappointing here. Several days after arriving at his collecting camp, Meek saw the main object of his quest, a male O. chimaera, which flew past at some rate, one of his collectors shot it and the butterfly promptly disappeared over a precipice. Meek had all his boys out looking for the birdwing but they could not find it. On November 16th Meek wrote to Lord Rothschild that he had captured the male of O. chimaera at last " It is a most beautiful insect all black & gold, inclining to be tailed" Meek obtained several more females of O. chimaera which were all shot by the natives with pronged arrows. He obtained eggs from a female but could not rear the larvae because he could not find the foodplant . On Nov 22nd Meek wrote that he had found a large Owl butterfly, chocolate, with large eyes on the hindwing and similar eye near the tip of the forewing which Rothschild [1905] named Morphopsis ula and even more striking was the new Morphopsis Meeki, which had wide white banded forewing. Meek now knew he was going to make a very fine collection of lepidoptera and remarked " if only I could collect for pleasure". Although these new additions were fine discoveries, he considered the male of the new Troides [ Ornithoptera] was alone worth coming for. Meek was becoming short of specimens boxes and spent one whole day trying to fit his set insects in them and throwing away damaged specimens. I wonder what treasures went into the bin [ Jungle]. He was greatly relieved to find that soon after with the mail there were new store boxes. Ornithoptera chimaera One of Meek's finest butterfly discoveries. Rothschild was especially pleased with the new butterfly discoveries, that were not only new species but belonged to a new genus which seemed to him even more important. The following new species belonged to new genera. Three Satyridae, Platypthima ornata and Platypthima simplex and Pieridopsis virgo, all lovely small turquoise butterflies with a wide black banded tipped forewing . A new genus was also created for a similar sized and shaped butterfly Erycinidia gracilis which was brown. A remarkable Hairstreak from the Lycaenidae was captured in perfect condition, Stilbon meeki which remains the only known species in its genus. S. meeki is a very remarkable insect with the recto forewings very dark brown and the top half of the hindwings are the same colour but the lower half and the extraordinary long tails are bright orange. Meek also discovered a small lovely shaped Pieridae high up above the Anagabunga which Rothschild created a new genus for and named the special discovery Leuciacria acuta which still remains a rare butterfly. I imagine it is one thing finding a new species and quite another finding one that belongs to a new genus! Among the other new butterflies that belonged to known genera was a lovely little metallic blue Hypochrysops meeki. Weiske and especially Meek in 1903 had been so successful in collecting Delias that only one new species was added to the rothschild's growing collection, but it was a most beautiful one, Delias callima, which remains a collectors gem being rare and hard to obtain. Meek obtained another fine series of most of the Delias species that he had found on and above the Aroa in 1903. He again captured a long series of Papilio weiskei including females but these were purple instead of green. Delias callima callima collected by Meek at Owgarra in 1905 On December 25, Christmas , it rained all day and Meek was reading his fellow collector's book, Two Years Among New Guinea Cannibals by A.E. Pratt and he did not seem very impressed, he wrote on that day to Rothschild " I have been reading about Mr Pratt's expedition to the Aroa River [ Dinawa]. It is rather amusing reading for one who knows the country ' So thick was the forest that scarely any light penetrated and it was raining most of the way, not a sound was heard.' I suppose this is the approved style of writing about a tropical country. But you will perhaps be interested to hear that down near the coast, game abounds. It is usual for a person who has any go in him to be ahead of the carriers with rifle to shoot game. The last time I came up [ last year on the measle trip ], we got three Goura pigeons, one cassowary, one turkey, two wallabies and, with dynamite about a hundredweight of fish in one day's travelling. I only wish we had some game up here". Meek left for the Aroa River in February and he mentions he had enough of the constant rain. On the way down he had to swim twice across the Aroa which was in flood. This was Alfred Meek's most successful collecting expedition. Rothschild wrote " we do not easily get into ecstasies over some new species arriving at Tring, but this collection gave us reason to be astonished. Not only is the percentage of new species very high, but what is more noteworthy there is a remarkably large number of new genera of which no representatives have been found at lower altitudes. High praise indeed. Head of the Mambare River, Biagi Jan-April 1906. It took Meek a month to travel 80 miles inland where he set up camp at 5000 feet on the North side of the Owen Stanley Range. Meek had again engaged his trusted collector Albert Eichhorn and his brother George for good measure. He had just arrived when he shot a high flying birdwing which turned out to be the first female of the World largest butterfly O. alexandrae. This discovery barely merited a sentence in his book . It is as if Meek failed to realize the significance of his important discovery. The first specimen of O. alexandrae was a a dwarf specimen and the female of Ornithoptera goliath he had taken previously was probably larger. He also saw the male again flying high in the air and wrote to Rothschild, it appeared long-winged but he could not capture it. Rothschild was however thrilled with a new Ornithoptera and when Meek returned he pressed for another expedition to discover the male. Meek also took more females of O. chimaera. Meek took all the Delias he found at Owgarra except five species and he mentioned the females were very rare and he only took females of six species and not the ones that he particularily wanted. He did however capture more specimens of Delias discus neyi and two new ones, hypomelas and isocharis. Meek also obtained a small series of the two species of the owl butterflies, Morphopsis meeki and ula. There was a small Satyridae, the chocolate Brown Platyphima homochron. A good number of new species of moths were taken including a large Saturniidae, Neodiphthera venusta. However Meek thought the butterflies were disappointing and wished he had not come so far and so high. To add to his troubles, two of his collecting boys were murdered by tribesmen. Meek returned to North-east Papua in 1907 and succeeded in finding the male of O. alexandrae, and remarked it was his most important discovery he had ever made. He found the larvae and bred a fine series of O. alexandrae specimens and the rest, so to speak is history.
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Post by nomad on Aug 17, 2013 3:19:47 GMT -8
Any specimens of any species that has been mentioned in the Meek, Owen Stanley Range thread would be welcome here.
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Post by nomihoudai on Aug 17, 2013 3:46:20 GMT -8
Hello Peter, nice text and story. I only have to add one small correction. The genus Stilbon Rothschild & Jordan, 1905 was not new at all. It is a synonym of Bindahara Moore, [1881]. This genus is nowadays composed by the following species: - arfaki Bethune-Baker, 1913 - meeki (Rothschild & Jordan, 1905) - phocides (Fabricius, 1793) How it could slip them that this genus already exists puzzles me as phocides has been known since over a century back then. Fig. 3 Pl. 42 in The Lepidoptera of Ceylon. By F. Moore.; London,L. Reeve & co.,1880-1887. Scanned by BHL
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Post by nomad on Aug 17, 2013 7:03:41 GMT -8
Hi Claude, thank you for your kind comments and interesting information. While researching this thread, I had come across the fact that Stilbon Meeki had been placed in the genus Bindahara. However Bernard D, Abrera in Butterflies of the Australian Region[1990] who is supposed to be a authority on the Lycaenidae of this region, still separates the genus Stilbon from Bindahara! So I supposed that, the inclusion of Stilbon meeki in the genus Bindahara [ Moore 1881] was open to some doubt and I retained the Rothschild and Jordan [1905] name in my thread. I do think Bindahara arfaki [ Bethune-Baker ] discovered by the Pratts in the Arfak Mountains is another stunning species. It would be very nice to be able to see any S. [ Bindahara ] meeki specimens, I do not know for certain, but I imagine it is a rare species.
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Post by nomihoudai on Aug 17, 2013 9:12:31 GMT -8
I don't own any book by Bernard D'Abrera as a lot of his ideas are controversial. I do not have any Bindahara myself but I should come across some next month as I plan to go to several museums to study their Lycaenidae specimen. In Munich I should be able to take a look at most of these species and then I will examine them myself. The opinion that I expressed is from the Lycaenidae catalogue by Charles Bridges. Mr. Bridges never brought subjectivity into the field, he always just reported the majority of opinions present among literature.
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Post by nomad on Dec 15, 2013 13:20:51 GMT -8
Hi fellow collectors. I do admire those insect collectors who decide or are able to form a collection of the World's lepidoptera or Coleoptera or even both. I am afraid that I do not have the time, money or the space to do so. Like many others I decided to specialize in certain groups, hoping to form a complete taxonomic collection of these species as is possible. However even keeping a reference collection, with rows of specimens, however beautiful, is simply not enough for me. I want to know the who, how, when and where. This refers to my desire to know who first caught the butterflies that I am most interested in, who first described them, how they were first found and where they were found. Some may have noticed or others might even read have my posts about the early collector entomologists who I find as fascinating as the butterflies that they discovered. This often poses a new set of problems because often very little is known about them. It is akin to reaching a barrier where a traveler can go no further. Recently I read the A.S. Meek book again, I have enjoyed this volume several times, since I first read a copy on loan from the library all those years ago during the late 1970s. Well it was not really on loan, although it was acquired for me from another library, I had to sit in the reference section to read this rare book. Reading the book recently, this time, I wanted to know who was A.S. Meek's collector/dealer father who was mentioned in his book, but who was not named. I knew from the book that the young Meek went on collecting trips with his father, but had no love of forming a personal collection. I knew that Meek was born and lived in London and he disliked school, he left at 14, enjoyed keeping fit and wanted an adventurous life, which in he succeeded in greatly. There the matter rested, I did not know who his father was and knew no one who did. Recently while flicking through the ' Aurelian Legacy ' by Michael Salmon and was admiring a plate of Clouded Yellows [ Colias croceus ] when I noticed that a specimen of f. helice was caught by Meek at Brighton in 1871 and the accompanying text revealed that " E.G. Meek Naturalist, Plumassier and Furrier of Brompton Road, London, was alleged to have imported Continental rarities before discovering them. That one sentence fired my imagination. I searched online old copies of the ' Entomologist magazine ' from the latter part of the 19th century and here I found collecting and field reports by Edward G. Meek and advertisements for his natural history business, which he operated from 56 Brompton Road in Knightsbridge in London. In his book Meek tells us that his father used to send him into Hyde Park to search for larvae and aberrations of moths, a stone throw away from Brompton Road. Surely this was Meek's father who was operating at the right time and place. I have yet to have this information verified because no one else seems to know, but it all fits like a jigsaw. Edward Meek had to be the famous collectors father. Edward Meek was a very knowledgeable entomologist and an expert in both Macro and micro lepidoptera of the British Isles. He joined the Royal entomological Society of London in 1865 and was active in the Entomologist magazine up to around 1890. I was surprised at Salmon's comment because it appears he was well liked and much thought of. Other collectors praised him for helping them with identification of their specimens and he shared his knowledge of localities for rare insects freely, something most dealers would be very reluctant to do so. In sending collectors to the then very remote areas of Northern Britain such as the Hebrides, Shetland Islands and the Highlands of Scotland he greatly increased our knowledge of the of the lepidoptera occuring there and the geographical variation in their different localities. Among a number of British moths he discovered as new to the British list was the microlepidoptera Pempelia obductella in Kent[ 1870] and Psammotis[ lemiodes] pulveralis, a rare migrant in the famous collecting locality called the Warren at Folkstone on the Kentish coast [ 1869]. I can find no evidence of any wrong doing on the part of E.G. Meek and it is possible being a dealer he obtained continental specimens said to be British from his less trustworthy collectors. Edward Meek was really collecting in the golden age of British entomology when insects and their collectors were more numerous and well thought of. Here is some of the fascinating piece that he wrote in the ' Entomologist' in 1881 and entitled ' A Afternoon in Wicken Fen [ Cambrideshire] " I am glad to put on record one of the most successful expeditions, I ever made. On the 26th June I strolled into the fen about three o. clock [ PM] and shortly saw such a sight as would have made glad the heart of the most morose entomologist. In less than two hours I boxed two hundred specimens of really good insects" Edward Meek goes on to tell the readers of the Entomologist magazine that among these were the moths Eupocecilia notulana= ambiguella [ Tortrcinae], this is also known as the Vine Moth and is still rare in the U.K., but common on the Continent where it is a pest of grapes. Here also among the luxariant vegetation of the fen were the mico -moths Cosmopteryx orichalcea, which he describes as rare and beautiful and C. lienigiella flitting over fescue grass . Around Buckthorn bushes he found the micro-moth Buccalatrix frangulella to be abundant and over cromfrey the local and pretty Ethmia quadrillela [ Anesychia funerella]. At dusk he took further micros Coleophora anatipennella and C follicularis and several other species. The uncommon Macros Lobophora halterata [ The Seraphim] from the Geometridae family and Macrochila cribrumalis [ Dotted Fan Foot] also fell to his net. E.G. Meek also came away with the larvae of two other species. He ended his article with " such a afternoon rarely falls to the lot of the entomologist". This account shows Meek had a considerable knowledge of his quarry especially in collecting microlepidoptera, he knew his species in the field and he knew what to expect and where to look. If as I suspect E.G. Meek was the father of A.S. Meek, then he taught his son well in the art of collecting and preparing his specimens for his his future expeditions to the jungles and mountains of Australia, New Guinea and their Islands. Peter. From the Entomologist 1890
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mygos
Full Member
Posts: 230
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Post by mygos on Dec 15, 2013 14:13:51 GMT -8
Hi Peter,
I like your Sherlock Holmes way of inquiries ... Always keen on reading your entomologist adventures. If my english would be good enough, I would be more than happy to participate !
A+, Michel
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Post by nomad on Dec 16, 2013 5:00:09 GMT -8
Hi Michel. Thank you for your kind comments, it is nice to know that someone enjoyed the article. I am pleased that you are also interested in the historical aspect of Entomology and the biographies of the famous collectors. I would love to see your participation here, I think that you write English very well. I do enjoy the research and there is always something interesting to learn. You would think that Edward Meek's account of his happy field collecting trip at Wicken Fen that was published in the ' Entomologist ' would have been the easiest piece to write about, but in fact this was the hardest part. Such has been the changes in the taxonomy of the Microlepidoptera, both at Genus and Species level, that even with my modern literature, I found it difficult at times to know what micro moths Mr Meek actually caught on that late summer's afternoon all those years ago.
For those that do not know Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, is a remnant of the great fens of East Anglia, which were mostly drained for agricultural purposes during the 19th century. It was a well known locality and was much visited by collectors hoping to add rare and local lepidoptera to their collections. The Swallowtail butterfly [ Papilio machaon britannicus] occured there up to the 1940's, but when a substantial area was cleared for agriculture during the War, it soon became extinct. There have several attempts at reintroductions, but all have failed, probably because the area is now too small to sustain a viable breeding population. A number of notable moths species were also lost to the Fens due to drainage and because of this, when water levels fell at Wicken Fen they also became extinct there . These included a number of moths that collectors including E.G. Meek would have hoped to have taken at light at Wicken. Fenland species such as the Reed Tussock [ Laelia coenosa], which was last seen in the U.K at Wicken Fen in 1879, Marsh Dagger [ Acronicta strigosa ] extinct in the U.K by 1905, Many Lined [ Costaconvexa polygrammata ] extinct as a resident in 1879, Gipsy Moth [ Lymmantria dispar ] gone by 1879. Two other moths that still occur in britain as rarities have not been seen at Wicken for many years, these are the dull coloured Marsh Moth [ Athestis pallustris] and the Concolorous [ Chortodes extrema].
In spite of these losses, Wicken Fen remains the habitat of many rare moth species, especially those whose larvae feed on the Common Reed [ Phragmites australis] species such as the Reed Leopard [ Phragmataecia castaneae] Reed Dagger [ Simyra albovenosa] and a number of local Wainscot moths including the Flame Wainscot [ Mythimna flammea] and Silky Wainscots [ Chilodes martimus] still occur in the reedbeds. In this ancient fen, the Saw-sedge beds are home to the rare pyralid Nascia cilialis.
The surviving Fen meadows where E.G. Meek was collecting in June 1881, are still rich in rare moths such as the pretty Silver Barred [ Deltote bankiana] and the beautiful Marsh Carpet [ Perizoma sagittata]. Most of the moth species obtained by Meek in the Fen should still be there, but not in such large numbers. Peter.
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Post by nomad on Dec 22, 2013 8:40:10 GMT -8
Many thanks to John Tennent for verifying that E. G. Meek was the father of the great Rothschild collector ' Albert Stewart Meek ' and to John Chainey of the British Museum of Natural History for providing an article on E. G. Meek that was published in the London Natural History society journal by Maria Roberts [ 2009] and to John Edgington for providing his article : Lepidopterists through the Lens, Portraits from the first fifty years of the LNHS [ 2008] and for a copy of a B/W portrait photograph of E.G. Meek that he used in his article. Attachment Deleted Edward George Meek [ 1854-1938 ] E.G. Meek joined the Haggerstone Entomological society in 1869, the same year as the greatly respected and wealthy gentleman entomologist Edward Newman. Newman was the editor of the Entomologist, the journal of the Entomological society of London, which E.G. Meek had joined in 1865. The Haggerstone society founded in 1858 was an early collector club, a forerunner of the London Natural History society and the founder members were not wealthy or especially learned and included J and W Meek, E.G. Meek's other brothers. In the Victorian period ' entomology ' was one of the few areas which was able to transcend the rigid class system. Edward Newman used to have an ' open house ' on Fridays afternoons where any entomologist could go along to inspect his large collections and take their specimens for reference. Edward Meek was one of the few early members that had the time and money to travel to distant parts of the British Isles because of his successful entomological business. Edward Meek was born in Bethnal Green in the East End of London in 1844 and was the son of a silk weaver and was one of a large family who lived at Old Ford Road in the London borough of Bow. By the time Edward has reached sixteen his father had died and he was working as a shop boy. When he was twenty he married Kezia Reynolds and on his marriage certificate, Edward was described as a' Naturalist' of Ford Road. Edwards siblings all went into the textile industry, but this was not for Edward, who at No 4 Ford Road was already advertising his large list of British lepidoptera in Newman's Entomologist of 1871, the year his son Alfred Meek was born . His interest in Lepidoptera was not now only just personal, his travels to such far off places as Usk in Shetland or to the fens of Norfolk were party commercial ventures. Nevertheless his descriptions of his finds showed a real passion for the natural world and a great knowledge of his subject. This passion for collecting ' certainly' seemed to rub off on the young Alfred. By 1881 Edward Meek had moved to the prestigious address of 56 Brompton Road in Central London with his wife and seven children. He traded there as a naturalist till 1890. As was mentioned in my last article, he also sent collectors all over Britain. Now quite wealthy, he moved to Brokenhurst in the New Forest and then retired to Lymington in 1901 aged only 47!. Edward Henry Meek his son took over the business at Brompton Road where he traded until 1911. I have already recounted one of E.G. meek's adventures in Wicken and there are a number of very entertaining accounts in the ' Entomologist ', his own descriptions and finding rare moths were full of enthusiasm and created vivid impressions of his expeditions. E.G. Meek exhibited a number of rare moths at the Entomological society meetings, not just British Lepidoptera but many others, often newly discovered specimens from all over the World. Early E.G. Meek lepidoptera price list from Ford Road, East London 1871 Here is a very interesting story that E.G. Meek related in the ' Entomologist for 1869 about specimen fraud, so prevalent at that period. Painted Insects. " A few months ago I added a fine male of Sesia scoliaeformis [ now genus Synanthedon]] as I first thought it, to my collection, but having some times doubts as to its genuineness I placed it under a lens, and then could see grains of colour on the anal tuft: this induced me to wash the insect in Camphine, when the colour instantly removed,and a fine male of scoliaeformis was changed into a large culiciformis [ Large Red-belted Clearwing ] with the red belt scraped off. The most difficult part to colour is the antennae : of these it had two, one of scoliaeformis and the other culiciformis. since I detected this imposition I have seen two similar ones in other collections". One can only wonder at such fraud, but was it that notorious rogue, George Parry of Canterbury ' whose advertisement appears in 1871 with that of E.G Meek. This Victorian ' Kentish Buccaneer' was responsible for much fraud during the latter part of the 19th century. E.G. meek advertisment with that of the notorious rogue, George Parry of Canterbury from the Entomologist 1871. E.G. Meek was a discriminating collector he exhibited such rarities as Barrett's Marbled Coronet [ Hadena luteago ssp barrettii ] Noctuidae from Ireland, and black forms of the noctuids Autumnal Rustic [ Eugnorisma glareosa ssp edda ] and the Coast Dart [ Euxoa cursoria] from Unst in the Shetlands. In 1884, he captured a specimen of the very rare immigrant Three Humped Prominent [ Notodonta tritophus] Notodontidae at Southwold in Suffolk. I especially like these two accounts of his thoroughness when collecting, which were published in the ' Entomologist' the first regards an account [1892] of finding the Silver Cloud [ Xylomiges conspicillaris], which is now placed in the genus Eigra, a moth that is usually found in West Britain around the Seven Valley " in open woodland and orchards, he wrote " While strolling along the road from Dartford to Darenth [ Kent] on the 27th of last month, I found two specimens of this rare species, one on a post, the other on a fence close to Gore Farm. I have searched for this insect for Sixteen or Seventeen years, but never saw it alive before. Imagine my surprise at finding two in less than Twenty mintues" and from an earlier edition of the journal of 1878, " During a short stay in the Norfolk fens last month, I secured a fine series of Eupoecilla geyeriana now Gynnidomorpha minimana Tortricinae: they fly just before dusk and are very active on the wing. I also caught four examples of Gelechia [Monochroa] palustrellia , Gelechiidae,these came to the light-house, which I carry in my boat, at about one o' clock in the morning. " Edgington wrote in his article on E.G. Meek, " His letters demonstrate his careful observations and his knowledge built up through much experience. Meek was still making remarkable captures when he moved to the New Forest in 1892 at his Fairmead home he relates "I caught six specimens of Sphix convolvluli [ Agrius] as they hovered over my blossoms of [ Nicotiana] Tobacco plant from Sept 17-24. E.H. Meek, Alfred's older brother took over the business from his father. In spite of his humble background Meek clearly achieved Scientific expertise as well as commercial success in the field of Entomology and was regarded highly by his peers. Edward Meek was a great Victorian field naturalist and without his love of Entomology , Alfred Meek may not have become the famous Rothschild collector that we remember today.
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Post by beetlehorn on Dec 24, 2013 9:02:32 GMT -8
Very nice thread Nomad. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article. Delving into the past lives of the great naturalists, it is easy to see that there is a common bond amongst collectors, no matter where they are located. The thrill and excitement Meek relays to his readers is often experienced by other collectors whenever they encounter an interesting species, or just have a great collecting adventure. It is this...the encounter!, and all that follows that makes field collecting so rewarding to us all. There is still so much we haven't discovered about insects, and a huge amount of work still lies before us, especially in the tropics. In regards to moths, it is very likely the moth collector could come across a new species at any time, simply because of their vast diversity, but we need a foundation upon which to categorize each and every new discovery. Where would we be as collectors without the background work of the great naturalists of the past?
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