Post by nomad on Sept 25, 2013 11:25:23 GMT -8
As Jeff has rightly mentioned, many papers are a mine of information containing detailed information not to be found in books.
I agree, books on collecting are few and far between. It is nice to see that the A. E. S. has published their useful Handbooks. For lepidopterists there is Preparing and maintaining a collection of butterflies and moths. Handbooks for Coleopterists, Hymenopterists and Dipterists which contain sections of curating a collection of these insects.
One book that I do find fascinating is the Aurelian Legacy British Butterflies and their collectors [ 2000 ] by Michael Salmon with additional material by Peter Marren and Basil Harley. This really is a great read with many historic images. All the great British entomologists are covered here from Thomas Moffet [ 1553-1604], Christopher Merrett [ 1614-1695, John Ray [ 1627-1705] James Petiver [ 1663- 1718] through many other greats of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
There is a good account of one of my favourite entomologists, the early 19th century collector James Charles Dale [ 1792-1872 ] His historic collection of British insects, is probably the most important and is housed at the Hope Department of Entomology at Oxford. Not only was he a collector of butterflies and moths, he was a noted coleopterist and dipterist and formed a large collection of all these and other insects. He once said in 1864 " I would go through fire and water for insects". I also love the following story, he was out in the field with another great collector William Kirby. Dale found a lobster moth [ Stauropus fagi] then quite a rarity and hard to obtain, Dale was boxing it when Kirby claimed he had seen it first. Take it', said Dale. Shortly afterwards, Dale captured something even rarer, the first British specimen of the large hornet-mimicking cranefly, Ctenophora ornata. ' Now Dale, I change with you ' said Kirby, ' No' repiled Dale. 'The Lobster Moth I may take a future day, but the fly, never.
Most early collectors were on foot , Dale was a horseback collector. When, the wealthy Dale discovered the Lulworth Skipper on the Dorset coast in 1832, which was new to science, he rode his horse over 40 miles. J. C. Dale was a very meticulous recorder and his notes, diaries with their records are as important as his collection and are also kept at Hope.
Among the many interesting accounts of collectors in the book are those of the great collector Lionel Walter Rothschild [ 1868- 1937] and his assistant the brilliant German, Heinrich Ernst Karl Jordan [ 1861- 1959]. Jordan published 460 scientific monographs and papers, mostly on lepidoptera and described 2, 575 species himself and another 851 with Rothschild.
There is another fascinating chapter, some species of historical interest.
I agree, books on collecting are few and far between. It is nice to see that the A. E. S. has published their useful Handbooks. For lepidopterists there is Preparing and maintaining a collection of butterflies and moths. Handbooks for Coleopterists, Hymenopterists and Dipterists which contain sections of curating a collection of these insects.
One book that I do find fascinating is the Aurelian Legacy British Butterflies and their collectors [ 2000 ] by Michael Salmon with additional material by Peter Marren and Basil Harley. This really is a great read with many historic images. All the great British entomologists are covered here from Thomas Moffet [ 1553-1604], Christopher Merrett [ 1614-1695, John Ray [ 1627-1705] James Petiver [ 1663- 1718] through many other greats of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
There is a good account of one of my favourite entomologists, the early 19th century collector James Charles Dale [ 1792-1872 ] His historic collection of British insects, is probably the most important and is housed at the Hope Department of Entomology at Oxford. Not only was he a collector of butterflies and moths, he was a noted coleopterist and dipterist and formed a large collection of all these and other insects. He once said in 1864 " I would go through fire and water for insects". I also love the following story, he was out in the field with another great collector William Kirby. Dale found a lobster moth [ Stauropus fagi] then quite a rarity and hard to obtain, Dale was boxing it when Kirby claimed he had seen it first. Take it', said Dale. Shortly afterwards, Dale captured something even rarer, the first British specimen of the large hornet-mimicking cranefly, Ctenophora ornata. ' Now Dale, I change with you ' said Kirby, ' No' repiled Dale. 'The Lobster Moth I may take a future day, but the fly, never.
Most early collectors were on foot , Dale was a horseback collector. When, the wealthy Dale discovered the Lulworth Skipper on the Dorset coast in 1832, which was new to science, he rode his horse over 40 miles. J. C. Dale was a very meticulous recorder and his notes, diaries with their records are as important as his collection and are also kept at Hope.
Among the many interesting accounts of collectors in the book are those of the great collector Lionel Walter Rothschild [ 1868- 1937] and his assistant the brilliant German, Heinrich Ernst Karl Jordan [ 1861- 1959]. Jordan published 460 scientific monographs and papers, mostly on lepidoptera and described 2, 575 species himself and another 851 with Rothschild.
There is another fascinating chapter, some species of historical interest.