Quests for Butterflies - Will Doherty.

[nomad]

Many here will know the name of the American Will Doherty ( 1857-1901), the Great Professional Butterfly collector. This is not even a short biography, that can be found elsewhere, but a short investigation of certain points in Doherty's short but adventurous life , in which I hope you can help. He had originally decided to became a Scientist but family circumstances led him into the life of the professional butterfly collector during 1886 while he was in Malaya. Doherty wrote " dollar bills waving their green wings". That sentence made me smile, how apt. A chance meeting two years later in Perak -Malaya with the young red bearded German army officer and Ornithologist Ernst Hartert led to a good friendship. They collected together in 1888 in Malaya and then went onto Assam. Later Ernst would become the ornithological curator of Lord Walter Rothschild museum at Tring in England.

So great were Doherty lepidoptera discoveries that he easily sold his specimens, no one was in greater demand. The Dealers of England and the U.S.A were in competiton as regards his collections He sold to all the greatest collectors, Oberthur, Staudinger, Elwes, Rothschild and many others. If you paid the best price or could guaranteed him the highest you got the butterflies. Only Rothschild got all the birds specimens, originally Doherty hated bird collecting but was persuaded by his friend Hartert to do so. In this he became very successful.

Doherty wrote a number of papers on butterflies for The ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal '. This was the top entomological journal of the British in India. His first paper was published in 1886 and was entitled simply ' A List of Butterflies taken in Kumaon '. The mountainous Kumaon region is situated in Northern India in the middle Himalayas. The Kumaon paper was so much more than a list, the butterflies, their habitats and the ecological zones are fully discussed by Doherty.

Reading his Kumaon paper I came across a mysterious butterfly that Doherty thought was a new species but was unable to capture. Here is what he wrote
" I did not capture any Morphid in Kumaon, but in the great gorge of Sarju below Kapkot, I observed several specimens of a magnificent new species probably an Amathusia or a Zeuxidiu. I think I noticed the acutness of its wings, and an excellent mimic of Euplaea midamus which was common there. They had the Morphid flight and always settled on the underside with wings folded. I spent half the day in trying to catch them, but was unsuccessful owing to the dangerous and precipitous nature of the place.

So do you now know what the butterfly was that Doherty was risking his life to catch in Northern India or have you an idea.

I have only seen two small images of Doherty that were taken just before his death in Africa. Both images are included in that brilliant book ' Butterfly People ' by William Leach and were provided by the BMNH. Can anybody here provide others of Doherty. They would be really interesting to see.

[wollastoni]

Thanks for this Peter ! Very interesting, as all of your historical posts.

A link to Delias dohertyi which flies in the Papuan islands of Biak and Yapen. I had the chance to see it flying on Biak, it flies in the canopy.

[wollastoni]

And about the Indian Amathusiidae, you should contact my friend Peter Smetacek (you can find him on fbk).
He is the specialist of Indian leps and should be able to help you.

[nomad]

Thanks Olivier- will message Peter. Must have been really exciting seeing Doherty's special Delias on Biak.

[exoticimports]

There are many entomologists, some well known, some less, who have led interesting lives. Maybe they discovered 1000 species, maybe one. But they all have captivating stories, if only they could be told.

I enjoy your briefs, please keep on.

[nomad]

I do like mysteries. I expect what I like about historical entomology, are the grand surprises. It is a real treat to visit the bygone World of Doherty. Doherty collected butterflies for money, out of necessity to support his family when back in the states his father lost his job. He might have needed the money, but he was there in the field observing-writing papers, he also needed the science. Hartert and Rothschild believed Doherty was the greatest systematic collector who ever lived whatever he was collecting, butterflies, moths, beetles, birds or land snails. Holland, Rothschild, Jordan, Godwin-Austen, Elwes, De Niceville and Grose-Smith all wrote papers on the insects that Doherty sent to them. Doherty produced seven papers of his own. Hartert found it deplorable that Doherty never wrote a book of his extensive travels. Doherty managed to lose all his notebooks, a great loss and in later life he became too fatalistic.
.
I have contacted the Indian butterfly authority Peter Smetacek as regards Doherty's strange butterfly in the gorge of Kapkot in Northern India. He has very kindly helped with much information.
Peter had not seen the Doherty's Kumaon paper and his mysterious butterfly was news to him. He mentions the area around Kapkot is not what is was in Doherty's day and there is no known species of Amathusinae west of Kathmandu. Doherty stated that his butterfly in the Sarju gorge was a mimic of Euploea midamus (Linn 1758 ) but that butterfly does not occur in the Kumaon, he must have been referring to the closely related Euploea mulciber ( Cramer 1771 ).

Peter thought Doherty's unnamed butterfly must have been the beautiful blue Elymnias patna patna ( Westwood 1851). However, there is one problem here, for Doherty lists in his Kumaon paper that he found this species in the nearby Gori Ganga Valley. Could he have been mistaken and the strange butterfly he tried for half a day to capture was infact the same species. Peter mentions that a large undiscovered butterfly would not usually be confined to one gorge although it is not impossible. If Dohery's butterfly was not E. patna and was something different that butterfly remains undiscovered today. Doherty knew his butterflies and clearly states that the insect he saw had the flight of Amathusiid.

Peter mentions that Elymnias patna patna has only been recently rediscovered in Doherty's locality the Gori Ganga Valley where he has observed it. Peter observed that the flight of E. patna is not unlike that of an Euploea, the males settle readily on leaves with the wings closed and then making forays, not quite territorial but rather inquistive flights.

Peter has given his permission to show here his image of Elymnias patna patna from the Gori Ganga Valley.


Peter has said he would like to go and investigate the gorge at Kapkot. Kapkot lies near the border of Tibet and Nepal. I wonder if there could be a surprise in this remote region.
For any that would like to read Doherty's 1886 Kumaon paper here is a link

archive.org/stream/journalofasiatic55unse#page/102/1up

[colon]

hi Nomad

interested to note mention of the area near the Nepal/Tibet boarder being near Kapkot
I have collected about 50km from the boarder at Nagarkot. Beautiful hill country with wonderful specimens.
I wonder if it is the same place with a different spelling as I can not find Kapkot in my travel notes.

Colon

[mokky]

Hi nomad,
Thank you always for your interesting posts. When I got interested in butterflies of Himalaya area more than 15 years ago, I was an undergraduate student. I tried hard to get the papers written by old great entomologists like Doherty at the library. Now it is easy to get those papers via Internet. An advancement of information technology greatly helps our study. Doherty's mysterious butterfly in Kumaon sounds quite attractive. As an Indian butterfly expert Mr. Peter points, there may be some possibility that it was Elymnias patna. Kumaon is the westernmost range of this species.
mokky

[nomad]

Dec 4, 2014 14:13:36 GMT -8 colon said:

hi Nomad

interested to note mention of the area near the Nepal/Tibet boarder being near Kapkot
I have collected about 50km from the boarder at Nagarkot. Beautiful hill country with wonderful specimens.
I wonder if it is the same place with a different spelling as I can not find Kapkot in my travel notes.
Colon

Hi Colon
A very beautiful area. Kapkot is in India. Nagarkot seems to be in Nepal.

[Adam Cotton]

I somehow doubt that Doherty would have mistaken a large Satyrine for an Amathusiine, as their size is very different. I think it is much more likely that the species no longer exists there. The reason I think this is the case is because there is a precedent right here in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

About 100 years ago E. J. Godfrey collected 2 Stichopthalma camadeva at Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai. The specimens are housed in his collection at the Dept of Agriculture Entomology Museum in Bangkok. They are definitely that species, which lives in lowland forest in India and Burma, and Thailand would represent the extreme edge of its range. Stichopthalma camadeva has never been seen in Thailand since then, and I believe that is probably because the lowland habitat was all deforested shortly afterwards.

It is very possible that there was a "Morphid", possibly the same species, in NW India when Doherty visited, but it is now locally extinct for similar reasons.

Adam.

[nomad]

Adam many thanks for your information. It seems what Doherty saw as you rightly mention was a large Morphid. He had collected widely in that region and studied the butterflies in some detail.

[Adam Cotton]

Peter,

That is exactly why I don't think Peter Smetacek's answer is the solution. Doherty would not have made such a mistake. Please do tell him of my theory. I could write to him myself, as we know each other well, but it would be better as a reply from you.

There are many other examples of butterflies that no longer occur in places that they did 100+ years ago, or with modern deforestation in many parts of the World, even 30 years ago.

As always, the first species to suffer are those that occur in lowland habitats, especially wet primary forest, which soon gets cleared for human habitation and agriculture.

When I first set up a butterfly farm here in 1986 I had an 80 year old employee. He told me that when he was a child the whole area where he lived was forested, and it rained at least once a week in the dry season. Nowadays the rain stops in November and it often hardly rains at all until April. We are lucky if there is a single rain shower per month, if that.

I also vividly remember driving towards Thailand in eastern Laos in June 2006 returning from a washed-out collecting trip. We crested a hill and there was a panoramic vista of the sweeping arc of the Mekong river separating Laos from NE Thailand. The difference between the two sides of the river was incredible. The Lao side was covered in dark clouds, but the Thai side was totally clear and in bright sunshine. The edge of the clouds clearly followed the line of the river as far as I could see. Of course the difference is the northeast of Thailand was deforested very many years ago, whereas at least in 2006 much of the Lao side still had forest. I understand that now that is being cleared too.

The lack of forest heats up the ground when the sun shines on it which causes high pressure, pushing clouds away and increasing the drought. The Lao government needs to carefully consider their position over deforestation, as one of their main revenue sources is hydro-electric power. If the rain dries up so will the resource.

Adam.

[nomad]

Adam
Thank you for your information and your thoughts. Peter Smetacek has read this thread and all the comments, I have provided him with a link. Peter has mentioned as Doherty collected E. patna patna in a nearby Gori Ganga valley, what he saw must have been something different. Peter mentions as Doherty saw his unknown Morphinae in a precipitous gorge there should be no reason why it should not be still there and would be most surprised if it had disappeared. Peter lives some 200km from Kapkot, which due to the muddy roads, is not easy to reach in the wet season. He further mentions he will investigate the gorge below Kapkot in 2015 and try to find what Doherty saw in 1885. I never dreamed when I started this thread an Indian lepidopterist would seek out a butterfly Doherty failed to capture 129 years ago. Now that is Entomology in action. I wonder what Peter may find.

Peter.

[wollastoni]

If Peter finds this Morphid, I hope he will call it Stichophtalma andrewsi !

[lepidofrance]

1. I appreciate the historical chronicles of Nomad. And hope that we can read more!

2. Elymnias and Amathusiinae have very different flights (in my humble experience), not to mention the size. Note, moreover, that this Elymnias patna patna reports to a mimetic complex where there are also several species of Chilasa (Papilionidae). Do we find the Chilasa in this area?