An African Enigma Barns' Papilio antizox.
Dec 17, 2014 20:38:02 GMT
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Post by nomad on Dec 17, 2014 20:38:02 GMT
Deep in the heart of the Belgian Congo during 1919 the British explorer, big game hunter and professional butterfly collector Thomas Alexander Barns (1881-1930) reached the River Lindi after a twenty day trek through the dense rainforest from Stanleyville (Kisangani).
Barns accompanied by his wife Margery was at the end of a year long 3515 mile journey of which 1655 miles was on foot through Central Africa. Collecting lepidoptera for the British private collector James John Joicey of the Hill museum at Witley, Surrey, Barns and his wife had started in the south-east Begian Congo at Likasi crossed Lake Tanganyika to Kigoma in Tanzania then headed north through Rwanda to explore the Ruwenzori Mountains on the border with Uganda. Now back in the lower Congo they began collecting butterflies by foot and canoe along the River Lindi. In his book ' The Wonderland of the Eastern Congo ' ( 1922) Barns was crossing the river by canoe when
" from the opposite bank came flying towards me a large insect of the antimachus type but of heavier build and flight, it circled over the water and round and above the canoe, where I had a good look at it .The hind wings appeared to me to be rich brown, spotted and barred at the edges, the fore wings having each a broad transverse bar across them of a vivid blue green on a ground colour of black. The insect eventually flew away over the tree, and although I waited there the rest of the day it never returned. Some five or six miles further on I saw a similar insect, but could not be sure it was not a Zalmoxis" Barns goes on to explain he was unable to stay longer in the locality because he had booked passages for him and his wife back to England which were at that time exceedingly difficult to obtain.
On his return to England James Joicey was very pleased with Alexander Barns collections. Barns had collected 4300 specimens of Lepidoptera among them many wonderful new moths. 78 of the 685 species of butterflies were new species or subspecies. However, what excited Joicey the most was Barns close encounter with the giant Swallowtail. Barns had explored or worked in Central Africa for the past twenty-five years and knew his African butterflies well. Previously he had sent home many wonderful specimens. Joicey implored Barns to return to Central Africa to search for which he dubbed the ' Papilio antizox ' a play on its two close allies. Within a few months, again with his faithful wife, Barns was on a voyage back to Africa and the Belgian Congo to find and capture his mysterious large Swallowtail butterfly.
Arriving in Mombasa in January 1921, Thomas Alexander and Margery set off for the long journey to the Belgian Congo. Barns wrote a book of his further travels ' Across the Great Crater land to the Congo ' In the book he described his search for Papilio antizox. Arriving at Bafwascende a small Belgian post buried in the heart of the Ituri Forest, just north of the Equator, he began his search. He wrote again of his first sighting of Papilo antizox on the previous expedition " to a mad entomologist like myself, this was a thrilling sight, for I realised that the insect was a new species. The largest butterfly in the World the Antimachus Swallowtail, is found on the Lindi River as well as the wonder zalmoxis, but the butterfly I saw, although certainly a member of this genus, was neither of these and was, if anything larger"
Try as he might Barns could not find Papilio antizox. He put a giant poster up at the fort with a large drawing of the swallowtail with a 200 france reward for Antizox dead or alive. The commandant and his soldiers took to the jungle with butterfly nets to win the large prize money. The natives bought in a great many insects including large Saturniid moths but most were worthless, being carried in alive battered and the wing scales gone. Barns mentioned the only worthwhile insect collectors were a local Pigmy and his son. Barns set off to the Tshuapa and Maiko rivers and scoured the Lowa Valley but with no success. He was terribly disappointed but took it all in his stride.
Barns usually dropped his first name Thomas in private and was known to his friends as Alexander. Joicey named a number of lepidoptera after him. In 1926 during a trip to the island of Principe lying off the west coast of Africa he discovered a number of new butterflies and Joicey named Charaxes barnsi in his honour. Surviving the many years of dangers in Africa, Barns was on a visit to Chicago in America and crossing the road he was hit and killed by a taxi cab. Alexander Barns was just 49 years old.
So what was Barn's strange Papilio antizox. As most will know here both the females of Papilio antimachus and Papilio zalmoxis are very rare collections due to it seems spending their entire lives high in the canopy . Did Barns see a hybrid between the two large Swallowtails as perhaps as suggested by Joicey's temporary name for this butterfly or did Barns see something else. The butterfly remains an interesting enigma.
Papilio antizox from Bulletin of the Hill Museum volume 1 1921.
Barns accompanied by his wife Margery was at the end of a year long 3515 mile journey of which 1655 miles was on foot through Central Africa. Collecting lepidoptera for the British private collector James John Joicey of the Hill museum at Witley, Surrey, Barns and his wife had started in the south-east Begian Congo at Likasi crossed Lake Tanganyika to Kigoma in Tanzania then headed north through Rwanda to explore the Ruwenzori Mountains on the border with Uganda. Now back in the lower Congo they began collecting butterflies by foot and canoe along the River Lindi. In his book ' The Wonderland of the Eastern Congo ' ( 1922) Barns was crossing the river by canoe when
" from the opposite bank came flying towards me a large insect of the antimachus type but of heavier build and flight, it circled over the water and round and above the canoe, where I had a good look at it .The hind wings appeared to me to be rich brown, spotted and barred at the edges, the fore wings having each a broad transverse bar across them of a vivid blue green on a ground colour of black. The insect eventually flew away over the tree, and although I waited there the rest of the day it never returned. Some five or six miles further on I saw a similar insect, but could not be sure it was not a Zalmoxis" Barns goes on to explain he was unable to stay longer in the locality because he had booked passages for him and his wife back to England which were at that time exceedingly difficult to obtain.
On his return to England James Joicey was very pleased with Alexander Barns collections. Barns had collected 4300 specimens of Lepidoptera among them many wonderful new moths. 78 of the 685 species of butterflies were new species or subspecies. However, what excited Joicey the most was Barns close encounter with the giant Swallowtail. Barns had explored or worked in Central Africa for the past twenty-five years and knew his African butterflies well. Previously he had sent home many wonderful specimens. Joicey implored Barns to return to Central Africa to search for which he dubbed the ' Papilio antizox ' a play on its two close allies. Within a few months, again with his faithful wife, Barns was on a voyage back to Africa and the Belgian Congo to find and capture his mysterious large Swallowtail butterfly.
Arriving in Mombasa in January 1921, Thomas Alexander and Margery set off for the long journey to the Belgian Congo. Barns wrote a book of his further travels ' Across the Great Crater land to the Congo ' In the book he described his search for Papilio antizox. Arriving at Bafwascende a small Belgian post buried in the heart of the Ituri Forest, just north of the Equator, he began his search. He wrote again of his first sighting of Papilo antizox on the previous expedition " to a mad entomologist like myself, this was a thrilling sight, for I realised that the insect was a new species. The largest butterfly in the World the Antimachus Swallowtail, is found on the Lindi River as well as the wonder zalmoxis, but the butterfly I saw, although certainly a member of this genus, was neither of these and was, if anything larger"
Try as he might Barns could not find Papilio antizox. He put a giant poster up at the fort with a large drawing of the swallowtail with a 200 france reward for Antizox dead or alive. The commandant and his soldiers took to the jungle with butterfly nets to win the large prize money. The natives bought in a great many insects including large Saturniid moths but most were worthless, being carried in alive battered and the wing scales gone. Barns mentioned the only worthwhile insect collectors were a local Pigmy and his son. Barns set off to the Tshuapa and Maiko rivers and scoured the Lowa Valley but with no success. He was terribly disappointed but took it all in his stride.
Barns usually dropped his first name Thomas in private and was known to his friends as Alexander. Joicey named a number of lepidoptera after him. In 1926 during a trip to the island of Principe lying off the west coast of Africa he discovered a number of new butterflies and Joicey named Charaxes barnsi in his honour. Surviving the many years of dangers in Africa, Barns was on a visit to Chicago in America and crossing the road he was hit and killed by a taxi cab. Alexander Barns was just 49 years old.
So what was Barn's strange Papilio antizox. As most will know here both the females of Papilio antimachus and Papilio zalmoxis are very rare collections due to it seems spending their entire lives high in the canopy . Did Barns see a hybrid between the two large Swallowtails as perhaps as suggested by Joicey's temporary name for this butterfly or did Barns see something else. The butterfly remains an interesting enigma.
Papilio antizox from Bulletin of the Hill Museum volume 1 1921.