Who would be the Entomologist you would most like to meet.

[nomad]

Who would be the Entomologist/collector past or present that you would most like to have met and have a chat to. Please choose one and give your reasons why and what questions would you like to ask that man or women. I will add mind later. Hopefully this is going be a thread that all members will join in. I look forward to see who you will  choose and why.

[mygos]

Most probably Eugène Le Moult for myself. I missed him by a couple of years, and when I was 15 years old, I spread butterflies for his widow ... I guess even without questions, this great entomologist would have made me dream just listening to any stories he would have told me

A+, Michel

[deliasfanatic]

A.R. Wallace - author of my favourite "travel adventure" (The Malay Archipelago), all-around naturalist, and judging from his writing, a pleasant and curious fellow who strikes me as someone I'd like as a friend. Since my major interests include not only Lepidoptera but also birds in general, evolution, and biogeography, and my favourite part of the world is precisely the area covered in his book, I feel that we would have much in common.

As #2, I'd pick Lord Rothschild. I think that many fascinating conversations could be had, and it would be great fun to show him the new discoveries that have been made since his time. (Ditto the last for A.R. Wallace.)

[Paul K]

That would be:
Peter, Olivier, Tom, Denny, Trehopr and more ICF members but mainly...Adam Cotton. He has great knowledge of Thai butterflies and he is reachable.
I hope to go north in near future and meet him in person.
Maybe even do a collecting round .

Paul

[cabintom]

I would have loved to have met Torben Larsen. He seemed to be a genuinely helpful man who was willing to mentor others. As for what I'd ask him? I'd ask if we could go on a hike through the forest together... it's not anything specific, but I guarantee that I would have learned a lot more than expected.

[nomad]

Some greats of entomology being mentioned here. I am sure everyone has a favourite entomologist that he or she would like to meet or have met and I look forward to hearing from other members.

I guessed perhaps regular visitors here may have already guessed who I would have like to have met. There are so many you could just spend days talking to, from the species makers such as Rothschild, Jordan, Talbot etc, to the actual field collectors, my heroes, Fountaine, Doherty, Pratt & Sons, A.F. Wollaston, Waterstradt, Eichhorn etc, to those that never left their native shores such as the early Aurelian J.C. Dale.

If I had to choose one, it would have to be the field collector Albert Stewart Meek. I have so many questions I would like to have asked him, especially why he never chose to write another book. The first was such a brilliant collecting narrative.  

[jhyatt]

With me, it's a toss-up between Wallace, for reasons others have outlined already - and Evelyn Cheesman!
Evelyn Cheesman collected for the Natural History Museum throughout the mid-20th century, all alone in some of the most remote places imaginable. She worked in the New Hebrides, on Waigeo, the Cyclops Mtns., etc. Her books ("Things Worth While", "Six-Legged Snakes in New Guinea", "Two Roads of Papua", "Land of the Red Bird". and others) are fascinating reads, but she seldom speaks of the particular insects she was collecting in these places. I'd love to ask her what she caught and where, and the circumstances of capture.

[jhyatt]

I guess I'd also have to add to my list, Jan Haugum. We corresponded for years, and traded specimens now and then. He was a kind, very intelligent, and helpful researcher who taught me a lot about birdwings and Colias - until tragedy entered his life and he sort of vanished from the scene. I often wish I had met him.

[Adam Cotton]

Jan 19, 2016 14:38:44 GMT jhyatt said:

I guess I'd also have to add to my list, Jan Haugum. We corresponded for years, and traded specimens now and then. He was a kind, very intelligent, and helpful researcher who taught me a lot about birdwings and Colias - until tragedy entered his life and he sort of vanished from the scene. I often wish I had met him.

I corresponded with Jan for several years in the late 1970s, and was very fortunate that he was able to visit the UK in (I think) 1980 when we met for a few hours. After I moved to Thailand in 1981 we continued to correspond for some time, and I can confirm that he was indeed "a kind, very intelligent, and helpful researcher".

As to who I would most like to have met, it would be Karl Jordan. I would have liked to ask him why he never got round to revising the Afrotropical Papilionidae.

Adam.

PS. Paul - I look forward to meeting you too when you get a chance to come up to Chiang Mai.

[bobw]

Jan 19, 2016 17:39:55 GMT Adam Cotton said:

Jan 19, 2016 14:38:44 GMT jhyatt said:

I guess I'd also have to add to my list, Jan Haugum. We corresponded for years, and traded specimens now and then. He was a kind, very intelligent, and helpful researcher who taught me a lot about birdwings and Colias - until tragedy entered his life and he sort of vanished from the scene. I often wish I had met him.

I corresponded with Jan for several years in the late 1970s, and was very fortunate that he was able to visit the UK in (I think) 1980 when we met for a few hours. After I moved to Thailand in 1981 we continued to correspond for some time, and I can confirm that he was indeed "a kind, very intelligent, and helpful researcher".

As to who I would most like to have met, it would be Karl Jordan. I would have liked to ask him why he never got round to revising the Afrotropical Papilionidae.

Adam.

PS. Paul - I look forward to meeting you too when you get a chance to come up to Chiang Mai.

Jan was probably my best friend among the community of lepidopterists; we spent many hours discussing Colias (and almost everything else under the sun after we'd had a few drinks).  His original manuscript was the basis for the Colias book we wrote.  Here's part of what I wrote about him in the preface to the book:

"I started studying Colias in 1991. After a while I heard about Cliff FERRIS’S series of papers on North American Colias so I wrote to him asking for copies. Shortly after this I had a phone call out of the blue from Jan; he said that Cliff had given him my name and that he was always interested in talking to fellow serious students of Colias. My first contact with Jan was when I corresponded with him very briefly about Ornithoptera in the 1980s, but after this phone call we struck up a close working relationship that lasted until his untimely death on 30th May 2002. I first visited him at his home in Vejle, Denmark in 1997; this then became an annual event until his death. These visits usually lasted about 5 days just after Christmas, and consisted of fairly intensive study of various aspects of Colias taxonomy all day, followed by an evening relaxing with a bottle and discussing almost everything under the sun. Jan had a very wide range of interests and was knowledgeable on many subjects – these conversations were always fascinating and entertaining. We were often joined for part of these visits by other luminaries of the Danish entomological scene such as Harish GAONKAR, Michael FIBIGER and Mary PETERSEN.

When I first visited Jan, the minute we started discussing Colias he would bring out 3 huge ring binders with page after page of closely-typed text. This was the original manuscript for his magnum opus which he had maintained and updated over many years. By the time I left, many of these pages were covered with hand-written annotations which he had made during our discussions. After I left he would laboriously update pages of the manuscript on his old manual typewriter. He used to take great delight in sending me sheaves of paper with new entries for comment and editing. For the last few years of his life the pace of his work increased dramatically when he bought a computer and I showed him how to hold all this information and update it using MSWord.

As new taxa were described and new information became available, Jan continually updated this manuscript. I often jokingly said to him that if he kept updating it he would never publish it. His reply to this was that I would have to publish it for him after his death – sadly this proved to be prophetic! This book is based on Jan’s original manuscript."

Other than that I would love to talk to some of the great adventurers of the past such as Grum Grshimailo, Przewalskii, Fawcett, Younghusband, Wallace, Garlepp, Steinbach etc.

Bob

[Deleted]

I did meet the entomologist I would have most like to have got to know and I am very lucky to have been able to call him and his family as my closest friends, sadly he passed away at the end of september but I have great memories of our field trips, moth trapping and general leg pulling and laughter and that would be Tony Harman FRES, a superb entomologist who's knowledge of British lepidoptera was profound, his personal collection is breathtaking and he was one of the kindest men I have ever met.

Of our deceased brethren of the net it would have to be Lord Rothschild or F W Frohawk, I am lucky to have specimens from both of these gentelmen but what I would have given to spend a week in their company.

[nomad]

Jan 19, 2016 14:34:51 GMT jhyatt said:

With me, it's a toss-up between Wallace, for reasons others have outlined already - and Evelyn Cheesman!
Evelyn Cheesman collected for the Natural History Museum throughout the mid-20th century, all alone in some of the most remote places imaginable. She worked in the New Hebrides, on Waigeo, the Cyclops Mtns., etc. Her books ("Things Worth While", "Six-Legged Snakes in New Guinea", "Two Roads of Papua", "Land of the Red Bird". and others) are fascinating reads, but she seldom speaks of the particular insects she was collecting in these places. I'd love to ask her what she caught and where, and the circumstances of capture.

I have most of Evelyn Cheesman's books, they are fascinating reads and she was a very courageous women, who was especially interested in collecting the small insect orders for the BMNH.

[jhyatt]

I'll add one more to my list: Paul Smart. I'd just like to ask him how he managed his disappearing act!

[timmsyrj]

I too would like to meet Adam, a fellow " midlander" who originates from a few miles away from me, a fellow Papilio fanatic. But perhaps for me the greatest I have met was Ted (Edward) Archer, who descovered Ornithoptera victoriae archeri, I met him at one of the first entomology shows I attended and was enthralled in his accounts of collecting in New Guinea in the seventies and the fact that he walked through this region practically alone with the canabals that were around.

Rich

[nomad]

I guess the collector I would like to meet today in person, would be the New Zealander Laurie Wills, now that chap would have some interesting stories to tell.