The Oxford Birdwings and their data.
Sept 18, 2016 15:15:31 GMT
deliasfanatic, mygos, and 6 more like this
Post by nomad on Sept 18, 2016 15:15:31 GMT
Compared to the British Museum of Natural History, the Oxford University Museum collection of Ornithoptera is small and in spite of birdwings being easily the most popular group of butterflies among collectors, those in the Hope Department have never been studied in any detail. I decided to have a look at their data, this is work in progress.
O. alexandrae
There are a pair of Ornithoptera alexandrae in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History that were donated to the museum by Charles Rothschild in 1913. Charles Rothschild bought them from the Luxembourg collector Pierre Hastert. Hastert is mentioned regarding O. alexandrae in the Deutsche Entomologist Zeritschrift (German Entomological Journal) for January 1913. Not much is known about Hastert who lived in the old mill in Grund in the City of Luxembourg. From 1906 to 1913 he corresponded with Karl Jordan who was the Lepidoptera curator at Walter Rothschild's Tring Museum and it is known he made small donations of Coleoptera to the Luxembourg Museum. He seems to have been become interested in Ornithoptera around 1906. Hastert placed Ornithoptera wanted advertisements in the German Journal mentioned above for that and subsequent years and he seems to have lost interest in the group around 1913. Hastert attended the first International Congress of Entomology in Brussels. Also in attendance were N.C. Rothschild, Lord Walter Rothschild and Karl Jordan.
Another possible scenario is that Hastert was making money out of his interest by buying rarities and selling them on at a higher price. His correspondence with Jordan is written in German, comprises of eight letters and these are held by the BMNH, possibly they are requests, either for knowledge of perhaps specimens of Ornithoptera. Hastert may have contacted Jordan regarding the sale of his alexandrae pair, he did write to the latter taxonomist during 1913. Jordan then may have passed the information onto his close friend Charles Rothschild, who then kindly bought them for the Zoological Department at Oxford who must have been keen to acquire this magnificent new species.
Above. P. Hastert is mentioned in the German Entomological Journal in early 1913, in connection with O. alexandrae. Translating from German it roughly translates "and an offer of P. Hastert , concerning Ornithoptera Alexandrae".
Both the female and the male of O. alexandrae bought from Hastert by Rothschild for the Oxford museum have as their locality, "Owen Stanley Range" on the data label. The female has unfortunately sustained damage to the right hindwing and the male has a small amount of tear to the left forewing. The male is still a superb example, one of the largest male specimens I have yet seen. The male's abdomen has greased but an easily remedy, would be to remove it and give it a few baths in either Acetone or Ethyl Acetate, the latter being also used by collectors as a killing fluid.
The Oxford O. alexandrae male. Data: Bred Owen Stanley Mtns SE Papua. Ex P. Hastert donated by the Hon N.C. Rothschild.
The data label of the Oxford O. alexandrae lacks the collectors name, but because of the date they were acquired and the pair being bred from or near the Owen Stanley Range, they can only be from one source, Alfred Stewart Meek. While it is true that Meek set many of his bred specimens of O. alexandrae in the field, with the males having their forewings set high and the fore legs showing by the antennae, he is known to have sent a pair to Walter Rothschild papered and another recipient of a similar pair may have set them. It is also possible that one of Meek's Australian field assistants set them in the field. There are no records of any collectors other than Meek being in this remote part of New Guinea during this period.
It is likely that European dealers such as the German Hans Fruhstorfer were able to procure some of Meek's O. alexandrae specimens and that could have been the source of Hastert splendid pair or perhaps with Jordan's help he may have acquired them from one of the London dealers. To gather more information, one would need to access Hastert's letters to Jordan housed in the BMNH and then be able to read German. Unfortunately only one of Karl Jordan's letters to Hastert has survived, the rest were lost during the great Tring bonfires. During 1945 when Victor Rothschild was on active service with the military, his agent Major Fellows was faced with the problem of evacuating several tons of Tring papers, so his solution, he decided to burn the lot. Then in the 1960s, many of the museum most valuable archives that were housed in the basement were destroyed in another bonfire in spite of Walter Rothschild bequest that they should be given to the British Museum. Many of the Tring Museum's priceless documents, diaries, letters and photographs went up in flames in that disastrous episode. Fortunately the letters that Meek wrote to Jordan and Rothschild were somehow saved but it is a great pity we cannot read those great taxonomists replies to their collector in New Guinea and its Islands.
Meek made three trips to the Northern Side of the Owen Stanley Range. He shot the high flying female in 1906 at Biagi at 1525 meters in the Owen Stanley Range. A year later during 1907, Meek discovered the male in lower Rainforest along the Kumusi River passing on his way close to where the modern town of Popondetta is situated today. Here setting up camp under the Owen Stanley Range, he found the larvae and bred a large series. He returned to the same area in the June of 1908 but the collecting was poor and Meek was very ill most of the time during this expedition. However, his native collectors did obtain a small series of O. alexandrae and is possible that the Oxford pair was from his last expedition to New Guinea, Meek probably was too weak to attend his field setting table.
O. alexandrae
There are a pair of Ornithoptera alexandrae in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History that were donated to the museum by Charles Rothschild in 1913. Charles Rothschild bought them from the Luxembourg collector Pierre Hastert. Hastert is mentioned regarding O. alexandrae in the Deutsche Entomologist Zeritschrift (German Entomological Journal) for January 1913. Not much is known about Hastert who lived in the old mill in Grund in the City of Luxembourg. From 1906 to 1913 he corresponded with Karl Jordan who was the Lepidoptera curator at Walter Rothschild's Tring Museum and it is known he made small donations of Coleoptera to the Luxembourg Museum. He seems to have been become interested in Ornithoptera around 1906. Hastert placed Ornithoptera wanted advertisements in the German Journal mentioned above for that and subsequent years and he seems to have lost interest in the group around 1913. Hastert attended the first International Congress of Entomology in Brussels. Also in attendance were N.C. Rothschild, Lord Walter Rothschild and Karl Jordan.
Another possible scenario is that Hastert was making money out of his interest by buying rarities and selling them on at a higher price. His correspondence with Jordan is written in German, comprises of eight letters and these are held by the BMNH, possibly they are requests, either for knowledge of perhaps specimens of Ornithoptera. Hastert may have contacted Jordan regarding the sale of his alexandrae pair, he did write to the latter taxonomist during 1913. Jordan then may have passed the information onto his close friend Charles Rothschild, who then kindly bought them for the Zoological Department at Oxford who must have been keen to acquire this magnificent new species.
Above. P. Hastert is mentioned in the German Entomological Journal in early 1913, in connection with O. alexandrae. Translating from German it roughly translates "and an offer of P. Hastert , concerning Ornithoptera Alexandrae".
Both the female and the male of O. alexandrae bought from Hastert by Rothschild for the Oxford museum have as their locality, "Owen Stanley Range" on the data label. The female has unfortunately sustained damage to the right hindwing and the male has a small amount of tear to the left forewing. The male is still a superb example, one of the largest male specimens I have yet seen. The male's abdomen has greased but an easily remedy, would be to remove it and give it a few baths in either Acetone or Ethyl Acetate, the latter being also used by collectors as a killing fluid.
The Oxford O. alexandrae male. Data: Bred Owen Stanley Mtns SE Papua. Ex P. Hastert donated by the Hon N.C. Rothschild.
The data label of the Oxford O. alexandrae lacks the collectors name, but because of the date they were acquired and the pair being bred from or near the Owen Stanley Range, they can only be from one source, Alfred Stewart Meek. While it is true that Meek set many of his bred specimens of O. alexandrae in the field, with the males having their forewings set high and the fore legs showing by the antennae, he is known to have sent a pair to Walter Rothschild papered and another recipient of a similar pair may have set them. It is also possible that one of Meek's Australian field assistants set them in the field. There are no records of any collectors other than Meek being in this remote part of New Guinea during this period.
It is likely that European dealers such as the German Hans Fruhstorfer were able to procure some of Meek's O. alexandrae specimens and that could have been the source of Hastert splendid pair or perhaps with Jordan's help he may have acquired them from one of the London dealers. To gather more information, one would need to access Hastert's letters to Jordan housed in the BMNH and then be able to read German. Unfortunately only one of Karl Jordan's letters to Hastert has survived, the rest were lost during the great Tring bonfires. During 1945 when Victor Rothschild was on active service with the military, his agent Major Fellows was faced with the problem of evacuating several tons of Tring papers, so his solution, he decided to burn the lot. Then in the 1960s, many of the museum most valuable archives that were housed in the basement were destroyed in another bonfire in spite of Walter Rothschild bequest that they should be given to the British Museum. Many of the Tring Museum's priceless documents, diaries, letters and photographs went up in flames in that disastrous episode. Fortunately the letters that Meek wrote to Jordan and Rothschild were somehow saved but it is a great pity we cannot read those great taxonomists replies to their collector in New Guinea and its Islands.
Meek made three trips to the Northern Side of the Owen Stanley Range. He shot the high flying female in 1906 at Biagi at 1525 meters in the Owen Stanley Range. A year later during 1907, Meek discovered the male in lower Rainforest along the Kumusi River passing on his way close to where the modern town of Popondetta is situated today. Here setting up camp under the Owen Stanley Range, he found the larvae and bred a large series. He returned to the same area in the June of 1908 but the collecting was poor and Meek was very ill most of the time during this expedition. However, his native collectors did obtain a small series of O. alexandrae and is possible that the Oxford pair was from his last expedition to New Guinea, Meek probably was too weak to attend his field setting table.