Post by nomad on Feb 7, 2015 9:59:19 GMT
Note. All the following are OLD historic specimens of Parnasssius apollo in the collections of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
An Apollo specimen from Poland.
At the museum, I had a look at the cabinet housing the Parnassius apollo collection, some of the specimens have subspecies names, others do not. Like most historical collections, some of these specimens have seen the passage of time and are not perfect, dealers grading quality jargon, does not apply here, their interest lies in the historical value, especially those with data. On my recent visit I only examined a few drawers of the museum's apollo collection. Some subspecies of P. apollo in Europe now have full protection and some small populations that urgently need it, do not.
Most of the Parnassius in the collection were caught by British collectors on their European tours.
Today, Parnassius apollo is much declined in South Poland being confined to two small areas in the Tatra Mtns ( recently rediscovered) and the Pieniny mountains. So small have those populations in Poland become, there is an on going reintroduction progamme to save it.
Interestingly, the Polish Red Data website gives us quite a few reasons why apollo has declined in their country, perhaps this could be true of many counties that have seen a reduction of populations or extinctions " Climatic catastrophes, natural succession, afforestation of apollo habitats, genetic and demographic stochasticity in small population, pollution and illegal collecting.. According to one account, two subspecies of apollo survive in Poland, niesiolowski (Krzywicki1963)?? and frankenbergeri ( Slaby 1952 = Pieniny Mtns)
The specimen shown here,was taken in Bukowina in Poland by N.S. Brodie in 1889. There are a number of villages in South Poland with the name of Bukowina. There is a village of that name in Lower Silesia where the extinct subspecies, silesianus once flew and also a village called Bukowina in the Pieniny mountains .
There are a number of extinct Polish subspecies of apollo, silesianus (Marscher 1909), albus (Rebel & Rogenhorfer 1893),sicinus ( Frustorfer 1921 vistulicus (Bang- Hass 1927) and friburgensis ( Niepelt 1913-extinct 1892), If I find a subspecific name for this old apollo specimen, I can then inform the museum what they have. It is quite confusing, there are a 160 named apollo subspecies.I do hope some of the members here, especially Radusho can determine this old Polish Apollo.
Polish Parnassius apollo specimen from Bukowina.
More to follow when I can, next a specimen from Bohemia, perhaps one of the extinct Czech subspecies???.
An Apollo specimen from Poland.
At the museum, I had a look at the cabinet housing the Parnassius apollo collection, some of the specimens have subspecies names, others do not. Like most historical collections, some of these specimens have seen the passage of time and are not perfect, dealers grading quality jargon, does not apply here, their interest lies in the historical value, especially those with data. On my recent visit I only examined a few drawers of the museum's apollo collection. Some subspecies of P. apollo in Europe now have full protection and some small populations that urgently need it, do not.
Most of the Parnassius in the collection were caught by British collectors on their European tours.
Today, Parnassius apollo is much declined in South Poland being confined to two small areas in the Tatra Mtns ( recently rediscovered) and the Pieniny mountains. So small have those populations in Poland become, there is an on going reintroduction progamme to save it.
Interestingly, the Polish Red Data website gives us quite a few reasons why apollo has declined in their country, perhaps this could be true of many counties that have seen a reduction of populations or extinctions " Climatic catastrophes, natural succession, afforestation of apollo habitats, genetic and demographic stochasticity in small population, pollution and illegal collecting.. According to one account, two subspecies of apollo survive in Poland, niesiolowski (Krzywicki1963)?? and frankenbergeri ( Slaby 1952 = Pieniny Mtns)
The specimen shown here,was taken in Bukowina in Poland by N.S. Brodie in 1889. There are a number of villages in South Poland with the name of Bukowina. There is a village of that name in Lower Silesia where the extinct subspecies, silesianus once flew and also a village called Bukowina in the Pieniny mountains .
There are a number of extinct Polish subspecies of apollo, silesianus (Marscher 1909), albus (Rebel & Rogenhorfer 1893),sicinus ( Frustorfer 1921 vistulicus (Bang- Hass 1927) and friburgensis ( Niepelt 1913-extinct 1892), If I find a subspecific name for this old apollo specimen, I can then inform the museum what they have. It is quite confusing, there are a 160 named apollo subspecies.I do hope some of the members here, especially Radusho can determine this old Polish Apollo.
Polish Parnassius apollo specimen from Bukowina.
More to follow when I can, next a specimen from Bohemia, perhaps one of the extinct Czech subspecies???.