Post by jhyatt on Feb 8, 2021 22:54:54 GMT
In my collection I have a pair of O. paradisea borchi, purchased in person from A. Glanz at Rockaway Beach Blvd. in the very early 1970's, and determined to ssp for me by Jan Haugum.
This male of O. p. borchi, despite having stood for nearly 50 years in a drawer, to this day exudes an utterly delightful floral scent from the hw anal margin hairs. I have another specimen or two of
males in this subgenus which have a small hint of a similar odor.
Can any of our correspondents tell us whether a distinct, pleasant scent is common to all these birdwing males (paradisea, goliath, chimaera, tithonus)? Is it particularly noticeable in fresh or live
material? Pratt's field notes, quoted by Haugum and Low, mention O. g. procus males as having the odor of a greenhouse full of tropical plants, but I can't detect any scent at all on my procus males.
Also, I'm curious about the early history of O. g. procus. Apparently it was first taken about 1919 by the Pratts at ca. 2100' on Ceram (Wallace apparently never had a hint of its existence when he was on
that island). It was described by Rothschild, but a lot of the Pratt's material went to Joicey. Who got the first specimens in Europe? Did the Pratts obtain many? When did the next collection of procus arrive?
Who was the next collector? (My apologies for asking the question here, if it should have gone into the "History" section.)
Cheers,
J. Hyatt
