Lepidopterology ()
) is a branch of
entomology concerning the scientific study of
moth
Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
s and the three superfamilies of
butterflies. Someone who studies in this field is a lepidopterist or, archaically, an aurelian.
Origins
Post-
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
, the rise of the "lepidopterist" can be attributed to the expanding interest in science, nature and the surroundings. When Linnaeus wrote the tenth edition of the ''
Systema Naturae'' in 1758, there was already "a substantial body of published work on Lepidopteran natural history" (Kristensen, 1999).
These included:
* ''Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum'' –
Thomas Mouffet (1634)
* ''Metamorphosis Naturalis'' –
Jan Goedart
Johannes Goedaert (also spelled Goetaart, Goedhart, Goedaard or Jean Goedart in French) (19 March 1617 (baptized) – 15 January 1668 (buried)) was a Dutch Natural history, natur ...
(1662–67 )
* ''Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium'' –
Maria S. Merian (1705), whose work included illustrated accounts of European Lepidoptera
* ''Historia Insectorum'' –
John Ray (1710)
* ''Papilionum Brittaniae icones'' –
James Petiver
James Petiver (c. 1665 – c. 2 April 1718) was a London apothecary, a fellow of the Royal Society as well as London's informal Temple Coffee House Botany Club, famous for his specimen collections in which he traded and study of botany and entom ...
(1717)
History
Scholars
1758–1900 was the era of the
gentleman scientist
An independent scientist (historically also known as gentleman scientist) is a financially independent scientist who pursues scientific study without direct affiliation to a public institution such as a university or government-run research and ...
.
Following
Linnaeus' descriptions in ''Systema Naturae'' and with Boas Johansson in ''
Centuria Insectorum'', the Austrian
Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus
Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus (4 October 1723 – 29 April 1798) was an Austrian entomologist. In his branch of natural history, the short name Poda refers to him.
Poda was born and died in Vienna. He was the author of ''Insecta Musei Graecens ...
wrote ''Insecta Musei Graecensis'' (1761) and
Johann Christian Fabricius
Johan Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is cons ...
described very many more species in a series of major works.
During this period,
Ignaz Schiffermüller
Ignaz Schiffermüller (born 2 October 1727 in Hellmonsödt; died 21 June 1806 in Linz) was an Austrian naturalist mainly interested in Lepidoptera.
Schiffermüller was a teacher at the Theresianum College in Vienna. His collection was present ...
wrote a systematic catalogue of the butterflies of the districts around Vienna ''Systematische Verzeichnis der Schmetterlinge der Wienergegend herausgegeben von einigen Lehrern am k. k. Theresianum'' (1775). In Germany
Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper
Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper (2 June 1742 – 27 July 1810) was a German zoologist and naturalist. Born in Wunsiedel in Bavaria, he was professor of zoology at Erlangen university.
Life and work
Eugen and his brother Friedrich were intro ...
in collaboration with
Toussaint de Charpentier Toussaint von Charpentier (22 November 1779 – 4 March 1847) was a German geologist and entomologist.
He was the author of ''Libellulinae europaeae descriptae e depictae'' (1840).
Biography
Toussaint von Charpentier was born in Freiberg, Saxony ...
published ''Die europäischen Schmetterlinge'' (European butterflie
online here and ''Die ausländischen Schmetterlinge'' (World butterflie
online here.
Between 1806 and 1834
Jacob Hübner wrote ''Sammlung exotischer Schmetterlinge''
Collection of exotic butterflies"(2 vols.), Augsburg with
Carl Geyer and
Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer
Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer (17 December 1799 – 14 April 1874) was a German entomologist and physician. He was born, and died, in Regensburg. Herrich-Schäffer studied and collected particularly butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). ...
. During the years of 1806–1824 Hübner added ''Geschichte europäischer Schmetterlinge''
History of European butterflies" Herrich-Schäffer expanded this as ''Systematische Bearbeitung der Schmetterlinge von Europa, Zugleich als Text, Revision und Supplement zu Jacob Hubner’s Sammlung europäischer Schmetterlinge''(6 Volumes, 1843–1856).
In France
Jean Baptiste Boisduval,
Jules Pierre Rambur
Jules Pierre Rambur (21 July 1801 – 10 August 1870) was a French entomologist.
Rambur was born in Chinon. He studied the insect fauna of Corsica and Andalusia. He was the author of ''Histoire naturelle des insectes'' (1842) amongst other wo ...
and
Adolphe Hercule de Graslin
Adolphe Hercule de Graslin (11 April 1802, Chateaux de Malitourne, Flée, Sarthe – 31 May 1882, Malitourne) was a French entomologist.
Adolphe Hercule de Graslin specialised in Lepidoptera. He was a founding member of the Société Entomolog ...
wrote ''Collection iconographique et historique des chenilles; ou, Description et figures des chenilles (larvae) d'Europe, avec l'histoire de leurs métamorphoses, et des applications à l'agriculture'', Paris, Librairie encyclopédique de Roret, 1832 and with
John Eatton Le Conte
John Eatton Le Conte, Jr. (sometimes John Eatton LeConte or John Eaton Leconte) (February 22, 1784 – November 21, 1860) was an American naturalist. He was born near Shrewsbury, New Jersey, the son of John Eatton Le Conte and Jane Sloane ...
, 1829–1837 ''Histoire général et iconographie des lepidoptérès et des chenilles de l’Amerique septentrionale'' (General history and illustrations of the Lepidoptera and caterpillars of Northern America) which was published in Paris. Boisduval also described Lepidoptera
from the expedition ship ''Astrolabe'' of
Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse
Jean-François is a French given name. Notable people bearing the given name include:
* Jean-François Carenco (born 1952), French politician
* Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), French Egyptologist
* Jean-François Clervoy (born 1958), Fr ...
and the ''Coquille'', that of
Louis Isidore Duperrey
Louis-Isidore Duperrey (21 October 1786 – 25 August 1865) was a French naval officer and explorer.
Biography
Early life
Louis-Isidore Duperrey was born in 1786.
Career
He joined the navy in 1802, and served as marine hydrologist to Louis Cl ...
.
In Italy
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopolius) (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italian physician and naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first anational European" and the "Linnaeus of the Au ...
wrote ''Entomologia Carniolica'' published in Vienna. In the mid-century period, the expert knowledge of
Lepidoptera dealers such as
Otto Staudinger
Otto Staudinger (2 May 1830 – 13 October 1900) was a German entomologist and a natural history dealer considered one of the largest in the world specialising in the collection and sale of insects to museums, scientific institutions, and in ...
,
Emile Deyrolle
Emil or Emile may refer to:
Literature
*'' Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
*'' Emil and the Detecti ...
,
Orazio Querci
Orazio Querci (1875, Rome –1970) was an Italian entomologist mainly interested in butterflies.
Querci established a butterfly dealership in Florence.
He supplied World butterflies to many museums including the Natural History Museum, London , ...
and
Peter Godeffroy contributed to the field.
In Russia,
Andrey Avinoff
Andrey Avinoff (14 February 1884 – 16 July 1949); was an internationally-known artist, lepidopterist, museum director, professor, bibliophile and iconographer, who served as the director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh ...
,
a member of the diplomatic corps of Tsar Nicholas II, sponsored more than forty collecting expeditions to Central Asia in search of rare lepidoptera. He personally undertook arduous expeditions to Russian Turkestan and the Pamir in 1908 and through India and Kashmir in 1914, as well as to Ladakh and Chinese Turkestan before those regions were open to explorers. Prior to the political upheaval of 1917, he was awarded the Imperial Russian Geographical Society's prestigious gold medal. The Soviet government appropriated his collection and placed it in the
Zoological Museum of St. Petersburg. After Avinoff emigrated to America, he was able to collect a near-duplicate of his original Asiatic butterfly collection, donating it to the
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896.
Housing some 22 million ...
.
Explorers
![Baudin-ships01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Baudin-ships01.jpg)
Expeditions continued to be major sources of specimens. The
Baudin expedition to Australia (1800 to 1803) with two laboratory equipped ships ''
Géographe'' and ''
Naturaliste
''Naturaliste'' is the fifth studio album by the Australian indie pop trio, the Lucksmiths, which was released on 10 March 2003 via Candle Records (catalogue number LUCKY16). The band members Marty Donald on guitar, backing vocals and glockens ...
'' had nine zoologists and botanists on board. They brought back to France, according to
Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy
Antoine is a French given name (from the Latin ''Antonius'' meaning 'highly praise-worthy') that is a variant of Danton, Titouan, D'Anton and Antonin.
The name is used in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, West Greenland, Haiti, French Guiana ...
, the largest collection
Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle
The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...
had ever received including 44 crates of zoological specimens. The
Österreichische Brasilien-Expedition explored the Botany, Zoology and Ethnography of Brazil. It was organized and financed for Austrian Empire and ran from 1817 to 1835. , under the command of Commodore
Bernhard von Wüllerstorf-Urbair
Bernhard Freiherr von Wüllerstorf-Urbair, also: von Wüllersdorf-Urbair or von Wüllerstorf und Urbair, (29 January 1816 – 10 August 1883) was an Austrian vice admiral and, from 1865 to 1867, (k.k.) Austrian Imperial Minister of Trade. He was ...
, made a voyage of exploration in 1857–1859.
Baron Cajetan von Felder and his son
Rudolf Felder
Rudolf Felder (2 May 1842 in Vienna – 29 March 1871 in Vienna) was an Austrian jurist and entomologist. He was mainly interested in Lepidoptera, amassing, with his father, Cajetan Felder, a huge collection.
Works
*with Cajetan Felder, Lepido ...
amassed a huge entomological collection from the Novara that is deposited in the
Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna and the
Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
in London. The butterflies were described in ''Reise Fregatte Novara: Zoologischer Theil., Lepidoptera, Rhopalocera'' (Journey of the Frigate Novara...) in three volumes (1865–1867).
Andrey Avinoff
Andrey Avinoff (14 February 1884 – 16 July 1949); was an internationally-known artist, lepidopterist, museum director, professor, bibliophile and iconographer, who served as the director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh ...
and/or some of his benefactors also financed numerous expeditions from approximately 1906–1940.
Collectors
Wealthy collectors played a major role:
Aimée Fournier de Horrack
Aimée Fournier de Horrack (30 August 1876 – 25 February 1952) was a French entomologist.
She is also known as Mlle de Horrack and Mme Gaston Fournier. Aimée Fournier was a butterfly collector. She lived in Paris at 90, Boulevard Malesherbe ...
in Paris,
Walter Rothschild
Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, (8 February 1868 – 27 August 1937) was a British banker, politician, zoologist and soldier, who was a member of the Rothschild family. As a Zionist leader, he was presen ...
and
James John Joicey
James John Joicey FES (28 December 1870 – 10 March 1932) was an English amateur entomologist, who assembled an extensive collection of Lepidoptera in his private research museum, called the Hill Museum, in Witley, Surrey. Hi ...
in England and in Russia
Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia
Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia (russian: Великий князь Никола́й Миха́йлович; 26 April Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._14_April.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old ...
who funded
Sergei Alphéraky
Sergei Nikolaevich Alphéraky (1850–1918) (sometimes Alphéraki or Alferaki) was a Russian ornithologist and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera.
Sergei Alphéraky was born into the noble Greek family of Alferakis and was the brothe ...
and edited ''Mémoires sur les Lépidoptères''. The
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
provided opportunities to
Frederic Moore author of ''
Lepidoptera Indica''. The
Carnegie and
Mellon families helped finance the collection and acquisition of butterfly collections through their investments into the newly created
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896.
Housing some 22 million ...
headed up by Andrey Avinoff from 1926 to 1945.
Museums
In the nineteenth century large collections of Lepidoptera were amongst the natural history specimens then flooding into Europe. Most of the largest and most specimens of new species are in
Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale (
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colo ...
),
Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle
The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...
(
French colonial empire),
Museum für Naturkunde
The Natural History Museum (german: Museum für Naturkunde) is a natural history museum located in Berlin, Germany. It exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history and in such domain it is one of three major muse ...
(
German colonial empire),
British Museum (Natural History)
The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...
(
British colonial Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts est ...
),
Zoological Museum in St. Petersburg, and
Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie
The Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (National Museum of Natural History) was a museum on the Rapenburg in Leiden, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1820 by Royal Decree from a merger of several existing collections. This happened on the initi ...
(
Dutch Empire). Museum lepidopterists have included
Samuel Constantinus Snellen van Vollenhoven
Samuel Constant Snellen van Vollenhoven (18 October 1816, Rotterdam – 22 March 1880) was a Dutch entomologist. He is not to be confused with Pieter Cornelius Tobias Snellen another entomologist from Rotterdam.
He was curator of the entomologic ...
.
Francis Walker,
Alois Friedrich Rogenhofer
Alois Friedrich Rogenhofer (22 December 1831, in Vienna – 15 January 1897, in Vienna) was an Austrian entomologist. He was a curator at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, where he was the first keeper of the Lepidoptera. Rogenhofer was ma ...
,
František Antonín Nickerl
František Antonín Nickerl (December 4, 1813 in Prague – February 4, 1871 in Prague) was a Czech entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera, especially those of the Riesengebirges.
František Nickerl was a professor of zoology in Graz and ...
,
Lionel de Nicéville
Charles Lionel Augustus de Nicéville (1852 in Bristol – 3 December 1901 in Calcutta from malaria) was a curator at the Indian Museum in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He studied the butterflies of the Indian Subcontinent and wrote a three volume mono ...
,
Carl Heinrich Hopffer Carl Heinrich Hopffer (1810–1876) was a German entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera.
Hopffer was a curator (Custos) at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. He described many new species mainly in the following works.
*''Neue Schmetterl ...
and
Arthur Gardiner Butler
Arthur Gardiner Butler F.L.S., F.Z.S. (27 June 1844 – 28 May 1925) was an English entomologist, arachnologist and ornithologist. He worked at the British Museum on the taxonomy of birds, insects, and spiders.
Biography
Arthur Gardiner But ...
.
Notable lepidopterists
Some notable lepidopterists are or have been:
*
Per Olof Christopher Aurivillius
Per Olof Christopher Aurivillius (15 January 1843 – 20 July 1928) was a Swedish entomologist.
Life
Christopher Aurivillius was born at Forsa, Sweden. He was the director of the Natural History Museum in Stockholm and he specialised in Col ...
of Sweden: butterflies of Africa
*
Andrey Avinoff
Andrey Avinoff (14 February 1884 – 16 July 1949); was an internationally-known artist, lepidopterist, museum director, professor, bibliophile and iconographer, who served as the director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh ...
of Russia and the U.S.A: butterflies of Central Asia and Jamaica
*
Henry Tibbats Stainton
Henry Tibbats Stainton (13 August 1822 – 2 December 1892) was an English entomologist. He served as an editor for two popular entomology periodicals of his period, ''The Entomologist's Annual'' and ''The Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer''.
...
of England:
Microlepidoptera
Microlepidoptera (micromoths) is an artificial (i.e., unranked and not monophyletic) grouping of moth families, commonly known as the 'smaller moths' (micro, Lepidoptera). These generally have wingspans of under 20 mm, and are thus harder to ...
*
Jules Léon Austaut Jules Léon Austaut (1844 – 1929) was a French entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera.
Works
* 1879. Lépidoptères nouveaux d'Algérie. Petites Nouvelles entomologiques, 2, p. 293
* 1879-1885. Lépidoptères nouveaux d'Algérie. Le ...
of France: specialised in ''
Parnassius
''Parnassius'' is a genus of northern circumpolar and montane (alpine and Himalayan) butterflies usually known as Apollos or snow Apollos. They can vary in colour and form significantly based on their altitude. They also show an adaptation to h ...
''
*
Otto Vasilievich Bremer Otto Vasilievich Bremer (died 11 November 1873) was a Russian naturalist and entomologist.
He wrote:
*''Beiträge zur Schmetterlings-fauna des Nödrlichen China's'' (1853) with Vasilii Fomich Grey (William Grey).
*"Neue Lepidopteren aus Ost-Sibir ...
of Russia: butterflies of Siberia and Amur
*
John Henry Leech
John Henry Leech (5 December 1862 – 29 December 1900) was an English entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera and Coleoptera.
His collections from China, Japan, and Kashmir are in the Natural History Museum, London. These also contain inse ...
of England: butterflies of China
*
Shōnen Matsumura
was a Japanese entomologist.
Born in Akashi, Hyōgo, Dr. Shōnen Matsumura established Japan's first course on entomology at Hokkaido University. The courses were both applied (on insects of importance in forestry and agriculture) and theoreti ...
of Japan: butterflies of Japan
*
Hans Rebel
Hans Rebel (2 September 1861 – 19 May 1940) was an Austrian entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera.
Rebel, who had an early interest in natural history and butterflies, first became a lawyer. He devoted his spare time to studying Lepi ...
of Austria: butterflies of the
Palearctic
*
Maria Sibylla Merian
Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 164713 January 1717) was a German naturalist and scientific illustrator. She was one of the earliest European naturalists to observe insects directly. Merian was a descendant of the Frankfurt branch of the Swiss M ...
of the Dutch Republic: butterflies and moths of Surinam
*
Ruggero Verity
Ruggero Verity or Roger Verity (20 May 1883 – 4 March 1959) was an Anglo-Italian entomologist who specialised in butterflies and a physician.
Life
Roger Verity was born in Florence on 20 May 1883, the elder son of Richard Henry Manners Verity ...
of Italy: butterflies of the Palearctic
*
Hans Fruhstorfer
Hans Fruhstorfer (7 March 1866, in Passau, Germany – 9 April 1922, in Munich) was a German explorer, insect trader and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He collected and described new species of exotic butterflies, especially in ...
of Germany: world butterflies, but especially Java
*
Edward Meyrick
Edward Meyrick (25 November 1854, in Ramsbury – 31 March 1938, at Thornhanger, Marlborough) was an English schoolmaster and amateur entomologist. He was an expert on microlepidoptera and some consider him one of the founders of modern m ...
of England: Microlepidoptera
*
Herman Strecker of the U.S.A.: butterflies of the
Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
*
Anthony Valletta
Anthony Valletta (21 December 1908 – 8 December 1988 in Birkirkara, Malta) was a well known teacher, lepidopterist and naturalist. He was a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society. He wrote several books on nature in the Maltese Islands, su ...
of Malta: butterflies of Malta
*
Margaret Fountaine
Margaret Elizabeth Fountaine (16 May 1862 – 21 April 1940), was a Victorian era, Victorian lepidopterist (a person interested in butterflies and moths), natural history illustrator, diarist, and traveller who published in The Entomologist's Rec ...
of England: Europe, South Africa, India, Tibet, America, Australia and the West Indies.
*
Edna Mosher
Edna Mosher (July 20, 1878 – May 7, 1972) was a Canadian entomologist and lepidopterist known for her pioneering work on Lepidoptera pupae morphology.
Early life and education
Edna Mosher was born in July 1878 at Kempt Shore, Hants County, ...
of Canada: ''A Classification of the Lepidoptera based on characters of the pupae''
Collections and illustrations
As the chief mode of study of butterflies was through pinned specimen collections, it was difficult to catalogue and communicate names and descriptions widely. Books on butterflies with plates that were either hand-painted, lithographed and printed have been a major tool in lepidopterology. These include the massive works by
Adalbert Seitz
Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz, (24 February 1860 in Mainz – 5 March 1938 in Darmstadt) was a German physician and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He was a director of the Frankfurt zoo from 1893 to 1908 and is best known for e ...
.
Unusual works like the ''Butterfly Fauna of Ceylon'' (1942) by Lionel Gilbert Ollyett Woodhouse (1888–1965) and ''Moths and Butterflies of the United States East of the Rocky Mountains'' (1900) by
Sherman F. Denton made use of butterfly wing-prints where the illustrations incorporated the scales of the wings.
The illustrious Russian writer,
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
was a noted lepidopterist, having discovered the passion at the age of seven. He would later write about butterflies, collect, and illustrate them.
Nabokov volunteered at
Harvard's
Museum of Comparative Zoology
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...
in the
Entomology Department,
where he would organize specimens for as much as 14 hours a day.
According to Kurt Johnson, the lepidopterist author of Nabokov's Blues, Nabokov's novel Dar (The Gift), featured a lepidopterist, the father of the émigré protagonist, based on a fictionalization of
Andrey Avinoff
Andrey Avinoff (14 February 1884 – 16 July 1949); was an internationally-known artist, lepidopterist, museum director, professor, bibliophile and iconographer, who served as the director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh ...
. Avinoff discovered several new species: in Central Asia, the Parnassius Maharaja Avinoff and in Jamaica the Shoumatoff Hairstreak, Nesiostrymon shoumatoffi, named after his nephew, Nicholas Shoumatoff who joined him on three expeditions to the wild Cockpit Country in the late 1930s.
Avinoff's groundbreaking research on the biogeography of speciation demonstrated how members of the genus Karanasa evolved into separate species in isolated mountain valleys in the Pamir Range. He collaborated with his colleague Walter Sweadner, a curator of entomology at the Carnegie museum, on a monograph, The Karanasa Butterflies, A Study in Evolution.
Lepidopterological societies
Lepidopterists are served by a number of national and international scientific societies. They promote research in lepidopterology and dissemination of the findings through conferences such as the biennial European Congresses of Lepidopterology or the TILS Leps Talk. These societies include:
*
Lepidopterists' Society
The Lepidopterists' Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of Butterfly, butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). Founded in 1947 and based in the United States, it has an international focus and membership.
Publications
The s ...
*
Societas Europaea Lepidopterologica
Societas Europaea Lepidopterologica (also known as SEL) is a European society for the study of moths and butterflies and for the conservation of these insects and their natural habitats. The society was founded in 1976 with the aims of promoting c ...
* Lepidoptera Research Foundation
*
North American Butterfly Association
The North American Butterfly Association (NABA) was created in 1992 by Jeffrey Glassberg who is the association's president. The NABA was formed in order to promote awareness of butterfly conservation and the benefits of butterfly gardening, obser ...
* Association for Tropical Lepidoptera
* International Lepidoptera Survey
* Lepidopterological Society of Denmark
* Lepidopterological Society of Finland
* Lepidopterological Society of Japan
* Sicilian Lepidopterological Association
* Southern Lepidopterists' Society
* Study Group of Hessian Lepidopterologists
* Lepidopterists' Society of Africa
Lepidopterological journals
* ''Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera''
* ''Metamorphosis''
* ''The Taxonomic Report''
* ''
Nota lepidopterologica
Nota Sports and Racing Cars is an automobile manufacturer in Australia. The company was founded by Guy Buckingham in 1952. He was an aircraft engineer and used his expertise to build triangulated spaceframed sportscars. Possibly Australia's fi ...
''
See also
*
The Global Lepidoptera Names Index
The Global Lepidoptera Names Index (LepIndex) is a searchable database maintained by the Department of Entomology at the Natural History Museum, London.
It is based on card indices and scanned journals, nomenclatural catalogues and the '' Zoologi ...
*
Lepidoptera in the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''
*
McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity
The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural-history museum. Its main facilities are located at 3215 Hull Road on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville.
The main pub ...
,
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
*
Butterfly watching
Butterfly watching is a hobby concerned with the observation and study of butterfly, butterflies. It also includes the "catch and release" of butterflies. There are clubs, handbooks, checklists, and festivals devoted to the activity.
The Canada Da ...
References
External links
*
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Subfields of entomology