Wartime (conflict) specimens

This is not exactly on topic, but there is a beetle named after Adolf Hitler. It was discovered by a German entomologist prior to WWII and named in honor of Hitler, who had recently become Chancellor. More info:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anophthalmus_hitleri

Well, here's my second shot at posting a specimen
of conflict times.

This specimen of Lucanus cervus is in my collection.
It was collected during the height of the "cold war"
era of the late 1950's - early 1960's.

Captured on June.27.1962 in Berlin Germany; this (major)
male of the species was effectively taken only a scant
4 months prior to the October "Cuban Missile Crisis" of
(Oct.16,1962 - Oct.28.1962).

It is in A1 condition despite my lousy lighting !

I suppose it came from West Berlin as Americans had no access to East Germany ( DDR ) at that time.

Until the wall was built in 1961 there was rather free transit between the sectors in Berlin. People could move between the sectors (often to visit family) and bring goods with them. So while a US Soldier certainly wouldn't get into the Russian sector of Berlin, a specimen could have been brought out by a (soon to be) DDR resident. So I don't think it would be safe to say the specimen was from West Berlin- first, there was no physical barrier, and second, there was not yet a West Berlin (though there was a DDR at that time.)

Chuck

I attach a photo of a Giant Cellar or Churchyard Beetle, a male Blaps gigas, upperside view and underside with data label.

imgur.com/gallery/qlVDysw

imgur.com/gallery/UfsFDEd

The beetle is 38mm in body length including the prominent rear spines, known as "mucros" which are really a form of abdominal cerci, more elongate and pronounced in the male. This species is distributed around the Mediterranean area and is found in North Africa too. The adults, like the larva, are omnivorous. The adults prefer dark places.

The data label is interesting as this specimen was collected during World War 2. There are several places in France called Brignac, however as Blaps gigas is found in the Mediterranean coastal part of southern France, the village in question is almost certainly in the Languedoc-Roussillon area, very near the Mediterranean sea.

This places the capture in what was then "Vichy France", the French War hero from WW1, Phillipe Petain was in charge of the southern area of France, later after the war, he was tried as a Nazi collaborator and sentenced to death but General De Gaulle commuted the penalty to imprisonment.

The data card is beautifully written in Indian ink, there is another label on the same pin that shows a typed specimen number etc.

I purchased this beetle from the famous Paris shop, La maison Deyrolle in the Rue du Bac. It came from an old French insect collection that was being sold off.

This is what makes insect collecting so intetesting, not only the beauty and form of the specimen, with its natural history and taxonomy, but also the fascination of the collector the date and locality it was collected from. In April 1941, this part of France was still under French administration and recognised diplomatically by the USA, but not by the Free French, UK or Russia. Marshal Petain had a strong distrust and dislike of the English, as well as Jewish people. Sadly his collaboration with the Nazis led to many thousands of French people being murdered.

Johnny

The Yale collection has a lot of Charles Remington material from when he was serving in the Philippines in 1944. He was working as an entomologist with the military, no doubt on controlling disease, and lots of the material is larval mosquitoes and biting flies. Some of the labels have "collected in bomb crater" or "shell crater" on them.

Impressively old specimens, who was the collector?

Johnny