Butterfly naming problems. Example O. paradisea.

Staudinger had not a single specimen of paradisea when he described it as a new species !!!
Pagenstecher had sent him only drawings and photographs of the specimen in his possession to hear his opinion about it. This action of Staudinger really can only be described as shabby and dishonorable.

Here is Pagenstecher's original text about that fact (in: Jahrbücher des Nassauischen Vereins für Naturkunde, Jahrgang 46, 1893, p. 39):
"In dem Juniheft der Entomologischen Nachrichten versucht Herr Dr. O. Staudinger, im Wesentlichen wohl auf Grund schriftlicher Mittheilungen, welche ich ihm, wie anderen namhaften Entomologen, zugleich mit zur Ansicht gesandten Zeichnungen und Photographien über die neue Art gemacht hatte, eine Beschreibung derselben zu geben, wiewohl Herr Dr. O. Staudinger das Originalexemplar bis jetzt gar nicht in natura gesehen hat."

I have attached the beautiful illustration accompanying the article of Pagenstecher.

Manfred

Manfred

Thank you for your information and the very precise and beautiful drawing that accompanied the article that was written by Pagenstecher. Otto Staudinger actions were questionable to say the least but like Thierry, I am pleased this magnificent species is known as O. paradisea. I expect Otto Staudinger, being a major Butterfly dealer wanted specimens of this butterfly for sale and according to the New Zealand paper he certainly obtained some O. paradisea and they mentioned the price he sold them for. Perhaps Carl Wahnes sent one of his white assistants to the Finisterre Mountains to obtain more specimens or Staudinger sent his own collector to that locality as he often did to procure rare species. Perhaps it was one of those collectors who came to grief on a expedition there. It is difficult to know how much truth there is in the New Zealand paper report but you would expect them to get the main facts right.

Peter.

I remember the attached pict from an encyclopedia of animals that my parents bought for us kids (my 2 sisters and I) in the early 70s. I was able to take a picture with my iphone this past December when I went for a visit to my Mother in France. Clearly an embellished copy of an earlier and much finer print, and obviously not done by a lepidopterist (the poor body of the butterfly looks more like a worm!!). In the Encyclopedia O. Paradisea is incorrectly identified as Troides Chimaera, showing the link to the earlier work as this is the butterfly represented in the earlier print.

Enjoy,
Thierry

Native collecting O. chimaera

Peter,

Thanks for sharing the lovely Chimaera print. Do you have by any chance a link to the Illustrated London News issue which you refer to. I would love to read the article that accompanies the print of the Papua native on the hunt for Chimaera. I did a Google search a few month ago without much luck.

Thanks,
Thierry

Yes it is

This status of the nominate O. paradisea paradisea that has been mentioned in this thread has been open to some doubt. This rare taxon has even been declared extinct. The Red Data book, The Threatened Swallowtails of the World[1985] reveals that it may be extinct in its well known 19th century Madang localities. Nearly all of the known specimens of the nominate race have come from the Astrolabe Bay and Finisterre Mountain area of Madang Province in New Guinea . It certainly still seems to occurs in the rugged Finisterre Mountains with specimens still arriving on the market from that area in recent years. The lowland O. paradisea population around Astrolabe Bay certainly appeared to be gone with large areas of rain-forest logged and vast cocoa and vanilla plantations. There were no records from the Astrolabe bay/Madang area since the first part of the 19th century. However remarkably in the mid 1990s a new population of this very rare taxon was discovered in the protected lowland rain-forest area at Kau, which lies 15km north of Madang. Kau is now a wildlife reserve of some 300 hectares of primary and secondary rain-forest with a very diverse flora and fauna. This important discovery and survival at Kau in the Baitabag area was due to the Didipa villages who fought to keep their forest against the logging concessions. The type male came from Astrolabe Bay and there is another historical reference to O. paradisea being caught here. Captain H. Cayley Webster, the Walter Rothschild collector caught a male specimen at Stephansort [near Madang] in 1893, a year after O. paradisea was discovered. In his exciting book 'Through New Guinea and the Cannibal Countries' he wrote" One of my earliest captures was a magnificent specimen of Ornithoptera paradisea, of which only one specimen had before reached Europe[Type male?] and I felt that it was worth the whole of my journey to New Guinea to see this truly superb insect lying glistening in my hand." Walter Rothschild must have been most anxious to obtain this new prize. Captain Webster on his long expedition also discovered the first female of O. paradisea flaverscens [1896] when he collected at Enta Bay in Dutch New Guinea.

Larry Orsak the renown Papua New Guinea researcher visited the new O. paradisea paradisea population at Kau shortly after it was found during the 1990s. In the New Guinea Digest [1998] they wrote of his observations of this new lowland rain-forest population, "Conservation Melanesia awarded a grant to the Christensen research Institute for nearby villagers to monitor the plant-insect interactions of the once lost, possibly endangered Madang Paradise Butterfly [ornithoptera paradisea paradisea]. This follows the productive research of Dr Brian Flecher. Since Larry Orsak left in July 1997, villagers continued monitoring the Kau Wildlife area, but Osak now funds them. The findings show that the butterflies utilize no more than 5% of the food plant, Aristolochia Schlecteri vines. Food-plant vines often die back and seemly disappear, but then later reappear. Few of the caterpillars found by villagers survive adulthood [when watched but not removed by the villagers]. There is a high mortality in the first half of the caterpillar stage, due to spider, ant and other invertebrate predation. Occasionally caterpillars completely devour the food plant before reaching maturity. This may also be a source of mortality [starvation if this happens] These findings probably hold true in general for the more localized and rare and protected birdwing species in New Guinea. The high caterpillar mortality rate means villagers could remove a portion of the caterpillars and probably not affect the population. If the predators of these birdwings are generalists and would eat other things if the number of birdwing caterpillars decreases artificially. The removed caterpillars could be raised in cages with a portion of the resulting butterflies released [females are less in demand by overseas collectors than males] and a portion retained to sell to the Insect Farming and Trading Agency." IFTA certainly advertised O. paradisea from Papua[ I wonder if their small supply came from here].

Peter.