Post by nomad on Feb 23, 2013 7:46:01 GMT -8
Ray Straatman produced a number of fine papers for the Journal of the lepidopterist's Society and a link to some of these can be found in this thread.
In New Guinea during the 1960's and 1970's a number of talented lepidopterist's were all busy in the field studying the life histories of the birdwing butterflies. Richard Carver, Ray Straatman, Harry Borch and Jan Pasternak all greatly contributed to our knowledge of these magnificent insects. Foremost among these lepidopterist's was Raymond Straatman who was regarded by many as a birdwing guru. Ray Straatman arrived in Indonesia in the late 1940's and settled in Sumatra where he worked for a Dutch company on their rubber and copra estate. In the 1950's he was the first to discover the early stages of Trogonoptera brookiana and Atrophaneura hageni and produced detailed drawings and descriptions of them. An interesting paper by Ray Straatman on the methods of butterfly collecting in Sumatra can be found at this link.
images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/1950s/1955/1955-9(2-3)74-Straatman.pdf
The political situation in Indonesia under Sukarno makes it very difficult for the Dutch, and Ray migrates to Australia in 1959. In 1960 he leaves for Papua New Guinea where he gets a job as a planter on a rubber estate near the Veimauri River. Between the years 1965-1967 Ray was working for the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, travelling extensively thoughout PNG and the Solomons collecting specimens for this museum [ butterflies, beetles, diptera, hymenoptera etc ] In 1966 he travels to Bougainville and the Solomons for the Bishop museum and here he records the early stages of O. victoriae and O. urvillianus.In 1969 he writes a paper on these with observations of the adults.
images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/1960s/1969/1969-23(2)69-Straatman.pdf
In the Solomons Ray Straatman discovers a new subspecies of O.victoriae which F. Schmid names as O. victoriae epiphanes in 1970. In 1967 Ray gets a job on a rubber estate in Milne Bay Province in Eastern Papua and here he makes many observations of the local population of O. meridionalis [ There is a certain amount of controversy whether it was Richard Carver or Ray Straatman who actually discovered the life history of O. meridionalis in 1963. Jan Haugum mentions Ray Straatman first found O. meridionalis at Milne Bay] . In 1969 Ray Straatman rents a small house at Sogeri on the high plateau some 20km north of Port Moresby. From now on he becomes a professional field lepidopterist and butterfly hunter and works on his own. In 1970 he is hired by the PNG government for a special project to conduct a land survey of the distribution of O. alexandrae in the Popondetta region. In 1971 he produces a fine paper on the ' Life History of O. alexandrae Link below.
images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/1970s/1971/1971-25(1)58-Straatman.pdf
During 1971 Jan Pasternak a friend of Raymond Straatman, explored the Omeri Mountains and after some herotic efforts, he was the first to discover the early stages of O. chimaera. A year later Jan Pasternak found a much higher concentration of O. chimaera at Bundi in the Bismarck Mountains. A highlight of this expedition was finding a blossom tree that was attracting many O. chimaera of both sexes. At Bundi Jan Pasternak also found a larva on a then unidentified Aristolochia vine which produced a female of O. goliath. Later Ray Straatman would visit Bundi and study and photograph the early stages of O. chimaera and those of O. goliath near his home at Sogeri. In 1975 Ray wrote a very fine paper with F. Schmid on the ' Biology of O. goliath and O. chimaera
images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/1970s/1975/1975-29(2)85-Straatman.pdf
Ray was also interested in breeding other Papilionidae and in 1975 produces a paper on the biologies of P. laglaizei and P. toboroi
images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/1970s/1975/1975-29(3)180-Straatman.pdf
In 1976 Ray succeeds for the first time in crossbreeding O. victoriae with O. priamus urvillianus and thus proves that the so called ' O. allottei is not a species but a hybrid. In 1978 someone in the Fishery and Wildlife Dept gathers evidence and charges Ray with the illegal catching and dealing with protected birdwings. He is found guilty and ordered to leave his beloved Papua. Ray settles in Cairns, Oueensland and will later build a house at a rainforest property at Freedom county 5 km west of Kuranda in the hilly country 20 km west of Cairns. He is still very active and travels frequently almost every year to Indonesia including West New Guinea where among other place he visits the Arfak Mtns and the lovely Paniai Lakes region in the Central mountain range. He also visits Europe and the U.S. where he is hosted by his many lepidopterist's friends. In 1981 he travels with Jan Pasternak to visit Jan Haugum in Leiden in the Netherlands. In his Monograph of the Birdwing Butterflies, Jan Haugum would make much use of Ray Straatman's extensive knowledge of these butterflies and use a number of his photographs. At his home near Kuranda he keenly engages in butterfly experiments especially with the Papilio's producing interesting hybrids of P. aegeus x P. fuscus x P. ambrax etc. His triumph comes in 1985-1986 when after several failed attempts he finally succeeds in crossbreeding O. victoriae x O. euphorion and also x urvillianus and produces for the second time allottei and also this time the wonderful golden form [ victoriae x euphorion].
In 2003 Bernard d' Abrera published his new edition of his Birdwing Butterfies of the World and in this work, the author is very critical of Raymond Straatman, who having passed away in 1987 was unable to counter these accusations and it was left to Jan Pasternak to come to his defence in his informative and wonderful CD ROM ' A Naturalist in Birdwing Paradise'. The D' Abrera and Straatman intrigues are legendary among lepidopterist's and there was a great rivalry between the two. D' Abrera having produced lavish volumes on lepidoptera and Straatman which his unrivaled field knowledge of butterflies.
Perhaps the best known of these intrigues are the events in 1973 on Kokoda Trail at the Goldie River near his home at Sogeri . Ray had taken D' Abrera to photograph the O. goliath larvae, where they arrived late. D' Abrera, who would not use flashlight, complained of poor light conditions and wanted to move the larvae into a more open space to take his photographs. This Ray would not allow because he did not wish to disturb the larvae. Furious and returning the next day on his own, D' Abrera says that he found the larvae gone and the hostplant savagely cut down. Ray Straatman gave Jan Pasternak his version of these events. Ray told Jan that the O. goliath larvae had devoured and then destroyed the Aristolochia vines. [see the photographs in the Straatman link to this species]. Ray had them moved early to a new location and to stop any interference of them by Bernard d' Abrera. In spite of the well known poison pen of D' Abrera, Raymond Straatman was a highly respected lepidopterist who was very popular with many people.
I would like to thank Jan Pasternak for providing most of the information in this thread and for his permission to use his Raymond Straatman photographs which remain his copyright. Additional information on Ray Straatman and much more on birdwings can be found in Jan Pasternak's CD ROM ' A Naturalist in Birdwing Paradise' and in his lovely book ' Fluttering Encounters in the Amazing Archipelago'. I would also like to thank the California Academy of Sciences for permission to use the Ray Straatman images who own the copyright.
This thread is dedicated to the memory of Raymond Straatman [1917-1987] and to his considerable achievements in the study of lepidoptera.
Peter.
Photograph below.A meeting of birdwing enthusiast's at the Rijeks Nat His museum at Leiden in the Netherlands. Jan Haugum [sitting right] Jan Pasternak centre, Ray Straatman [standing right] and Rieng de Jong standing left.
In New Guinea during the 1960's and 1970's a number of talented lepidopterist's were all busy in the field studying the life histories of the birdwing butterflies. Richard Carver, Ray Straatman, Harry Borch and Jan Pasternak all greatly contributed to our knowledge of these magnificent insects. Foremost among these lepidopterist's was Raymond Straatman who was regarded by many as a birdwing guru. Ray Straatman arrived in Indonesia in the late 1940's and settled in Sumatra where he worked for a Dutch company on their rubber and copra estate. In the 1950's he was the first to discover the early stages of Trogonoptera brookiana and Atrophaneura hageni and produced detailed drawings and descriptions of them. An interesting paper by Ray Straatman on the methods of butterfly collecting in Sumatra can be found at this link.
images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/1950s/1955/1955-9(2-3)74-Straatman.pdf
The political situation in Indonesia under Sukarno makes it very difficult for the Dutch, and Ray migrates to Australia in 1959. In 1960 he leaves for Papua New Guinea where he gets a job as a planter on a rubber estate near the Veimauri River. Between the years 1965-1967 Ray was working for the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, travelling extensively thoughout PNG and the Solomons collecting specimens for this museum [ butterflies, beetles, diptera, hymenoptera etc ] In 1966 he travels to Bougainville and the Solomons for the Bishop museum and here he records the early stages of O. victoriae and O. urvillianus.In 1969 he writes a paper on these with observations of the adults.
images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/1960s/1969/1969-23(2)69-Straatman.pdf
In the Solomons Ray Straatman discovers a new subspecies of O.victoriae which F. Schmid names as O. victoriae epiphanes in 1970. In 1967 Ray gets a job on a rubber estate in Milne Bay Province in Eastern Papua and here he makes many observations of the local population of O. meridionalis [ There is a certain amount of controversy whether it was Richard Carver or Ray Straatman who actually discovered the life history of O. meridionalis in 1963. Jan Haugum mentions Ray Straatman first found O. meridionalis at Milne Bay] . In 1969 Ray Straatman rents a small house at Sogeri on the high plateau some 20km north of Port Moresby. From now on he becomes a professional field lepidopterist and butterfly hunter and works on his own. In 1970 he is hired by the PNG government for a special project to conduct a land survey of the distribution of O. alexandrae in the Popondetta region. In 1971 he produces a fine paper on the ' Life History of O. alexandrae Link below.
images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/1970s/1971/1971-25(1)58-Straatman.pdf
During 1971 Jan Pasternak a friend of Raymond Straatman, explored the Omeri Mountains and after some herotic efforts, he was the first to discover the early stages of O. chimaera. A year later Jan Pasternak found a much higher concentration of O. chimaera at Bundi in the Bismarck Mountains. A highlight of this expedition was finding a blossom tree that was attracting many O. chimaera of both sexes. At Bundi Jan Pasternak also found a larva on a then unidentified Aristolochia vine which produced a female of O. goliath. Later Ray Straatman would visit Bundi and study and photograph the early stages of O. chimaera and those of O. goliath near his home at Sogeri. In 1975 Ray wrote a very fine paper with F. Schmid on the ' Biology of O. goliath and O. chimaera
images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/1970s/1975/1975-29(2)85-Straatman.pdf
Ray was also interested in breeding other Papilionidae and in 1975 produces a paper on the biologies of P. laglaizei and P. toboroi
images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/1970s/1975/1975-29(3)180-Straatman.pdf
In 1976 Ray succeeds for the first time in crossbreeding O. victoriae with O. priamus urvillianus and thus proves that the so called ' O. allottei is not a species but a hybrid. In 1978 someone in the Fishery and Wildlife Dept gathers evidence and charges Ray with the illegal catching and dealing with protected birdwings. He is found guilty and ordered to leave his beloved Papua. Ray settles in Cairns, Oueensland and will later build a house at a rainforest property at Freedom county 5 km west of Kuranda in the hilly country 20 km west of Cairns. He is still very active and travels frequently almost every year to Indonesia including West New Guinea where among other place he visits the Arfak Mtns and the lovely Paniai Lakes region in the Central mountain range. He also visits Europe and the U.S. where he is hosted by his many lepidopterist's friends. In 1981 he travels with Jan Pasternak to visit Jan Haugum in Leiden in the Netherlands. In his Monograph of the Birdwing Butterflies, Jan Haugum would make much use of Ray Straatman's extensive knowledge of these butterflies and use a number of his photographs. At his home near Kuranda he keenly engages in butterfly experiments especially with the Papilio's producing interesting hybrids of P. aegeus x P. fuscus x P. ambrax etc. His triumph comes in 1985-1986 when after several failed attempts he finally succeeds in crossbreeding O. victoriae x O. euphorion and also x urvillianus and produces for the second time allottei and also this time the wonderful golden form [ victoriae x euphorion].
In 2003 Bernard d' Abrera published his new edition of his Birdwing Butterfies of the World and in this work, the author is very critical of Raymond Straatman, who having passed away in 1987 was unable to counter these accusations and it was left to Jan Pasternak to come to his defence in his informative and wonderful CD ROM ' A Naturalist in Birdwing Paradise'. The D' Abrera and Straatman intrigues are legendary among lepidopterist's and there was a great rivalry between the two. D' Abrera having produced lavish volumes on lepidoptera and Straatman which his unrivaled field knowledge of butterflies.
Perhaps the best known of these intrigues are the events in 1973 on Kokoda Trail at the Goldie River near his home at Sogeri . Ray had taken D' Abrera to photograph the O. goliath larvae, where they arrived late. D' Abrera, who would not use flashlight, complained of poor light conditions and wanted to move the larvae into a more open space to take his photographs. This Ray would not allow because he did not wish to disturb the larvae. Furious and returning the next day on his own, D' Abrera says that he found the larvae gone and the hostplant savagely cut down. Ray Straatman gave Jan Pasternak his version of these events. Ray told Jan that the O. goliath larvae had devoured and then destroyed the Aristolochia vines. [see the photographs in the Straatman link to this species]. Ray had them moved early to a new location and to stop any interference of them by Bernard d' Abrera. In spite of the well known poison pen of D' Abrera, Raymond Straatman was a highly respected lepidopterist who was very popular with many people.
I would like to thank Jan Pasternak for providing most of the information in this thread and for his permission to use his Raymond Straatman photographs which remain his copyright. Additional information on Ray Straatman and much more on birdwings can be found in Jan Pasternak's CD ROM ' A Naturalist in Birdwing Paradise' and in his lovely book ' Fluttering Encounters in the Amazing Archipelago'. I would also like to thank the California Academy of Sciences for permission to use the Ray Straatman images who own the copyright.
This thread is dedicated to the memory of Raymond Straatman [1917-1987] and to his considerable achievements in the study of lepidoptera.
Peter.
Photograph below.A meeting of birdwing enthusiast's at the Rijeks Nat His museum at Leiden in the Netherlands. Jan Haugum [sitting right] Jan Pasternak centre, Ray Straatman [standing right] and Rieng de Jong standing left.
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