Fwd: RE: Thunberg, 1791

Chris J. Durden drdn at mail.utexas.edu
Thu Nov 29 20:47:32 EST 2001


>Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 17:33:46 -0600
>To: Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca
>From: "Chris J. Durden" <drdn at mail.utexas.edu>
>Subject: RE: Thunberg, 1791
>
>I gather that no-one has yet come through with the OD?
>    I am about to attempt to make an image of a xerocopy of it for posting.
>Before I start here is some information that may be relevant -
>    Somewhere I remember reading that (unlike in America today) these old 
> Swedish professors actually did the work but it was up to new doctoral 
> candidate to present it and defend it in public. This would suggest a 
> situation quite analogous to the Abbot & Smith situation, where Abbot 
> actually did the work and Smith described and named what he saw in 
> Abbot's pictures (as Boisduval and LeConte, Walckenaer and others also 
> did). I personally think the John Abbot research and its authorship 
> question should be reopened. If we were to use the current treatment of 
> Abbot's taxa as precedent, I think we would be obliged to ascribe the 
> authorship of Thunberg's taxa to Peter Eric Becklin. However there are 
> other considerations -
>    Are these insects really Thunberg's taxa?
>    The "Publication" is a printed leaflet distributed on 10th December 
> 1791 by Peter Eric Becklin at his public presentation and defense. Not 
> all new taxa are illustrated and the illustrations are relatively poor. 
> The butterflies described as new taxa are
>      Papilio isis,
>           Svecia [by] Delen; Roslagia [by] Gedner.
>      P. matutina,
>           Svecia [by] Afzelius, Groendal and others.
>      P. frigga,
>           In Lapponiae sylvis, locis uliginosis Salice Lapponum repletis, 
> [by] Liljeblad; Quenzel.
>      P. freija, Fig. 14, 14. [Boloria (Clossiana) freija (Thb.)]
>           In Vestrobothnia juxta flumina locis graminosis, [by] Liljeblad 
> & in Lapponia [by] Quenzel.
>      P. norna, Fig. 11, 11. [Oeneis norna (Thb.)]
>           In Lapponia [var. alpha, var. beta] juxta alpes [by] Liljeblad, 
> Ruthstroem & Ekholm
>           [var. gamma] by Quenzel
>      P. disa,
>           In Lapponia [by] Quenzel.
>      P. lappona, Fig 6, 6. [Erebia pandrose (Bkh.)]
>           Juxta kengis Vestrobothniae [by] Ruthstroem
>           In Lapponiae sylvis [by] Liljeblad, Ekholm
>           In Lapponia [by] Quenzel.
>      P. embla, Fig. 8 [Erebia embla (Thb.), 8. [Erebia disa (Thb.)]
>           In lucis Vestrobothniae subhumidis, horis vespertinis [by] 
> Liljeblad.
>
>Later in the same year there appeared Vol. XII (for October, November, 
>December of 1791) in the New Proceedings of the Royal Academy (Kongl. 
>Vetenskaps Academiens nya Handlingar, Stockholm) a paper by C. Quensel 
>(presumably the same as Quenzel) titled "Beskrifningar ofver 8 nya Svenska 
>Dagfjarillar. In this paper Quensel illustrates with good figures and 
>describes as new -
>      P. embla - Pl. IX, f. 1, 2 [=Erebia embla (Thb.)]
>           In desertis paludosis Dalekarliae, in ter Saernam & Elfdaliam, 
> circa finem nensis Junii.
>      P. gefion - Pl. IX, f. 3, 4 female [=Erebia disa (Thb.)]; f. 5, 6 
> male [=Erebia pandrose (Bkh)]
>           In Lapponia Tornoensi maxime boreali ad Enontakis, in locis 
> depressis, turfosis, ubi flores Rubi chamaemori copiose inveniuntur, 
> frequens, brevi tempore, a fine mensis Junii vix ad medium Julii, occurrit.
>      P. hilda - Pl. IX, f. 7, 8 [=Oeneis norna (Thb.)]
>           In Lapponia inter Enontakis meridiem & fines Norvegiae 
> septentrionem versus, in collibus aridissimis Lichene Rhangiferino 
> obductis. Rarior praecedentibus.
>      P. norna - Pl. X, f. 1, 2 [=Oeneis bore (Hbn.]
>           In pratis Lapponiae borealioris, minus frequens.
>      P. frigga - Pl. X, f. 3, 4. [Boloria (Clossiana) frigga (Thb.)]
>           In Lapponiae australioris pratis floriferis, initio mensis 
> Julii. Sequente multum infrequentior.
>      P. freija - Pl. X, f. 5, 6. [Boloria (Clossiana) freija (Thb.)]
>           In Lapponiae Tornoensis pratis depressis ad Latera montium & 
> alpium, a fine Junii af medium Julii non rarus.
>      P. fulla - Pl. X, f. 7, 8. [Melitaea cinxia (L.)]
>           In Roslagiae maritimis; Insula Singon, mense Julii. Rarus.
>      P. hertha - Pl. X, f. 9, 10 [Mellicta diamina (Lang)]
>           Prope Holmiam [by] D. Schoenherr
>
>At the end of his paper Quensel footnotes the publication of the other 
>paper which he attributes to Thunberg. He states that Embla, Norna, 
>Freija, Frigga are described there under the same names. In addition he 
>notes "hvaremot den af Auctor under N:o II fundne P. GEFION darstades 
>blifvit kallad P. DISA; som til rattwlle for Synonymien har bordt 
>anmarkas." [I wish I knew Swedish!]
>
>.........................Chris Durden
>
>At 07:43 AM 11/29/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>>Yes, it is quite sad that it is so difficult to access both old literature
>>and type material of butterflies in the age of digital data storage and
>>instant digital transfer of information. The people who work in major
>>libraries and major museums are nice people and no doubt they work hard but
>>these publicly funded institutions are in my opinion generally doing a
>>miserable job of making information available to the community that funds
>>them. As far as the museums are concerned it would seem to be a high
>>priority to provide images of at least the holotype part of the type
>>spectrum.



 
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