BUTTERFLIES FOR MUSEUM

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 153, 16 July 1937, Page 17

BUTTERFLIES FOR MUSEUM

(Own Correspondent-

Famous Collection Bought for Britain 50,000 SPECIMENS

-By Air Mail).

LONDON, June 15. The bulk of tho Frnhstorfer collection of butterflies, amounting to about 50,000 specimens, is being acquired by the Trustees of the Natural History Musemn at South Kensington. About a quarter of the total amount of this famous collection is in the Paris museum of natural history, and a Paft of it was bought by South Kensington three years ago. The chief value and interest of the collection lies in the number of type specimens which it contains. A type specimen is to the entomologist what the standard- yard is to the surveyor — his standard of judgment and comparison. There are several thousand type specimens in this collection, many of those of very scarce species. Among the unique may be mentioned the female of the Elymnias guaroides and the Pilio priallwitzi, both from Java, and among the very Tare the Troides goliath from New Guinea, tho Delias nausieaa from North Borneo, and the Agrias trajanus from Brazil. The late Herr Hans Fruhstorfer, who died in 1922, began forming his collection in 1888, when he was 22 years old. His first expedition was to Br-azil, and this was followed by extensive travels in Javaj the Malay Archaepelogo,-. America, the South Seas, Japan, China, Annam, and Siam. Eventually he settled in Geneva, whero he devoted many years to the study of his specimens. Although the collection will not be on show to tho general pnblic it will be available to students for re£earch purposes, and may be considered a valuable addition to the Museum 's treasures.