The world's oldest collection of preserved animal specimens, Parthenos tigrina RMNH.INS.1471355

BLOG - Two 7 cm wide, dried imago butterflies are the oldest preserved specimens of animal in the history of science. The exceptionally well-preserved specimens were collected in Sorong, Papua (-0.883333, 131.255828) in 1630, making them the earliest type of collection in the history of modern animal taxonomy.

The two butterflies, stored at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden with ID: RMNH.INS.1471355, have different colors. The first butterfly has a dark brown body with dark brown and white wings, while the second specimen has a light brown body with light brown and white wings.

There is no information about who first collected the specimens from the wild and there was no formal taxon description until Samuel Constant Snellen van Vollenhoven (1816-1880) described them both as Parthenos tigrina in 1866.

The world's oldest collection of preserved animal specimens, Parthenos tigrina RMNH.INS.1471355 2

Vollenhoven was born in Rotterdam and was an entomologist and curator at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center from 1854 to 1873, retiring due to health problems. He founded Tijdschrift voor Entomologie in 1857, a journal of systematic and evolutionary entomology published by the Netherlands Entomological Society.

He described 9 genera and 471 species of insects. Together with Frederik Maurits van der Wulp (1818-1899), they compiled the first checklist of Diptera in the Netherlands. Wulp was an etymologist born in The Hague whose main interest was in Diptera.

Interestingly, the genus Parthenos first appeared from Jacob Hübner (1761-1826) in 1819, which had the synonyms Minetra Boisduval (1832) and Parthenus Agassiz (1846). Hübner was an Augsburg-born entomologist, one of the earliest figures in the field of entomological research and completed his first work entitled Beiträge zur Geschichte der Schmetterlinge in 1786-1790.

Over time two new species appeared in this genus, Parthenos cyaneus Moore (1877) and Parthenos aspila Honrath (1888). In 1904 the subspecies Parthenos tigrina subsp. pardalis Fruhstorfer appeared and thus the specimen RMNH.INS.1471355 changed to Parthenos tigrina subsp. tigrina van Vollenhoven (1866).

In 1912 Parthenos tigrina subsp. terentianus Fruhstorfer appeared and in 1915 Parthenos tigrina subsp. mysolica Rothschild appeared. Parthenos is family: Nymphalidae, order: Lepidoptera, class: Insecta, phylum: Arthropoda and kingdom: Animalia.

Read more:

Specimen RMNH.INS.1471355, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, https://data.biodiversitydata.nl/naturalis/specimen/RMNH.INS.1471355 (August 18, 2024)

By Aryo Bandoro
Founder of Dlium.com. You can follow him on X: @Abandoro.

Dry Valleys on Antarctic continent is the driest place in the world

The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the world, rainfall is very low, only stretches of sand and rocks without rivers and plants further strengthen the view of drought. However, it turns out that the place is not the driest place in the world. Dry Valleys in Antarctica, although the continent is covered in ice, but has one part that is completely dry. Although the average rainfall in most of the Sahara Desert is less than 20 millimeters per year, there are still drier places. Dry Valleys in Antarctica is much drier where the average rainfall is 0 millimeters per year and gets the title of the driest place in the world. The valleys have so low humidity that there is almost no ice. This is the largest ice free place on the Antarctic continent. The area is surrounded by mountains that block ice from flowing into the valley. Drought is also caused by strong katabalic gusts from mountain peaks where cold air blows down the hill due to gravity. The wind has speeds of up to 322 k...

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake

NEWS - Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) create bubble net tools while foraging, consisting of internal tangential rings, and actively control the number of rings, their size, depth and horizontal spacing between the surrounding bubbles. These structural elements of the net increase prey intake sevenfold. Researchers have known that humpback whales create “bubble nets” for hunting, but the new report shows that the animals also manipulate them in a variety of ways to maximize catches. The behavior places humpbacks among the rare animals that make and use their own tools. “Many animals use tools to help them find food, but very few actually make or modify these tools themselves,” said Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP), University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Humpback whales in southeast Alaska create elaborate bubble nets to catch krill. They skillfully blow bubbles in patterns that form a web with internal rings. They actively control details such ...

Tripa tiger moth (Nannoarctia tripartita)

Tripa tiger moth ( Nannoarctia tripartita ) is an animal species in the Erebidae, a moth with a forewing length of 14-18 mm, predominantly black or dark brown with white and orange hues, thick fur on the dorsal surface, long legs and antennae, living in forest scrub and agricultural land. N. tripartita in females has forewings 15-18 mm long, black or dark brown with slightly oblique transverse and few spots. The hind wings are yellow with large dark discal points and three other dots. Males have forewings 14-17 mm long, black or dark brown with transverse oblique postdiscal bands and several spots. The hind wings are yellow with brown costal margins, discal confluent points, wide ridges on the crest and angular points in the tornus. The head has a thin orange pattern and a pair of long black antennae. Long legs are black. Tripa tiger moths live in forest scrub, farmland and roadsides. More stationary by sticking to the leaf surface at the top. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropod...

Dlium