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1964
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
43
THE DATES OF PUBLICATION OF LEP1DOPTERA, RHOPALOCERES-HETEROCERES BY HERMAN STRECKER1
by F. Martin Brown
Fountain Valley School, Colorado Springs, Colo., U. S. A.
Ever since the controversy (Aaron, 1884), in 1878 over the publication data for Number 14 of Strecker's Lepidoptera, Rhopaloceres — Hetero-ceres, there has been considerable question about the exact dates of issue of the various parts of that work. Since both Strecker and Edwards described as novelties butterflies from the same field-lots and in the same year it is important to establish the precise dates upon which these names became valid. Manuscripts treating the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia and the first ten volumes of the Transactions of the American Entomological Society in which Edwards published new names have been completed and are being published in the Transactions of the American Entomological Society. These will fix the dates for the names published by Edwards. The dates for the names published by Strecker are fixed in this paper.
Through the courtesy of Dr. Rupert Wenzel and the administration of the Chicago Museum of Natural History, I have had permission to study a mass of letters written to Strecker. Among these I have found letters from Herman H. Behr, William H. Edwards, Samuel H. Scudder and Richard H. Stretch containing acknowledgements of receipt of various parts of Strecker's Lepidoptera. Edwards and Scudder were regular pre-publication subscribers to the volume. In addition I have found one of Strecker's ledgers that records dates upon which he mailed copies of numbers 14 and 15.
In the following table I have stated Strecker's printed date for each number of his Lepidoptera, the earliest date I have found acknowledg­ing receipt of it or the earliest date in the ledger for mailing, and a fair estimate of the date of issue for each number. The latter assumes a generous time in transit from Reading, Pennsylvania to the recipient, based upon the date of cancellation of letters and backstamps with the date the letter was received at Reading. The transit time to Stretch in California is estimated as ten days, to both Edwards and Scudder in Coalburgh, West Virginia and Boston, Massachusetts, respectively, is estimated as four days.
1This is a by-product of work being done on the types of William H. Edwards's names for butterflies under National Science Foundation grant GB-194.
44
Brown: Strecker dates
Vol.18: no.l
No.
Printed Date
Ackn. Date
Recipient
Publication Da^
1
January 1872
15 April 1872
Stretch
5 April 1872
2
April 1873
18 May 1873
Edwards
14 May 1873
3
May 1873
21 June 1873
Edwards
17 June 1873
4
June 18732
22 July 1873
Edwards
18 July 1873
5
July 1873
18 Sept. 1873
Edwards
14 Sept. 1873
6
August 1873
21 Oct. 1873
Edwards
17 Oct. 1873
7
October 1873
17 Dec. 1873
Edwards
13 Dec. 1873
8
1874
3 March 1874
Scudder
27 Feb. 1874
9
March 1874
12 May 1874
Scudder
8 May 1874
10
May 1874
1 Sept. 1874
Edwards
28 Aug. 1874
11
August 1874
2 Dec. 1874
Scudder
28 Nov. 1874
12
February 1875
22 May 1875
Scudder
18 May 1875
13
January 1876
24 Feb. 1876
Scudder
20 Feb. 1876
14
September 1877
ledger
18 March 18783
15
November 1877
ledger
16 July 18783
2On page 32 there is printed the date 10 June 1873. This probably is the date when the manuscript for number 4 was completed and sent to the printer.
3Strecker's ledger shows that he sent a copy of number 14 to Neumoegen on this date. All other mailings that are noted in the ledger, to Moeschler, Druce and Henley Smith, are dated 23 March 1878 or 26 March 1878 (to Ribbe). Scudder acknowledged receipt of the number on 26 March 1878 and his bill bears a printed date 19 March 1878. This is the earliest receipt I have found for a copy sent to a subscriber. On July 16, Strecker sent a copy of number 15 to Moeschler. This is the earliest date I have found associated with that number. Scudder acknowledged his copy on 10 August, 1878. Apparently Strecker did not distribute all copies at one time. Possibly he sent them off as he finished coloring the plates for a single copy of a number.
On the basis of the above data, the dates to be ascribed to the twelve butterflies named by Strecker in the fifteen numbers are these:
alma, Melitaea                                             16 July 1878
anticostiensis, Papilio                                  14 May 1873
astaroth, Satyrus                                          18 March 1878
guadeloupe, Charis                                     18 March 1878
fotis, Thecla                                                 18 March 1878
hoffmani, Satyrus                                       18 July 1873
imitata, Melitaea                                         18 March 1878
kali, Thecla                                                 18 March 1878
larunda, Melitaea                                       18 March 1878
larvata, Lihythea                                         18 March 1878
similis, Pamphila                                         18 March 1878
References
Aaron, E. Murray, 1884. A question in priority. Papilio 4: 131-134.
Brown, F. Martin, 1964. Dates of publication of the various parts of the proceedings
of The Entomological Society of Philadelphia. Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc,
89: 305-308. Edwards, William H. Manuscript letters in the Strecker Collection, Chicago Museum
of Natural History. Scudder, Samuel H. Manuscript letters in the Strecker Collection, Chicago Museum
of Natural History. Strecker, Herman. Manuscript ledgers in the Strecker Collection, Chicago Museum
of Natural History. Stretch, Richard H. Manuscript letters in the Strecker Collection, Chicago Museum
of Natural History.