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Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 34(2), 1980, 101-102
HARRY KENDON CLENCH: A REMEMBRANCE Don B. Stallings
616 W. Central, Caldwell, Kansas 67022
In June of 1943 I received a telephone call from a professor in Boston asking me if by any chance his son was in Caldwell visiting us. My response was that he was not here. Nevertheless early the next morning there was a knock on our front door and we met Harry Clench for the first time. He had hitchhiked from his home in New England to Caldwell, Kansas. We asked him how he found our house so early in the morning (it was still dark) and he replied "I walked down the street until I found a house that smelled of paradichloro-benzene."
At that time Viola and I were interested in the "hair-streaks" and had corresponded with Harry for some time about them. We were interested in doing some serious study of the group, but had little knowledge of how to approach such a study. At that time Harry's knowledge of research methods was limited, but he knew a number of knowledgeable lepidopterists in the east, who were experienced in research. Several days later, after a number of telephone calls we acquired a working knowledge of some basic methods in research. Soon Harry, Viola and I were busy dissecting specimens, counting scales on the wings and joints of antennae along with other things that had been suggested to us. Nothing revolutionary resulted from these efforts but all three of us acquired a basic knowledge of how to conduct such a study. Harry, particularly, went on to develop himself in the area of such research, with the result of a major contribution to the science.
Harry was fascinated with the midwest and stayed in Caldwell a number of weeks. He found it hard to believe that nearly every family (in 1943) had a motor vehicle for transportation. He secured a job with a friend of ours, working in the harvest fields. His first paycheck went for a "cowboy" hat—a black felt hat, as I recall.
Viola's brother, JE, was home on furlough from paratroop training. In the evenings all of us sat on the front porch (this was before air-conditioners) and talked of butterflies, collectors and how to get in touch with other lepidopterists to make exchanges. It was an enjoyable spring, even with a war hanging over our heads.
Some evenings our discussions became a bit exotic as we discussed such things as creating a Lepidoptera Science Center where all knowledge of each species of butterfly or moth would be recorded on a card index, so that anyone could call for that particular card and
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immediately have a reference to all knowledge on that species— shades of the computer. Other evenings our conversations were more prosaic and turned to practical means of making contacts with collectors over the world for exchange of specimens and ideas. As I recall the exchange of ideas was secondary. Still it was during these conversations that the idea of a Lepidoptera organization began to crystallize. While the idea of an organization jelled, nothing was done— but the idea remained alive in Harry's mind, for after the war when he met Charles Remington, they renewed the idea and between them the Lepidopterists' Society was born.
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 34(2), 1980, 102
THE REDISCOVERY OF LIBYTHEANA TERENA IN JAMAICA (LIBYTHEIDAE)
Libytheana terena (Godart) (considered a subspecies of L. carinenta by some) has been reported with certainty from the island of Jamaica only once; Philip Gosse collected a single male at Alligator Pond (Manchester Parish) in the latter half of June 1846 (Gosse 1851, A naturalist's sojourn in Jamaica, London; Brown & Heineman 1972, Jamaica and its butterflies, London; Riley 1975, A field guide to the butterflies of the West Indies, London). Avinoff & Shoumatoff (1946, Ann. Carnegie Mus. 30: 263-295) report a sight record at Balcarres (Portland Parish).
On 17 July 1977 one of us (GV) captured a single specimen approximately 3 km W of Mandeville (Manchester Parish, elev. ca. 650 m). This specimen, sex undetermined, is in the senior author's collection. About 200 m from the location of this first capture, GV observed another specimen, which eluded capture, on 11 Sept. 1977.
GV subsequently captured three additional specimens, all males, at the Mount Forest Christian Youth Camp, 18 km S of Mandeville (elev. ca. 450 m), approximately 8 km from Gosse's Alligator Pond locality: a fresh male on 23 May 1978, and two worn males on 2 July 1978 (all three deposited in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County).
These captures demonstrate the continued existence of Libytheana terena in Jamaica, more than 130 years since the last (and first!) valid record. It remains to be seen, however, whether the species is resident on Jamaica, or whether recolonization occurs periodically from Hispaniola, the only other island where it is known to occur.
Gerald Vyhmeister, Biology Department, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California 92350 and Julian P. Donahue, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90007.