4 Close-Up at the Museum 5

Lysandra cormion Nabokov’s Type: Beetle-Wing The Talented Dr. Bassler In 1989, it was discovered that Lysandra cormion, Harvey Bassler made his mark as a geologist, pictured below, is a hybrid of two blue , Lysandra cormion Body Art: herpetologist, and anthropologist with deep coridon and Polyommatus daphnis. knowledge of the western Amazon, an area that But this does not preclude it from being a distinct In his poem “On Discovering a ,” author wrote Shuar Ear was largely unknown in his time. From 1921 through —in fact, some new species evolve through of “the secluded stronghold” where specimens are kept “safe from creeping 1931, he journeyed by dugout and raft through hybridization. DNA analysis would be needed relatives and rust.” When Nabokov caught a frosty-blue butterfly in France Ornaments turbulent rivers and trekked in remote jungles to settle the question. in 1938, he brought it to the stronghold of the American Museum of Natural while mapping and surveying for oil, visiting History, where it still sits with a bright red label, crowning it the first and official When dressing for special occasions, the villages and collecting wildlife, fossils, and artifacts Globetrotters representative, or holotype, of Lysandra cormion. Shuar people of the upper Amazon adorn along the way. Bassler returned to the Amazon In 1945, Nabokov suggested that various New While Nabokov is most famous for his fancy prose style, he was also devoted to themselves with ornaments made from during World War II to help the U.S. government World Polyommatus blue butterflies had crossed lepidopterology, the study of moths and butterflies. After fleeing Russia in 1940, materials found in the surrounding rain forest: search for rubber sources. the Bering Strait from Asia and flown as far Nabokov started his American life volunteering in the Museum’s entomology feathers, plant fibers, parts, wood, and south as Chile millions of years ago. His theory, collections. He once told an interviewer, “It is not improbable that had there been stone. Along with colorful headdresses and A Beautiful Family long overlooked by the scientific community, no revolution in Russia, I would have devoted myself entirely to lepidopterology necklaces, men wear dramatic ear ornaments The ceiba borer beetle is a member of the was validated in 2011 when a team of scientists and never written any novels at all.” like those pictured here, which are made Buprestidae family of beetles, also known as performed DNA analysis that proved Nabokov The L. cormion specimen was only the beginning of the author’s contributions from toucan feathers, glass beads, and the metallic wood-boring or jewel beetles because was right all along. The labels of the Museum’s to the collections. In 1941, Nabokov sent nearly 500 field-caught butterflies to iridescent wing covers of the giant ceiba borer of their glossy iridescence. This family is among Polyommatus collection brim with Nabokov’s the Museum as he traveled with his family from the East Coast to California with beetle, Euchroma gigantea. the largest family of beetles, with some 15,000 name, since he identified many of the species. stops in the Southwest. David Grimaldi, curator in the Division of Invertebrate The Shuar are one of several Jívaroan species in 450 genera, many with vivid colors Zoology, and Suzanne Rab Green, a curatorial assistant, are in the process of tribes who occupy some 7.5 million acres and eye-catching patterns. Their elytra, or wing Tiny Trademarks transferring these butterflies from small wax envelopes to display cases, relaxing along the border between Peru and Ecuador. covers, have also been used in jewelry in Japan, While at the Museum, Nabokov learned how to the specimens in a vinegar vapor to soften and spread their brittle wings. The ear ornaments came to the Museum China, India, and southeast Asia. inspect microscopic butterfly genitalia for species- “Thanks to this treasure and Nabokov’s careful handwritten notes on each in the 1930s as part of a large collection specific clues from mentor William P. Comstock. envelope, we can map his journey across the country,” says Dr. Grimaldi. Using donated by Dr. Harvey Bassler, a Standard Jívaro Culture Now a standard practice in entomology to the butterfly specimens as guideposts and Google Earth software, the team has Oil geologist who spent more than a decade The Jívaroan people include the Shuar, Achuar, distinguish otherwise-indistinguishable plotted Nabokov’s “lepping” trip westward. On this particular expedition, Nabokov studying unexplored areas of the western Huambisa, and Aguaruna tribes of Peru and species, this technique greatly aided Nabokov’s discovered Neonympha dorothea with the help of a special research permit from the Amazon basin in search of petroleum. An Ecuador. The tribes speak Jívaro or Quechua and work at Harvard’s Museum of Museum that allowed him to take his butterfly net to the rim of the Grand Canyon. amateur herpetologist with an interest in local subsist by farming, hunting, and fishing. Bassler Comparative Zoology, where he spent seven The Department of Entomology receives near-monthly inquiries about wildlife, Bassler kept a menagerie of rain forest spent considerable time with the Jívaro, despite years as a research fellow and de facto curator Nabokov’s work and collections from documentary filmmakers, writers, in Iquitos and collected thousands their reluctance to welcome outsiders. Historically, of from 1941 to 1948. professors, and other curious minds. Nabokov may have been right when he of biological specimens for research. He was they are reputed to be the only tribe to have predicted of his collections that the “locality labels pinned under these butterflies also one of the first outsiders to spend time revolted successfully against the Spanish Empire, Nabokov’s Namesakes will be a boon to some twenty-first-century scholar with a taste for recondite among the isolated indigenous peoples of the killing some 2,500 European settlers in 1599. Many lepidopterists have named new butterfly biography.” He laid his trails well. region, becoming an expert on the cultures species after characters in Nabokov’s books— of northwestern Amazonia and collecting South American Source Material including Madeleinea lolita, named for the See specimens that Nabokov studied at the Museum in a glass display case at the artifacts in the process. The Museum’s South American ethnographic title character of his most famous work, and entrance to the vivarium in The Butterfly Conservatory, open through May 28. On completion of his assignment in collection, one of the largest of its kind in the Pseudolucia humbert, for that book’s narrator, South America, Bassler shipped 22 tons of United States, includes more than 21,000 objects Humbert Humbert. Various species bear the books and specimens—including some 10,000 from more than 200 tribes. The Hall of South Latin nabokovi, and the Nabokovia was amphibians and reptiles, one of the largest American Peoples is notable for the diversity named after the writer-scientist. collections of its kind from a single collector— of its collection, with items from nearly every to the Museum in 1934. He later joined the part of the continent and especially rich The Butterfly Effect staff to help organize the material. collections from the Amazon rain forest, the Butterflies appear throughout Nabokov’s works, Members might remember the ornaments Gran Chaco region, and Tierra del Fuego. but his scientific pursuits affected his writing shown here from the Museum exhibition in subtler ways. In his essay “On a Book Entitled Body Art: Marks of Identity, which ran Flights of Fancy Lolita,” Nabokov identified the mountain pass from 1999 to 2000. Other examples of Shuar Among the most brilliant artifacts in the that Humbert Humbert traverses at the end of craftsmanship can be found in the Hall of Museum’s South American collection are the book as the trail where Nabokov caught the South American Peoples, where more than the feathered creations of the Jívaro, Kayapó, first known femaleLycaeides sublivens. He calls this 70 items from the Bassler collection are and Waiwai peoples of the Amazon. Using various scene one of the hidden “nerves of the novel.” on exhibit, including a back ornament made materials along with the dazzling feathers from the wing covers of another colorful of toucans, parrots, macaws, and hummingbirds, beetle, Chrysophora chrysochlora. members of these tribes crafted exquisite ornaments as well as utilitarian items, such For more about the Division of Anthropology’s as baby carriers. collections, visit research.amnh.org. © AMNH/D. Finnin Courtesy of the Division of Anthropology

Catalog no. AMNH 40.0/35.04

Rotunda / Spring 2012 / AMNH.org