WALLACE’S STANDARDWING SEMIOPTERA WALLACII This strange and subtle bird The males have two on each of paradise occupies a wing: elongated, ornamental of its own, Semioptera, which white feathers that can be I was to see literally means standard-wing. raised at will, or flutter behind ‘Standard’ in this case doesn’t them, as they display. Wallace many of the imply that it's ‘common’ or was rightly thrilled to discover ‘ordinary’ but refers to a this in the northern that military standard or banner. Moluccas or . Wallace saw on his travels and stand in the places where he it’s likely I would have run out of time before even getting close. I knew, in short, the facts had stood. that would tick boxes, without very much regard for the man himself. The fateful conversation took place in the tropical house at London Zoo on a chilly day in February 2019, and the warmth, verdure Wallace (left) and familiar peaty smell were making me began his t was one of those chance conversations hunger for another tropical adventure. It had travels through the Malay that did it – the sort of conversation been far too long. My companion, a lifelong Archipelago that all at once calls in the bulldozers to friend, was Dr George Beccaloni, director (above) – now re-route life’s immediate trajectory and of the Wallace Correspondence Project and, Malaysia and plant a sign at the junction declaring more significantly for me, guest lecturer and – in ‘DIVERSION’. That the conversation naturalist on an Indonesian islands sailing 1854. Katrina van Grouw should lead to an unexpected travel voyage entitled ‘In Search of Wallace and his embarked on a Iopportunity was remarkable enough, but it Living Treasures’. The year marked the 150th portion of the brought in tandem an intimate appreciation anniversary of the publication of The Malay same journey of one of history’s most admirable and under- Archipelago, and there was a spare bunk in 2019 on board Ombak rated naturalists, the co-discoverer of the aboard the beautiful traditional Indonesian Putih (below). theory of evolution: . schooner Ombak Putih just crying out for Top: Katrina Wallace’s Standardwing I have to confess that it had always been me. The opportunity of tagging along as a sketched Darwin, for me. Wallace was, well, the semi-subsidised assistant guest lecturer and some species Semioptera wallacii opposition – an upstart with the audacity journalist was simply too good to refuse. she observed during her trip, to arrive at the theory of evolution by including a natural selection all at once during a fit Going back in time Wilson’s bird of malarial fever instead of earning his I was to see many of the animals that of paradise. distinction the hard way over decades of Wallace saw on his travels and to stand study. Of Wallace’s other achievements I’d in a few of the places where been equally indifferent. I was aware of his Wallace had stood – some contribution to biogeography. I knew he’d remarkably unchanged, spent eight years collecting specimens in others transformed beyond In in the 1850s, and recognition. And because that he’d travelled in South America before of the frank honesty and that and had lost all his specimens to a humility of Wallace’s Wallace’sBy Katrina van Grouw fire on the return voyage. I knew about the written legacy Wallace Line – an imaginary line proposed (a copy footsteps by the naturalist, which marks the boundary between the life of the Australian region and that of Asia – though I couldn’t A journey to retrace Alfred Russel Wallace’s epic have marked it on a map. voyage of discovery in the Malay Archipelago, Wallace’s account of his journey, The Malay Archipelago, was on my list of books

revisiting some key locations along the way. Adventures Sailing SeaTrek boat: Museum/Alamy; History The Natural map: Grouw; van Katrina illustration: Tim Laman/NPL; bird bird: Getty; Wallace: to read before I die, though so low down that THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO

The call is being WALLACE’S GIANT PLUTO Right: Banda of The Malay Archipelago and other writings made by real, living, As the name suggests, this Api volcano, were never far away), I came to understand is the largest bee in the illustrated by breathing, birds Wallace. Below: the sort of man he was, what moved him world. Females are larger a watercolour of and what made him laugh. And above all, of paradise. than males, with a body Wallace’s flying to realise just how wrong I’d been. length of 39mm and a acts as a wingspan of 63mm, and are record of his armed with a formidable encounter with Icons of the exotic the species. As an ornithologist, it was the birds of pair of jaws. These aren’t Bottom right: Wallacea that had especially excited me, and weapons, however, but a red bird in particular, of course, the birds of paradise. You hear the birds tools to collect tree resin of paradise. There was a possibility of seeing four species before you see them. and wood fibres that during the voyage, including the bizarre While picking your are mixed into a paste and beautiful Wallace’s standardwing, way carefully on foot by to line their communal discovered, as the name suggests, by Wallace torchlight around the buttress roots nests burrows, which himself. If you haven’t yet had the privilege of and tangled vines, the forest is awakening they excavate in arboreal visiting a bird of paradise display, or ‘lek’ site, and you realise with a jolt of excitement termite mounds. Wallace this is how it happens on an ocean voyage. that the bird call that dominates the rest discovered this species Your alarm clock will go off at such an is being made by real, living, breathing, What sets Wallace apart from other travel on Bacan Island in 1859, Wallace’s Giant Bee obscenely early hour you’ll think it’s broken. displaying birds of paradise. writers, however, is his unaffected, modest but it was thought Then you’ll recall the reason why and all at ‘ordinariness’. His writing openly recounts to be extinct until Megachile pluto once become caught up in the general flurry Making their presence known everyday human emotions: dismay that rediscovered in 1981. of excited preparation, everyone filling water I’d always imagined bird of paradise displays the sight of a tall, bearded and bespectacled bottles, donning head torches, putting on to be elegant and ethereal, and was struck (at white man caused native people to run the appropriate shoes for a dry landing only least in the species I encountered) by their away in terror; amusement when asked if to remember it’s a wet landing and taking restless energy and physical power. These his specimens all came back to life again; them off again, deciding that in that case birds – once thought to float eternally in the irritation at his assistant’s shoddily pinned tantalisingly close, but seldom alighting for a towel would also be a good idea, eating a skies feeding on the dews of heaven – land in ; and always awe of the natural world. more than a few moments, so it’s a rare treat little and managing to make time for a few the trees with a leaf-shaking thud and almost to see one with its wings outspread.

hurried sips of coffee. Then it’s into the at once are off again, bounding and cavorting Frog: Ronikurniawan/Getty; frog illustration: The Natural History Museum/Alamy; bird & volcano: Alamy; bee: Clay Bolt/naturepl.com Beautiful “The beauty and brilliancy of this are boats and bounding over the balmy starlit from branch to branch, first one way then One of Wallace’s most memorable indescribable...On taking it out of my net and water toward the jungle-clad shore still the other, screaming raucously, and every few passages describes his joy on catching his opening the glorious wings, my heart began to cloaked in darkness. moments spreading their wings and lifting first specimen of a spectacular birdwing beat violently, the blood rushed to my head, and their magnificent plumes to catch the first , a hitherto undescribed species that I felt much more like fainting than I have done rays of the rising sun. Here I must continue would become known as Wallace’s golden when in apprehension of immediate death. I in Wallace’s own words, for it was these – birdwing. I had the privilege of seeing these had a headache the rest of the day” surely one of the finest passages in zoological creatures on the island of Bacan during our Wallace earned his living as a collector WALLACE’S literature – that ran through my head as I sat, voyage. They’re remarkably active, dancing of natural history specimens, sending RHACOPHORUS NIGROPALMATUS mesmerised by these icons of the exotic. Wallace discovered this species in “I thought of the long ages of the past, during Sarawak, Borneo, when a specimen which the successive generations of this little was brought to him by a workman creature had run their course – year by year of who insisted that he’d seen it glide being born, and living and dying amid these Birds of paradise lekking behaviour down in a slanting direction from a dark and gloomy woods, with no intelligent eye tree. He was struck by the ‘Darwinian’ to gaze upon their loveliness – to all appearance Birds of paradise are justifiably famous spectacle for any human onlookers, as adaptations of its webbed feet, such a wanton waste of beauty.” for their spectacular communal displays well as for female birds, which inspect the which had already been modified for Forced to leave school to earn a wage at called ‘leks’, in which males of the performing males closely, and are more swimming and adhesive climbing. the age of 14, Wallace had diligently educated same species show off their exuberant difficult to please. Lek mating is all about Though the species wasn’t officially himself through visits to the public library plumage in a series of stylised ‘dances’ female choice, though biologists are still described until much later, and and by cultivating a genuine fascination to the females. In this classical example divided over how this works. Both Darwin Wallace’s specimens were not for nature and geography. The travel of lek mating, male birds display within and Wallace recognised the importance used in the scientific description, writing of Alexander von Humboldt, and sight and sound of each other, usually of female choice in driving the evolution his delightful watercolour (top left) Charles Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle, in a traditional ‘dancing tree’ selected, of sexually dimorphic animals, though it is an iconic record of the species. had particularly excited his imagination presumably, for showing the plumage off was Wallace who attributed the choice to and ignited a yearning for exploration. to its full visual effect. It makes a stunning evolutionary fitness. Wallace’s Flying Frog Rhacophorus nigropalmatus

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Clockwise parcels of bird and mammal skins, shells but the spectacle of a pristine coral reef, from right: and pinned insects to his agent in England even observed from a boat, clearly made a view from to be sold to public and private museums. profound impression: Pienemo Island, Raja Ampat; Unlike the plethora of gentlemen amateurs “The bottom was absolutely hidden by a Wallace (below) who travelled the globe in Victorian times, continuous series of corals, sponges… and other documented Wallace needed the money. His background marine productions, of magnificent dimensions, the species he was shaped by his middle-class family’s varied forms, and brilliant colours… In and out saw in journals; descent into penury, and he had lost a among them, moved numbers of blue and red a typical boat on the island fortune from the ship’s fire on his return and yellow fishes, spotted and banded and striped of Makassar; voyage from South America. His attitude in the most striking manner… It was a sight Wallace’s to collecting was nevertheless far from to gaze at for hours, and no description can do but on our voyage at golden birdwing mercenary. He collected commercially in justice to its surpassing beauty and interest.” least, these areas were outnumbered caterpillar. order to travel – he didn’t travel in order to by magnificent coral cities teeming with life. collect. He was a scientist to the core and Taking the plunge Wallace would have loved it. sold only duplicate specimens, keeping A novice swimmer myself, I’d anticipated the One of a cluster of western tourists everything of scientific value for systematic prospect of daily snorkelling excursions with gathered at the end of the village’s narrow study. His efforts resulted terror, but almost at once the magic overcame cul-de-sac abutting the forest, an object of in the discovery of around the fear. Clusters of giant clams pouting fascination for dozens of pairs of eyes that The Malay 5,000 new species, not to siphons in serrated smiles, ragged gangs peeped through doorways just sufficiently mention his contributions of loafing black batfish, tiny anemonefish ajar or over the picket fence on either side, Archipelago to biogeography and peering out from meadows of swaying it was not difficult to imagine myself as evolutionary theory. He tentacles, and the occasional glimpse of Wallace. The village was Dodinga, on the The Malay Archipelago was was, after all, a quite a hawksbill turtle flapping languidly into island of . The date of Wallace’s published in 1869, seven extraordinary man. the depths; these were the sights occupancy was February 1858, and he was ill. years after Wallace’s return I couldn’t help that awaited us on almost every to England, drawing heavily wondering how many occasion. It would be a lie to The theory of evolution on the meticulous journals he more discoveries Wallace say that we didn’t encounter This was the site of Wallace’s epiphany, kept throughout his eight-year would have made, how once-vibrant reefs now the very same spot where he arrived at the expedition. Wallace followed many more species he bleached and degraded. theory of evolution by natural selection a convoluted route, amounting might have described, There are few – if during a bout of malaria. Contrary to what to around 14,000 miles of travel, had he a means of any – parts of the I’d previously supposed, however, it didn’t and made repeated visits to the exploring underwater. globe that haven’t come as a spontaneous idea from out of same islands. For this reason, He mentions the aquatic been affected by the blue, but just as it had to Darwin. After The Malay Archipelago is arranged world only once in pollution and years of careful thought and study, the fever geographically and not chronologically. The Malay Archipelago climate change, had merely allowed his thoughts to focus. It is, nevertheless, widely celebrated Self-taught, self-funded and self-driven, as one of the greatest travel books of Wallace had none of the advantages that all time. The first edition was dedicated Darwin enjoyed, yet earned his status magnanimously to Charles Darwin, the alongside him in history. My journey in co-discoverer of the theory of evolution search of Wallace and his living treasures had by natural selection. WALLACE’S GOLDEN BIRDWING allowed me some privileged views of wildlife CROESUS and wild places, but the greatest privilege of This large, spectacular butterfly all was to have seen them through the eyes of Wallace’s Golden Birdwing and its close relatives in the same the most admirable of all historical naturalists, Ornithoptera croesus genus are found only east of the Museum/Alamy History The Natural notebook: Images/Alamy; History Science Wallace: Russell Alamy; & boat: butterfly Grouw; van Katrina by Illustrations and to have come to understand him. Wallace Line. Wallace named it after Croesus, the ancient king of Lydia famed for his wealth. He reasoned that KATRINA VAN GROUW visited the as it was, in his opinion, the finest of all the Malay Archipelago with SeaTrek Ornithoptera it must therefore be the finest Sailing Adventures: seatrekbali.com butterfly in the world! are sexually dimorphic; the females are larger and have FIND OUT MORE Visit the Linnean Society: entirely different markings. linnean-online.org/wallace_notes.html or Wallace Correspondence Project: wallaceletters.info/content/homepage

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