An Inordinate Disdain for Beetles: Imagining the Insect in Colonial Aotearoa A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in English By Lillian Duval University of Canterbury August 2020 Table of Contents: TABLE OF CONTENTS: ................................................................................................................................. 2 TABLE OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................................................................ 6 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................. 7 INTRODUCTION: INSECTOCENTRISM..................................................................................................................................... 8 LANGUAGE ........................................................................................................................................................... 11 ALICE AND THE GNAT IN CONTEXT ............................................................................................................................ 17 FOCUS OF THIS RESEARCH ....................................................................................................................................... 20 CHAPTER ONE: FRONTIER ENTOMOLOGY AND THE COLONIAL GAZE.................................................................................. 26 THE FANTASY OF A SCRUTABLE WORLD....................................................................................................................... 30 ILLUSTRATING THE OTHER: VISION MECHANICS AND THE INSECT IN FOCUS ......................................................................... 35 EARLY EUROPEAN ENCOUNTERS WITH AOTEAROA’S INSECTS.......................................................................................... 41 ‘THE LAST OF THE GENTLEMAN AMATEURS’: GEORGE VERNON HUDSON’S AN ELEMENTARY MANUAL OF NEW ZEALAND ENTOMOLOGY ........................................................................................ 50 CHAPTER TWO MATTERS OF LIFE & DEA(R)TH: INSECTS IN AOTEAROA’S MUSEUMS ......................................................................................................... 73 RUTHLESS ............................................................................................................................................................ 73 CONCEALING THE CONVULSIONS OF NATURE: ‘TAXONOMIC INTOXICATION’ IN INSECT DISPLAYS ......................................................................................................... 79 FRAMING THE OBJECT, THE AUDIENCE AND THE IN-BETWEEN: HUMAN-INSECT SENSIBILITIES IN AGE-SPECIFIC ZONES ................................................................................................... 94 INSECT COMMODITIES IN OTAGO MUSEUM’S TŪHURA TROPICAL FOREST ....................................................................... 104 BUGS IN THE SYSTEM ............................................................................................................................................ 113 CHAPTER THREE VANISHING BEETLES: INSECT EXTINCTION IN AOTEAROA ......................................................................................................... 117 TALL-TALES OF LOSS IN AOTEAROA.......................................................................................................................... 119 HISTORIC INSECT EXTINCTIONS IN AOTEAROA: ‘THE NEGLECTED MAJORITY’ ................................................................................................................................... 127 UNSUNG, UNSEEN, UNCHARISMATIC: UNDERSTANDING THE ‘INSECTAPOCALYPSE’ ............................................................ 139 ‘…THE FLYING CENTRE OF THE WORLD’ .................................................................................................................... 149 CODA METAMORPHOSIS .................................................................................................................................. 153 CHANGING THE CONVERSATION: ‘CRITTER OF THE WEEK’ ........................................................................................... 154 WORKS CITED: ....................................................................................................................................... 160 2 Table of Figures Figure 0.1: Way, Albert. Go it Charlie. 1832 (in Dodd 106). …………………………………………………….……………………….. 18 Figure 0.2: Author’s painting of the Canterbury knobbled weevil (Hadramphus tuberculatus), May 26 2018 …. 21 Figure 0.3: Author’s painting of the Notoreas Casanova moth, May 13 2018. …………………………………………………. 21 Figure 1.1: Dürer, Albrecht. Stag Beetle. 1505. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles: www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/25/albrecht-durer-stag-beetle-german-1505/..…………………………………… 37 Figure 1.2 and 1.3: Sibylla Merian, Maria. Plates XLVIII and XXVII from Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. 1705. Copper engraving. Biodiversity Heritage Library: www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41398755. .…..........................................................................................……….. 37 Figure 1.4: Hooke, Robert. Schem. XXIV [engraving of a flea from Micrographia]. 1665. Wellcome Collection. Photographer unknown. www.wellcomecollection.org/works/v5yduvwu. …………………………………….……………….. 38 Figure 1.5: Hoefnagel, Joris. Images from Diversae insectarum volatilium. 1630. The British Museum, object number PPA261902. www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_2AA-a-67-70. ………………………………….………. 39 Figure 1.6 and 1.7: Guérin-Méneville, F. É., and Georges Cuvier. Plate 6 and 25 in Iconographie Du Règne Animal De G. Cuvier. T.2 (1829-1844) [Animaux Invertébrés] [Planches] - Iconographie Du Règne Animal De G. Cuvier. J. B. Baillière, Jan 1 1970, www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/88600. …………………………………………… 40 Figure 1.8: ‘The new Zealand Creeper’, Hand-coloured engraving (Brown 1776: 6). ……………………………….………. 46 Figure 1.9: Butterflies from An Epitome of the Natural History of Insects of New Holland, New Zealand (Donovan 1805: Plate 25). ……………………………………………………………………………..…….………………………………………….. 47 Figure 1.10: Colenso’s wētā. Photograph by Peter Quin for the Auckland War Memorial Museum (Early 49-53). …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 48 Figure 1.11: George Vernon Hudson, Evening Post (1865–2002). Photographic negatives and prints of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: PAColl-6301-20. Alexander Turnball Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23185773. ……….……………………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………. 51 Figure 1.12: Hudson’s delineation of insect anatomy (1892: 3). ………………………………………………………………………. 54 Figure 1.13: Diptera (Hudson 1892: Plate VII). ……………………….………………………………………………………………………… 61 Figure 1.14: Hemiptera (Hudson 1892: Plate XX). ……………………………………………………………….…………………………… 61 Figure 1.15: Weevils (Hudson 1950: Plate XIV). ………………………….…………………………………………………………….……… 63 Figure 1.16: Deinacrida megacephala (Hudson 1892: Plate XVIII). ……………………………………….………………………….. 65 Figure 1.17: Acanthoderus horridus (Hudson 1892: XIX). …………………………………………………………..……….……………. 65 Figure 1.18: Buller’s sketches of wētā (Buller 1870: 35). ………………………………………………………………………………….. 66 Figure 1.19: Lepidoptera (Hudson 1892: Plate XI). …………………………………………………………………………………………… 71 Figure 1.20: Lepidoptera (Hudson 1892: Plate IX). ………………….............................................................................. 71 3 Figure 2.1: Reischek, Andreas. Author photograph (frontispiece) ca. 1870s. Yesterdays in Maoriland. Whitcombe & Tombs, 1930. Ref: MNZ-0300-1/4-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23050601. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 77 Figure 2.2: von Haast, Julius. Author photograph (frontispiece) ca. 1863. The Life and Times of Sir Julius von Haast: Explorer. Geologist, Museum Builder, Wellington, H. F. von Haast, 1948. …………………………………………….. 77 Figure 2.3: ‘Your Museum: 90th Commemoration’. Auckland War Memorial Museum. www.aucklandmuseum.com/your-museum/90th-commemoration. ………………………………………………………………. 80 Figure 2.4: The Animal Attic in Otago Museum (Author’s photo Aug 24 2019). ……………………………………………….. 81 Figure 2.5: ‘An Otago Tree of Life’ (Author’s photo Aug 24 2019). …………………………………………………………………… 83 Figure 2.6: Glass cabinet of endemic insects at the end of the ‘Origins’ gallery in the Auckland War Memorial Museum (Author’s photo Aug 5 2019). ………………..………………………………………………………………………… 84 Figure 2.7: Close-up of the cabinet in figure 2.6 (Author’s photo Aug 5 2019). ……………………………………………….. 85 Figure 2.8: Endemic insect cabinet in Otago Museum’s ‘Nature’ gallery (Author’s photo Aug 24 2019). ………… 87 Figure 2.9: Close-up of the Horrid stick insect (Author’s photo Aug 24 2019). …………………………………………………. 88 Figure 2.10: The ‘Land’ Gallery in the Auckland Museum (Author’s photo Aug 5 2019). ………………………………….. 92 Figure 2.11: Close-up of one of the drawers of ‘Forest Insects’ visible in fig. 2.10 (Author’s photo Aug 5 2019). 92 Figure 2.12: The Living Forest’ diorama in Otago museum (Author’s photo Aug 24 2019). ……………………………… 93 Figure 2.13: Close-up of ‘The Living Forest’ showing the light up buttons (Author’s photo Aug 24 2019). ………. 93 Figure 2.14: Auckland Museum’s ‘Weird & Wonderful’ Children’s Gallery (Author’s photo