WALLACE’S STANDARDWING SEMIOPTERA WALLACII This strange and subtle bird The males have two on each of paradise occupies a genus 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 species in the northern animals that military standard or banner. Moluccas or Maluku Islands. 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 Indonesia – 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: Alfred Russel Wallace. 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 the Malay Archipelago 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 animal 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 BEE MEGACHILE 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 frog 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 insects; 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 Bolt/naturepl.com bee: Clay Alamy; & volcano: bird Museum/Alamy; History The Natural illustration: frog Ronikurniawan/Getty; Frog: Beautiful birdwing “The beauty and brilliancy of this insect 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 butterfly, 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 FLYING FROG 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.