Contributions to Natural History

The merchant and entomologist Ludwig Rudolf Meyer-Dür (1812–1885) from Burgdorf, Berne, kept a photo album that he had created between 1868/72 and 1883 with 51 photographs by entomologists of his time. Apart from Linnaeus, he was in friendly or business contact with the people portrayed. The photographs are in the visite format (carte-de-visite, approx. 6 x 9 cm), a format common in the flourishing photographic industry at this time.

In short biographies the 48 entomologists from Europe and the USA are portrayed (one person is represented in two photos, two people are unidentifiable) as well as their photographers. Some of the entomologists in Meyer-Dür's network of contacts were celebrities, such as Otto Staudinger, the most important insect dealer of the time, the American entomologists Scudder and Uhler, the European colleagues Brunner, Marmottan, Puton, Saunders, Schiner and Sichel and the Swiss Bremi, Frey-Gessner, Heer, Imhof, Perty and Stierlin. Some of those portrayed had only made a minor entomological contribution, such as Vérin, Goldschmid and Schmid.

This work is based on the chapters about Forester and Burnet Moths (Zygaenidae: Zygaeninae, Procridinae, Chalcosiinae) in vol. 2 of the series “Schmetterlinge und ihre Lebensräume” from 1997. While in this volume all at that time recorded species of Zygaenidae from Switzerland are treated, I deal here with all known species of the alpine region, i.e. with twelve more species of Burnet Moths and four more of Forester Moths. The main focus lies on species determination, where genital-morphological characters play a decisive role almost without exception in Forester, and partly also in Burnet Moths. Therefore, detailed notes on genital morphology and the technics of preparation of genitalia are presented in an introductory chapter. 

In the species descriptions the following aspects are outlined: Habitus of imagos and last larval stages, genital morphology, feeding plants of caterpillars, subspecies within the alpine region, records in the alpine region and in Switzerland, phenology and altitudinal distribution in Switzerland. In addition, some insights into the art of illustration in older publications, hints to related species and to original descriptions and their authors are given.