"This is a tale of scholarly obsession. It involves a burning ship, a jungle-exploring Victorian naturalist, a Harvard biologist, and a rare butterfly. Evolutionary biologist Andrew Berry is a scholar of Alfred Russel Wallace, a pioneering evolutionist overshadowed by Charles Darwin. Over the years he has collected memorabilia that connect him to his scientific hero, including a rare first edition of travelogues, an autographed letter, and an original 19th-century map."
"Now Berry can claim an even rarer link: A previously-unknown butterfly species collected by Wallace in the Amazon - and forgotten in museum drawers for more than 150 years - has been designated as a new species named in his honor. "I'm absolutely thrilled, sad though it is to be so pathetically vain about having a little brown butterfly named after you," said Berry as he sat in his book-lined office beside a colorful model of his namesake butterfly, Euptychia andrewberryi."
An unknown butterfly collected by Alfred Russel Wallace in the Amazon and forgotten in museum drawers for more than 150 years has been identified as a new species and named Euptychia andrewberryi in honor of Harvard evolutionary biologist Andrew Berry. Andrew Berry is a Wallace scholar who amassed memorabilia linking him to Wallace, including a rare first edition travelogue, an autographed letter, and a 19th-century map. The discovery connects events across Brazil, the Atlantic, London, and Harvard, and highlights Wallace's pioneering contributions to evolution and biogeography. Wallace proposed a theory of natural selection contemporaneously with Charles Darwin but received less recognition. Wallace identified a faunal boundary separating Asia from Australia, New Guinea, and Pacific islands.
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