Commander
12-Jan-2010, 03:13 PM
This is something that I would like to share with the community here.
I came across this book that is probably long out of print but was digitised in 2006, courtesy of the National Library Board of Singapore. Real hardcopies of such books, if still in existence, would probably fall into the category of 'rare books' and would be collectors' items (at least for lepidopterists and entomologists)
From the details, this book was published in 1882-1886, long before the famous Corbet & Pendlebury's famous work was first published in 1954. I have that 1st Edition in hardcopy, but it's not in a good condition when I got it. I also bought the 2nd and 3rd editions of C&P when I was in London some time back. Many of you have C&P4 which is published by the Malayan Nature Society and now in its 4th edition.
For this book, Rhopalocera Malayana it is a book that was written and published by William Lucas Distant, a well-known collector during that era. If you look at his surname, his name is lent to many butterfly species and subspecies in this region, e.g. Iraota distanti distanti, Eooxylides tharis distanti and many others if you look at our checklist. You are looking at a classic that is over 125 years old today!
Even though many names have been changed and revised since then, you will recognise many of the species in the book that we still see today. In those days, Malaya had 503 species. Today the number is around 1,100+.
Irrespective of the outdated information, respect the book for what it is and the very challenging task that the author undertook to collate and publish this classic work of the Butterflies of Malaya, in those days when they didn't have computers and digital cameras. For those of us who are long-time butterfly collectors and enthusiasts, this is a rare find. (I'm sure Les, Keith, Steven Neo and others will agree)
Note that the usual copyright laws prevail. So you should know what to do as you download the 94Mb digital scan of the book, although there doesn't appear to be a restriction to downloading it.
Rhopalocera Malayana : a description of the butterflies of the Malay Peninsula - by W.L. Distant
This is a detailed description of 503 species of Malayan butterflies, arranged in 143 genera. It shows the close relationship between them and the butterflies of Borneo and to a lesser degree to those of Sumatra, Burma, North-Eastern India, Java, Sri Lanka.
All Rights Reserved. National Library Board Singapore 2006.
To download the PDF copy of the book - click here (http://sgebooks.nl.sg/details/020000219.html).
I came across this book that is probably long out of print but was digitised in 2006, courtesy of the National Library Board of Singapore. Real hardcopies of such books, if still in existence, would probably fall into the category of 'rare books' and would be collectors' items (at least for lepidopterists and entomologists)
From the details, this book was published in 1882-1886, long before the famous Corbet & Pendlebury's famous work was first published in 1954. I have that 1st Edition in hardcopy, but it's not in a good condition when I got it. I also bought the 2nd and 3rd editions of C&P when I was in London some time back. Many of you have C&P4 which is published by the Malayan Nature Society and now in its 4th edition.
For this book, Rhopalocera Malayana it is a book that was written and published by William Lucas Distant, a well-known collector during that era. If you look at his surname, his name is lent to many butterfly species and subspecies in this region, e.g. Iraota distanti distanti, Eooxylides tharis distanti and many others if you look at our checklist. You are looking at a classic that is over 125 years old today!
Even though many names have been changed and revised since then, you will recognise many of the species in the book that we still see today. In those days, Malaya had 503 species. Today the number is around 1,100+.
Irrespective of the outdated information, respect the book for what it is and the very challenging task that the author undertook to collate and publish this classic work of the Butterflies of Malaya, in those days when they didn't have computers and digital cameras. For those of us who are long-time butterfly collectors and enthusiasts, this is a rare find. (I'm sure Les, Keith, Steven Neo and others will agree)
Note that the usual copyright laws prevail. So you should know what to do as you download the 94Mb digital scan of the book, although there doesn't appear to be a restriction to downloading it.
Rhopalocera Malayana : a description of the butterflies of the Malay Peninsula - by W.L. Distant
This is a detailed description of 503 species of Malayan butterflies, arranged in 143 genera. It shows the close relationship between them and the butterflies of Borneo and to a lesser degree to those of Sumatra, Burma, North-Eastern India, Java, Sri Lanka.
All Rights Reserved. National Library Board Singapore 2006.
To download the PDF copy of the book - click here (http://sgebooks.nl.sg/details/020000219.html).