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A History of Butterfly Collecting in Iowa ome of the earliest recorded collectors in Iowa were not residents. J. A. Allen collected in Crawford, Greene, and Dallas counties and made field observations during the summer of 1867 and brought forty‑six species east to Samuel H. Scud‑ der. The lack of inclusion of Iowa specimens in the rash of new U.S. species being described in the mid 1800s led Scudder to publish his untitled note (1868b), where he shared information on Allen’s specimens with members of the Boston Natural History Society and indicated that three of the Iowa species were new. By the time he pub‑ lished on them (Scudder 1869), he had decided that four were new: Chrysophanus dione Scud. (now Lycaena dione [Scudder]), Apatura Proserpina Scud. (now Asterocampa clyton [Bdv. & LeC.] form Proserpina [Scud.]), Nisoniades martialis Scud. (now Erynnis martialis [Scud.]), and Hesperia iowa Scud. (now Atrytone arogos iowa [Scud.]). By this time he had also received 150 Iowa specimens from the vicinity of Des Moines through E. P. Austin. In 1887 Scudder described Atrytone kumskaka Scud. (now Problema byssus [Scud.]). According to contemporary corresponding members of the Davenport Acad‑ emy of Science (see Proceedings, vol. 3, p. 62), both Allen and Austin were residents of Cambridge, Massachusetts. No doubt both contacted Scudder personally in Massachu‑ setts after having collected in Iowa. One of the first resident collectors was H. W. Parker, who also published. He taught in Grinnell and collected mostly in that vicinity, adding to Scudder’s 1869 list. He first de‑ scribed Hesperia poweshiek (now Oarisma poweshiek [Parker]). He later moved to Ames. Perhaps the most dynamic early collector was Joseph Duncan Putnam, who might have become even more prominent in the history of lepidopterology if not for his un‑ timely death at age twenty‑six from tuberculosis. During his short life he was the moving spirit behind the Davenport Academy of Sciences and published on a variety of insect topics from bark lice to butterflies (Putnam 1876). He was an acknowledged authority on Solpugidae, the sunspiders. Putnam corresponded with many of the giants of entomol‑ ogy, including several of the leading lepidopterists he had met on his various travels: H. H. Behr, J. Henry Comstock, W. H. Edwards, H. A. Hagen, R. Ostensacken, C. V. Riley, H. Strecker, and Scudder. At one time or another, all these men helped identify insects that Putnam collected in Iowa, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming in particular. Strecker S 22 | a n i n t r o d u c t i o n t o i o wa b u t t e r f l i e s assisted in the determination of some of the difficult species in Putnam’s (1876) list of the butterflies in the vicinity of Davenport. The few Iowa specimens in the Strecker col‑ lection (now on extended loan from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago to the Allyn Museum in Sarasota, Florida) do not appear to have been collected by Putnam. Much of the correspondence between Strecker and Putnam and other letters to Putnam are still preserved in the archives of his namesake, the Putnam Museum in Davenport. Since the publications of Scudder (1868a, 1868b, 1869), Parker (1870b), and Putnam (1876), additional papers have shown that Iowa had several resident collectors, some of whom were active only in their youth. Alice B. Walton and her sister Lilly P. Walton accumulated a fine entomological collection from the vicinity of Muscatine, in the mid 1870s. Alice Walton published this list, perhaps at the urging of Putnam, in the Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Science in 1880 as well as in a book on the history of Muscatine County (Walton 1879). Other early authors followed at intervals, including A. W. Hoffmeister (1881) in Lee County and Herbert Osborn (1890, 1891) in Story County. Henry G. Willard (1892), like Parker before him, lived in Poweshiek County and reared specimens at his home in Grinnell. A. S. Van Winkle (1893a, 1893b) in Keokuk County also reared butterflies, as well as collecting the adults. Resident collectors communicated with out‑of‑state au‑ thorities, even sending them living material. Thus Willard sent a Gray Copper collected in Grinnell to Henry Skinner (1893, 1911), who first described Pamphila sassacus dacotae Skin. (now Hesperia dacotae [Skin.]). Dr. C. Hoeg of Decorah sent eggs of a Common Checkered‑skipper to George H. French (1897), who first described its life history. A. F. Porter (1908) is one of...

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