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    The Malayan Papilionidæ or Swallow-tailed Butterflies, as Illustrative of the Theory of Natural Selection
    The Malayan Papilionidæ or Swallow-tailed Butterflies, as Illustrative of the Theory of Natural Selection
    The Malayan Papilionidæ or Swallow-tailed Butterflies, as Illustrative of the Theory of Natural Selection
    Ebook79 pages1 hour

    The Malayan Papilionidæ or Swallow-tailed Butterflies, as Illustrative of the Theory of Natural Selection

    By Alfred Russel Wallace

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    This early work by Alfred Russel Wallace was originally published in 1870 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Malayan Papilionidæ or Swallow-tailed Butterflies, as Illustrative of the Theory of Natural Selection' is an article describing Wallace's evidence for the processes of natural selection. Alfred Russel Wallace was born on 8th January 1823 in the village of Llanbadoc, in Monmouthshire, Wales. Wallace was inspired by the travelling naturalists of the day and decided to begin his exploration career collecting specimens in the Amazon rainforest. He explored the Rio Negra for four years, making notes on the peoples and languages he encountered as well as the geography, flora, and fauna. While travelling, Wallace refined his thoughts about evolution and in 1858 he outlined his theory of natural selection in an article he sent to Charles Darwin. Wallace made a huge contribution to the natural sciences and he will continue to be remembered as one of the key figures in the development of evolutionary theory.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWhite Press
    Release dateMay 25, 2016
    ISBN9781473362611
    The Malayan Papilionidæ or Swallow-tailed Butterflies, as Illustrative of the Theory of Natural Selection

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      Book preview

      The Malayan Papilionidæ or Swallow-tailed Butterflies, as Illustrative of the Theory of Natural Selection - Alfred Russel Wallace

      1.png

      The Malayan Papilionidæ

      or Swallow-tailed Butterflies, as Illustrative of the Theory of Natural Selection

      (1864/1870)

      BY

      Alfred Russel Wallace

      Copyright © 2016 Read Books Ltd.

      This book is copyright and may not be

      reproduced or copied in any way without

      the express permission of the publisher in writing

      British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      Contents

      Alfred Russel Wallace

      Special Value of the Diurnal Lepidoptera for enquiries of this nature.

      Question of the rank of the Papilionidæ.

      Distribution of the Papilionidæ.

      Definition of the word Species.

      Laws and Modes of Variation.

      Variation as specially influenced by Locality.

      Remarks on the facts of Local variation.

      Mimicry.

      Concluding remarks on Variation in Lepidoptera.

      Arrangement and Geographical Distribution of the Malayan Papilionidæ.

      Range of the Groups of Malayan Papilionidæ.

      Remarkable Peculiarities of the Island of Celebes.

      Concluding Remarks.

      Note Appearing in the Original Work

      Alfred Russel Wallace

      Alfred Russel Wallace was born on 8th January 1823 in the village of Llanbadoc, in Monmouthshire, Wales.

      At the age of five, Wallace’s family moved to Hertford where he later enrolled at Hertford Grammar School. He was educated there until financial difficulties forced his family to withdraw him in 1836. He then boarded with his older brother John before becoming an apprentice to his eldest brother, William, a surveyor. He worked for William for six years until the business declined due to difficult economic conditions.

      After a brief period of unemployment, he was hired as a master at the Collegiate School in Leicester to teach drawing, map-making, and surveying. During this time he met the entomologist Henry Bates who inspired Wallace to begin collecting insects. He and bates continued exchanging letters after Wallace left teaching to pursue his surveying career. They corresponded on prominent works of the time such as Charles Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle (1839) and Robert Chamber’s Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844).

      Wallace was inspired by the travelling naturalists of the day and decided to begin his exploration career collecting specimens in the Amazon rainforest. He explored the Rio Negra for four years, making notes on the peoples and languages he encountered as well as the geography, flora, and fauna. On his return voyage his ship, Helen, caught fire and he and the crew were stranded for ten days before being picked up by the Jordeson, a brig travelling from Cuba to London. All of his specimens aboard Helen had been lost.

      After a brief stay in England he embarked on a journey to the Malay Archipelago (now Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia). During this eight year period he collected more than 126,000 specimens, several thousand of which represented new species to science. While travelling, Wallace refined his thoughts about evolution and in 1858 he outlined his theory of natural selection in an article he sent to Charles Darwin. This was published in the same year along with Darwin’s own theory. Wallace eventually published an account of his travels The Malay Archipelago in 1869, and it became one of the most popular books of scientific exploration in the 19th century.

      Upon his return to England, in 1862, Wallace became a staunch defender of Darwin’s landmark work On the Origin of Species (1859). He wrote responses to those critical of the theory of natural selection, including ‘Remarks on the Rev. S. Haughton’s Paper on the Bee’s Cell, And on the Origin of Species’ (1863) and ‘Creation by Law’ (1867). The former of these was particularly pleasing to Darwin. Wallace also published important papers such as ‘The Origin of Human Races and the Antiquity of Man Deduced from the Theory of ‘Natural Selection’’ (1864) and books, including the much cited Darwinism (1889).

      Wallace made a huge contribution to the natural sciences and he will continue to be remembered as one of the key figures in the development of evolutionary theory.

      Wallace died on 7th November 1913 at the age of 90. He is buried in a small cemetery at Broadstone, Dorset, England.

      Special Value of the Diurnal Lepidoptera for enquiries of this nature.

      When the naturalist studies the habits, the structure, or the affinities of animals, it matters little to which group he especially devotes himself; all alike offer him endless materials for observation and research. But, for the purpose of investigating the phenomena of geographical distribution and of local, sexual, or general variation, the several groups differ greatly in their value and importance. Some have too limited a range, others are not sufficiently varied in specific forms, while, what is of most importance, many groups have not received that amount of attention over the whole region they inhabit, which could furnish materials sufficiently approaching to completeness to enable us to arrive at any accurate conclusions as to the phenomena they present as a whole. It is in those groups which are, and have long been, favourites with collectors, that the student of distribution and variation will find his materials the most satisfactory, from their comparative completeness.

      Pre-eminent among such groups are the diurnal Lepidoptera or Butterflies, whose extreme beauty and endless diversity have led to their having been assiduously

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