Stichophthalma camadeva

[daveuk]

These specimens come from Naga Hills in India near the border with Myanmar/Burma. Subspecies S camadeva camadevoides. Two pairs

[Trehopr1]

I finally landed a pretty darn nice example of this
superb species. Naturally, it had to come from an
older collection being parted out a few months ago.

It too comes from Naga Hills, India (1977). Believe
mine is a male and the colors are quite bold. The
blue-ish-white color on the wings is unique to this
species; thus making it quite a standout.



I have desired having a specimen since my high school
years (mid-70's) but, since that time it went non-existant
here in the states. Older collectors than me coveted
whatever specimens they had and only now are treasures
like this species showing themselves again in sales and
through connections.

[daveuk]

I finally landed a pretty darn nice example of this
superb species. Naturally, it had to come from an
older collection being parted out a few months ago.

It too comes from Naga Hills, India (1977). Believe
mine is a male and the colors are quite bold. The
blue-ish-white color on the wings is unique to this
species; thus making it quite a standout.
I have desired having a specimen since my high school
years (mid-70's) but, since that time it went non-existant
here in the states. Older collectors than me coveted
whatever specimens they had and only now are treasures
like this species showing themselves again in sales and
through connections.

Hi Trehopr.
Very pleased that you have finally secured yourself a lovely specimen of what I agree is a stunning species of this beautiful genus. Agree that this is a male.

A short story with pictures of my history with this species:

I first saw this butterfly in an illustration in a Hamlyn paperback book "Butterflies" by Robert Goodden published in 1971.
It was to be another seven years before I got to see a real specimen. I visited Worldwide Butterflies shop in Brighton Sussex which Robert Goodden owned. There were several S camadeva for sale & I picked out the one in the photo which I have had ever since. It is offered still on ebay from time to time but these days attracts much higher prices than it did back in 1978.

[Trehopr1]

That is truly a wonderful and memorable backstory of your own experience with this species.

I first saw my first pictured example in the "World of Butterflies" book (1972) by Dickens & Storey. Of course, I didn't actually find the book in my local library until some 2 years later in (1974) when I was entering high school. That book provided me with much food for thought about things I should like to one day have myself !

After all, it did precede Smarts book of (1975) so, the "fires" of inspiration were lit. Paul smart's book only "stoked the fires" of desire once it was released and it very much remains just about my favorite EVER book on international butterflies. I truly learned an awful lot from Paul's book by reading through all of the pages prior to the pictured (family) sections.

[daveuk]

That is truly a wonderful and memorable backstory of your own experience with this species.

I first saw my first pictured example in the "World of Butterflies" book (1972) by Dickens & Storey. Of course, I didn't actually find the book in my local library until some 2 years later in (1974) when I was entering high school. That book provided me with much food for thought about things I should like to one day have myself !

After all, it did precede Smarts book of (1975) so, the "fires" of inspiration were lit. Paul smart's book only "stoked the fires" of desire once it was released and it very much remains just about my favorite EVER book on international butterflies. I truly learned an awful lot from Paul's book by reading through all of the pages prior to the pictured (family) sections.

Paul Smart's book is a classic. My old copy was so well thumbed I invested in another one from an old book shop. I got lucky as it turned out to be a practically mint copy of the first edition..Nice to have a first edition of that book on the book shelf.

[livingplanet3]

That is truly a wonderful and memorable backstory of your own experience with this species.

I first saw my first pictured example in the "World of Butterflies" book (1972) by Dickens & Storey. Of course, I didn't actually find the book in my local library until some 2 years later in (1974) when I was entering high school. That book provided me with much food for thought about things I should like to one day have myself !

After all, it did precede Smarts book of (1975) so, the "fires" of inspiration were lit. Paul smart's book only "stoked the fires" of desire once it was released and it very much remains just about my favorite EVER book on international butterflies. I truly learned an awful lot from Paul's book by reading through all of the pages prior to the pictured (family) sections.

I could name a dozen or more insect books from decades ago that were particularly inspiring to me, but Smart's "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Butterfly World" was the one that probably had more influence on me than any other in regard to butterflies, and is what really got me started collecting. In 1984, I got the edition published that year by Chartwell Books -

[bobw]

Knowing Paul Smart as a person, I found it hard to buy his book on principle. There was a very similar book out at the sam time by H L Lewis, which I used a little.

[adamcotton]

Lewis had many more species illustrated, arranged by geographical region, but each specimen was tiny compared to the photos in Smart.

Adam.

[daveuk]

Knowing Paul Smart as a person, I found it hard to buy his book on principle. There was a very similar book out at the sam time by H L Lewis, which I used a little.

Have the Lewis book too Bob. Did not personally know Paul Smart but know people who knew him or knew of him. They were of the same opinion.

[livingplanet3]

Knowing Paul Smart as a person, I found it hard to buy his book on principle. There was a very similar book out at the sam time by H L Lewis, which I used a little.

Have the Lewis book too Bob. Did not personally know Paul Smart but know people who knew him or knew of him. They were of the same opinion.

I too have Lewis' book (which is quite nice in its own right), but it was Smart's book that had the greatest impact on my early years of lepidoptery. In 2016, a lengthy discussion was started by Trehopr1 on Smart, his collection, and his Saruman Museum -

https://collector-secret.proboards.com/ ... seum-exist

Regardless of how likeable a person he was, I'm very glad for the butterfly encyclopedia he produced, and I'm sure it has been inspirational to many entomology enthusiasts of about the past 50 years.

[Trehopr1]

VERY well put livingplanet3 !

An honest and fitting tribute to a well done and inspirational book.

[livingplanet3]

VERY well put livingplanet3 !

An honest and fitting tribute to a well done and inspirational book.

An important aspect of Smart's book is that it was quite widely available. It wasn't a particularly niche, for specialists only, expensive kind of work that only had a rather limited number of copies printed; you could find Smart's book in just about any of the larger bookstores. It was designed to appeal to the widest audience possible. According to WorldCat (https://www.worldcat.org/), multiple editions were published over a 10-year period (1975-1985). I myself have only ever seen editions from 1975 and 1984, however.

I'm sure the topic has been discussed on the forum previously, but I think it might be interesting to start a thread about some of the other books that played an important part in the early days of our interest in entomology. For me, most of those books were published between 1960-1980.