Diving into Pink. Sphaerophoria scripta, Long Hoverfly, and Pink-Sorrel, Oxalis articulata, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The combination of this Long Hoverfly and Pink-Sorrel brought to mind the plight of Marie Jules César Lélorgne de Savigny (1777-1851). An intrepid naturalist he was with Napoleon during the French Egyptian adventure; moreover, he was a fine descriptor of his finds. But then bad fortune struck; in the process of describing his specimens he slowly and painfully went blind. Regardless he soldiered on.
He described this Oxalis in 1797 before that great misfortune. It had been found by that great naturalist Philibert Commerçon (1727-1773) who was part of the scientific crew of Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811), the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the globe (www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/2408098566/in/photolis...).
Commerçon collected this Oxalis in the fields around Montevideo (called Monte-Bido in Savigny's description), today the capital of Uruguay.
Diving into Pink. Sphaerophoria scripta, Long Hoverfly, and Pink-Sorrel, Oxalis articulata, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The combination of this Long Hoverfly and Pink-Sorrel brought to mind the plight of Marie Jules César Lélorgne de Savigny (1777-1851). An intrepid naturalist he was with Napoleon during the French Egyptian adventure; moreover, he was a fine descriptor of his finds. But then bad fortune struck; in the process of describing his specimens he slowly and painfully went blind. Regardless he soldiered on.
He described this Oxalis in 1797 before that great misfortune. It had been found by that great naturalist Philibert Commerçon (1727-1773) who was part of the scientific crew of Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811), the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the globe (www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/2408098566/in/photolis...).
Commerçon collected this Oxalis in the fields around Montevideo (called Monte-Bido in Savigny's description), today the capital of Uruguay.