Black Heaven. Arge berberidis, Black Sawfly, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In the preface to his Fauna Boica, Franz von Paula Schrank (1747-1835), who first described our Sawfly (1802), writes, a bit exaltedly in the Jesuit style to which he was accustomed:
'Mein Naturforscher soll weniger Sammler als Beobachter, weniger Beschreiber als Philosoph seyn. Das war wenigstens immer die Methode, nach welche ich mich gewöhnet habe, die Natur zu studieren, und ich habe ihr viele glückliche Tage, und manche, ich möchte sagen, himmlische, Augenblicke zu verdanken'.
In paraphrase: Schrank describes himself not as a mere collector but as a student of Nature, not as a describer but as a Philosopher. That's his method and he says it afforded him many happy days and even heavenly moments.
I suppose that holds, too, for his examination of our Arge berberidis, a Black Heaven perhaps to him, and maybe to me as well. Schranke was a careful naturalist and watched this Arge carefully. With regret he notes that he saw it nestle in the ground (July 23, 1802) but didn't observe a live Sawfly emerging.
Black Heaven. Arge berberidis, Black Sawfly, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In the preface to his Fauna Boica, Franz von Paula Schrank (1747-1835), who first described our Sawfly (1802), writes, a bit exaltedly in the Jesuit style to which he was accustomed:
'Mein Naturforscher soll weniger Sammler als Beobachter, weniger Beschreiber als Philosoph seyn. Das war wenigstens immer die Methode, nach welche ich mich gewöhnet habe, die Natur zu studieren, und ich habe ihr viele glückliche Tage, und manche, ich möchte sagen, himmlische, Augenblicke zu verdanken'.
In paraphrase: Schrank describes himself not as a mere collector but as a student of Nature, not as a describer but as a Philosopher. That's his method and he says it afforded him many happy days and even heavenly moments.
I suppose that holds, too, for his examination of our Arge berberidis, a Black Heaven perhaps to him, and maybe to me as well. Schranke was a careful naturalist and watched this Arge carefully. With regret he notes that he saw it nestle in the ground (July 23, 1802) but didn't observe a live Sawfly emerging.