'Insect' Gulliver's Father's Lover. Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta, on Allium tuberosum, Garlic Chives, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Great Carolus Linnaeus in 1758 named Our Beauty: Papilio atalanta. But in 1807 his great one-time entomological student Johan Christian Fabricius (1745-1808) established the name for its genus as 'Vanessa'. That name was at the time just in vogue for women. It had been contrived by Jonathan 'Gulliver' Swift (1667-1745) for his lover Esther (Esse) Vanhomrigh (1688-1723) in his satirical poem Cadenus and Vanessa (1726). 'Vanessa' = the first three letters of her last name and then those of her first nickname. So it is thought that Fabricius derived his nomen for our Butterfly from Swift. Indeed, Vanessa in the poem is a nymph, a favorite designation for Butterflies.
Incidentally, Gulliver, Swift's wonderful creation, during his sojourn among giants in Brobdingnag is called an insect by the uncouth king.
In the photo Vanessa is nectaring on Garlic Chives.
'Insect' Gulliver's Father's Lover. Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta, on Allium tuberosum, Garlic Chives, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Great Carolus Linnaeus in 1758 named Our Beauty: Papilio atalanta. But in 1807 his great one-time entomological student Johan Christian Fabricius (1745-1808) established the name for its genus as 'Vanessa'. That name was at the time just in vogue for women. It had been contrived by Jonathan 'Gulliver' Swift (1667-1745) for his lover Esther (Esse) Vanhomrigh (1688-1723) in his satirical poem Cadenus and Vanessa (1726). 'Vanessa' = the first three letters of her last name and then those of her first nickname. So it is thought that Fabricius derived his nomen for our Butterfly from Swift. Indeed, Vanessa in the poem is a nymph, a favorite designation for Butterflies.
Incidentally, Gulliver, Swift's wonderful creation, during his sojourn among giants in Brobdingnag is called an insect by the uncouth king.
In the photo Vanessa is nectaring on Garlic Chives.