www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Hi all, I have just watched a programme on BBC4 about the Author of Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, He was a Butterfly collector and the programme showed him in a mountainous area netting an Apollo, The show stated that Vladimir discovered a new species of Butterfly but did not say what it was, Does anyone know?. Steve

Nabokov is a local hero for me! For butterflies named by him see http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/dzbutt4.htm.

Guy

In the fifties, Nabokov collected Iolas blues at a site near Bex. Two years ago I found them there too. They had probably disappeared and returned but it was very exciting all the same - to walk in the great man's footsteps and to see what he saw...

Guy

Thanks for that Guy, He certainly had an interesting and productive life. Steve

I just came across this forum topic and thought these articles (link below) might be of interest. The first few articles concern the USA where Nabokov clearly spent much of his life, but the last one is more European in flavour, being a mild critique of Higgins & Riley's work (which demonstrates Nabokov's incredible knowledge - Norman Riley was Keeper of Entomology at the Natural History Museum - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Denbigh_Riley).

http://www.lib.ru/NABOKOW/batterfly.txt

Roger