The historic Esper Collection

Section Lepidoptera

The type catalogue of the Esper collection has been published in the following two articles:

1. Hacker, H. (1998): Die Typen der von E. J. Ch. Esper (1742-1810) in seinem “Die Schmetterlinge in Abbildungen nach der Natur” beschriebenen Noctuoidea (Lepidoptera) (PDF, 191 KB). – Esperiana Buchreihe zur Entomologie Bd. 6: Schwanfeld.

2. Hacker, H. (1999): Die Typen der von E. J. Ch. Esper (1742-1810) in seinem “Die Schmetterlinge in Abbildungen nach der Natur” beschriebenen Bombycoidea, Drepanoidea, Geometroidea, Hepialoidea, Lasiocampoidea, Noctuoidea, Pyraloidea, Tineoidea (PDF, 96 KB) (Lepidoptera) II.- Esperiana Buchreihe zur Entomologie Bd 7: Staffelstein.

Esper-Typus als Abbildung und im Original

Left: The birdwing Ornithoptera hippolythus as published in the original description of Esper ca. 1800.

Right the original specimen (type) in our collection today. Such collections may, under accurate and appropriate curation, be stored for many hundred years without problems (Photograph: M. Müller) (from: SPIXIANA, Suppl. 17, 1992).

Esper-Kasten: Catocalinae

Drawer with Catocalinae of coll. Esper in ZSM.