While I was not always successful in my digs -- indeed in some respects I was far afield -- this entomological leg of my research produced useful results which ultimately allowed me to build a persuasive case for "Ephelia"'s authorship in Mary Villiers.
This guest essay for the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera
fulfills a dual purpose. First, it sends out word of the naming of a
new subspecies of Taiwan moth of elegant beauty in honor of the
"Ephelia" poet. This new patronym for the "Ephelia" poet was first
announced in my letter, "Ephelia, Butterfly Poet," in the September
1, 2000, issue of the London Times Literary Supplement. An
"Ephelia" patronym among British butterflies is also being sought,
namely for the orange tip subspecies of England, as "Ephelia's
Orange Tip." Second, this piece offers an abridged summary of the
researches I undertook from 1995 to 1999 at two of New York City's
most bountiful archives: the library of the American Museum of
Natural History, on Central Park West; and the New York Public
Library Research Facility, on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street. My goal,
as I tested the patience of many a reference librarian and resident
specialist, was to educate myself in the early scholarship on butterflies
and moths which my 17th-century English poet might have
known; and then to scour that early body of work for potential
origins or variants of the name "Ephelia" and the many fictitious
names she assigns her coterie in Female Poems On several Occasions.
Written by Ephelia, one of the rarest and most elegant poetry
books of 17th-century London (see Fig. 4, Chapter 2).
This guest essay for the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera
fulfills a dual purpose. First, it sends out word of the naming of a
new subspecies of Taiwan moth of elegant beauty in honor of the
"Ephelia" poet. This new patronym for the "Ephelia" poet was first
announced in my letter, "Ephelia, Butterfly Poet," in the September
1, 2000, issue of the London Times Literary Supplement. An
"Ephelia" patronym among British butterflies is also being sought,
namely for the orange tip subspecies of England, as "Ephelia's
Orange Tip." Second, this piece offers an abridged summary of the
researches I undertook from 1995 to 1999 at two of New York City's
most bountiful archives: the library of the American Museum of
Natural History, on Central Park West; and the New York Public
Library Research Facility, on Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street. My goal,
as I tested the patience of many a reference librarian and resident
specialist, was to educate myself in the early scholarship on butterflies
and moths which my 17th-century English poet might have
known; and then to scour that early body of work for potential
origins or variants of the name "Ephelia" and the many fictitious
names she assigns her coterie in Female Poems On several Occasions.
Written by Ephelia, one of the rarest and most elegant poetry
books of 17th-century London (see Fig. 4, Chapter 2).
Maureen E. Mulvihill