ntomologists study Lepidoptera for their exquisite beauty and variety, and for all that they disclose about the natural world. Writers of poetry and fiction are drawn to the butterfly and moth for their seductive symbolic power. Because of their morphic or transformative character, these fascinating creatures offer themselves to the literary artist as the perfect image of change and reinvented identity. In the last century, Vladimir Nabokov, perhaps more so than other literary writers, masterfully deployed lepidoptero- logical images in constructing narrative and transmitting character. A recent collection of his butterfly writings took the lead review in the annual Natural History issue of the London Times Literary Supplement (4 August 2000).

But only recently have students of literature been introduced to a much earlier practitioner of butterfly artifice: the intriguing Mary ("Mall") Villiers, later Stuart, Duchess of Richmond & Lennox (London, 1622-1685), daughter of the legendary George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, and one of the great beauties of 17th-century English court history (Fig. 1). Known among her exclusive coterie as "The Butterfly," Mary Villiers vexed and baffled the scholarly community these three centuries as the pseudonymous poet-play-wright-songwriter, "Ephelia."

Fig. 1. "Lady Mary Villiers with her Dwarf, Anne Gibson," by Sir Anthony Van Dyck, c. 1638-1640 (Larsen, 1980). With the kind permission of Lord Pembroke, Wilton House, Wiltshire, England.

Long considered an impenetrable case in the annals of pseudonymous literature, the "Ephelia" poet of 17th-century Stuart London has proved to be the best research subject ever, in my experience; and my recent delvings into the entomological features of this complex case offer a model of interdisciplinary investigative methodology for literary sleuths and entomologists.

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).

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.