G. E. Grumm-Grshimailo

Grigorii Efimovitsch Grumm-Grshimailo (Cyrillic: Г.Е. Грумм-Гржимайло, also transliterated as Grum-Grshmailo, Groum-Grshmailo) (1860—1936) was a Russian entomologist, best known for his expeditions to Central Asia (Pamir, Buchara, Tian-Shan, Kan-su und Kukunor) in 1893 and 1895.

Life and work

Born in St. Petersburg his early interest was in the phylloxera problem in the vineyards of N. Y. Danilewsky. He wrote his first scientific work at the age of 21 on some lepidoptera of Crimea. (1882, volume 8 of the "'Proceedings of the Russian Entomological Society").

He was associated with Professor M. N. Bogdanov at the St. Petersburg Museum and contributed many of his own collection to it. He also studied the collections of the museum that had been made by N. M. Przewalsky, Grigorij Nikolaevich Potanin, Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky and other explorers of Central Asia.

From 1882, G. E. Grumm-Grshimailo studied Lepidoptera from the Bessarabia, the Podolsk region, Crimea and the Baltic and got interested in zoogeography. While collecting near Sarepta, he met the German collector Rückbeil. He also met the Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich Romanoff who suggested that he should publish his work. He also promised support for an expedition in the Pamirs. In 1884 he started his first Pamir expedition on which he visited the Alai Mt. Range ascending the Trans-Alai range via Pass Tersagarsky to reach the upper Muksu river to reach Fedtschenko's glacier. He visited Lake Karakul and returned. he collected 12,000 specimens with 30 new to science. Spurred by the interest he made a second expedition in 1885 visiting Karateghin, Darvaz, Bukhara Khanate, Ghissar, Kulyab, Beldzhuan, Shakhrisiabz, Karshi, Guzara, Shirabad, Kabadian and Kurgan-Tyube. This time he collected 20,000 specimens of insects.

His third expedition was in 1886 along the Kara-Darya, via Pass Kugart, then up along the Naryn valley to the Narynsky Fortress (now the town of Naryn), and from there to the south toward At-Bashi and further to the southwest along the broad valley of At-Bashi River, by the At-Bashi Mt. Range, along the Great Silk Route to Tash-Rabat and Lake Chatyr-Kul. They went until Kashgar and then via Pass Irkeshtam and back to Osh.

The expeditions of the brothers between 1889 and 1890 were initially never for birds or large animals. Their aims included obtaining specimens of the Mongolian wild horse and they were afraid that shooting would frighten the animals away. After securing two wild horses near Gushen (44°N 90°30'E), they succeeded in collecting 1048 bird specimens. Their expedition covered 8600 km (5400 mi). [Rodolphe Meyer De Schauensee 1984. The Birds of China. Oxford University Press]

He made several more expeditions in the succeeding years but he later lost much of the early interest in entomology owing in part to a conflict with the sponsor of his expeditions. A term was that the materials he collected were to go to the Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich Romanoff, but he needed a private collection. He was accused of embezzling material and financial difficulties made him sell part of his collection to Henry John Elwes.

Publications

Partial list

*Novae species et varietas Rhopalocerum "Horae Soc. ent. Rossicae", 22: 303-307 (1888)
*"Le Pamir et la faune lépidoptérologique. Mém. lépidop". Ed. N. M. Romanoff 4 volumes 576 p., 21 pl. (1890)
*Lepidoptera nova in Asia centrali novissime lecta et descripta "Horae Soc. ent. Ross". 25 (3-4): 445-465 (1891)
*Lepidoptera nova vei parum cognita regionis palaearcticae. I. Ezhegod. "Zool Mus. Imp. Akad. Nauk", "Ann. Mus. Zool. Acad. Imp." Sc. Volume 4 (1899) (in Russian).
*Lepidoptera nova vel parum cognita regionis palaearcticae. II. Ezhegod. Zool. "Mus. Imp. Acad. Nauk, Ann Mus. Zool. Acad. Imp. Sc".,Volume 7 (1902) (in Russian)

Collections

Many of Grumm-Grshimailo's specimens of Lepidoptera and Coleoptera are in the Zoological Museum in Leningrad Other specimens were sold to H.J. Elwes.

Notes

References

* Grieshuber , J. & Churkin, S. (2003a): Grum-Grshimailo's journey through China with notes on some "Colias" taxa. "Helios" IV: 224-243, 1 map.

External links

* [http://www.lepidopterology.com/almanac/gr_gr.htm Lepidopterology]
* [http://www.zalf.de/home_zalf/institute/dei/php/biograph/biograph.php Collection details]