NOTES 77 Hazards ofbutterfly collecting: Father Theodor Maessen, London and Florida, 1993 I had a series of long and animated telephone conversations with Father Theodor Maessen during 1993. He was the village priest in an obscure part of Germany, which I never even managed to locate on a map. This was at the beginning of my research project on the Buttertlies ofWest Africa. The purpose ofthe conversations was not the religious sentiment of obscure Germans, but the buttertlies of Ghana. For, during a period stretching from the early 1950s to the mid 1970s, Father Maessen had made what is possibly the most complete collection ofbutterflies ever made single-handedly in a West African - or any African - country. And did he do well: The following species and subspecies bear his names, and there are other new ones that do not carry his name: Papilio maesseni Berger, 1974 (now P. nohicea Suffert, 1904), Telipna maesseni Stempffer, 1970, Mimacraea maesseni Libert, 2000, Eresina maesseni Stempffer, 1956, Eresina theodori Stempffer, 1956, Cephetola maesseniLibert, 1999, lolaiisparasilanus maesseni Stempffer & Bennett, 1958, lolaus theodori Stempffer, 1970, Bicyclus maesseni Condamin, 1971, Celaenorrhinusproxima maesseni Berger, 1976, Ceratrichia maesseni Miller, 1971, Paracleros maesseni Berger, 1978, and Fresna maesseni Miller, 1971. So many are named afterhim that we decided it was betterto commemorate him with lolaus likpe Collins & Larsen, 2004 - named after village where he spent most of his time in Ghana. Maessen would probably have been allowed to soldier on in Ghana for the rest of his life, but he decided to go back to Europe. Though Dutch, he had to settle for a parish in Germany. His reason for going back was simple: "Our church in Ghana could manage on its own. I did not feel I couldjustify the expenses to the church of staying ... and I might have stood in the way of some up-and-coming Ghanaian priest."Amost admirable sentiment. He lived all his time in Ghana's Volta Region, which is biogeographically interesting, since it occupies a special niche. West of the river Volta the fauna is wholly WestAfrican, but the Volta Region on the east has several endemic species as well as contact with the Nigerian fauna. Thus, Telipna maesseni is endemic to the Volta Region, while Mimacraea maesseni is found in the Volta Region as well as in western Nigeria. Several other butterflies extend from the main central African rainforests to western Nigeria and then to the Volta Region, without crossing the Volta River - and this despite the fact the a tongue of savannah country without rainforest (the Dahomey Gap) now separates the two areas. That the Volta River can be a true biogeographical boundary is actually rather memarkable. Before it was made into a huge lake by the Akosombo Dam it was not that much ofa river. Maessen's collection ofimmaculately preserved specimens - mostly set while still fresh - went to the Allyn Museum in Sarasota, Florida. The bulk is from the Volta Region, but he obviously made a point of visiting colleagues in obscure corners of Ghana, and collected assiduously there as well. This unpublished cornucopia I obviously had to study in detail, so I went there on one of my first trips during the — 78 ENTOMOLOGIST'S RECORD,VOL. 117 25.iii.2005 project. My next trip - enthusiastically endorsed by Father Maessen - was to be a visit to him. I had a splendid time in Sarasota. The Maessen collection was immaculately curated and easily accessible. The curators, Jacqui and Lee Miller, looked after me in the best possible way. The raw framework of my book began receiving a lot of real data - and lots of questions for my trip to Germany to debrief with Maessen. I then went on a trip to Ghana, partly to familiarize myself with the Volta Region. On my return I phoned Maessen to schedule my trip to Germany. The phone was answered by a lady with a strong regional accent, difficult to understand, and sounding rather out-of-sorts. It was the housekeeper. Maessen had died two days earlier. So we were never to meet and I could not tap his unrivalled field knowledge, which would really have benefited my West Africa book. Some notes he sent me, together withthe telephone conversations, gave me only an inkling ofthe information he held in his head. One interesting feature emerged when studying his collection in Florida. At various times, he threw his energy into certain groups. Vast numbers of Mylothris were collected and bred, obviously at the instigation ofL. Berger. Gorgyra skippers were suddenly collected in bulkat the request ofL. Miller.And H. Stempfferkindled a deeper interst in the Lycaenidae, leading to the breeding of /c/<3M5-species in the garden at Likpe. lolaus theodoriis still known only from there. I was atWli Falls afew years ago, a lovely waterfall nearhis Likpe residence, and one of his favourite spots. The water actually spills into Ghana from Togo, the frontier running along the crest ofthe ridge at the top ofthe falls (see inset photo). Butterflies still aboundandthe sliverofforestthat borders theriverbelow thefalls is now the Agamatsu National Park. On the way back down the river I ran into two young men. "The good father used to do this", they said. They told me how he used to take his two dogs walking there - and then complained about their interference with collecting! They had been in their teens at the time and had the fondest of memories of a good man. It was with sadness I had to tell them he was dead. ToRBEN B. Larsen, UNDP Vietnam, c/o Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland (E-mail: [email protected]).