Live Auction 7652Exploration and Travel
Marian Ellis Rowan (1848-1922)
Lot 52

Marian Ellis Rowan (1848-1922)

Twenty-four moths, in three columns, mostly belonging to the family NOCTUIDAE, but including four spectacular URANIIDAE (Lyssa 11,12, and Alcides 17,18) Thirty moths, in three columns, all members of the huge family NOCTUIDAE Sixty-seven moths, arranged in five columns, a few belonging to families such as the GEOMETRIDAE (e.g. 3,4, 18,19) and ARCTIIDAE (e.g. 32,33,55), but with most representing a variety of the medium-sized or smaller NOCTUIDAE (which includes the unusual Pterocyclophora, 5)

Closed25 September 2008

Price Realised

GBP 10,625

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Marian Ellis Rowan (1848-1922)
Twenty-four moths, in three columns, mostly belonging to the family NOCTUIDAE, but including four spectacular URANIIDAE (Lyssa 11,12, and Alcides 17,18)

Thirty moths, in three columns, all members of the huge family NOCTUIDAE

Sixty-seven moths, arranged in five columns, a few belonging to families such as the GEOMETRIDAE (e.g. 3,4, 18,19) and ARCTIIDAE (e.g. 32,33,55), but with most representing a variety of the medium-sized or smaller NOCTUIDAE (which includes the unusual Pterocyclophora, 5)
the three sheets signed 'Ellis Rowan'
watercolour with bodycolour, the first and second on grey paper, the third on grey-green paper
22 x 15in. (55.9 x 38.1cm.)
22 1/8 x 15in. (56.2 x 38.1cm.)
22 x 15in. (55.8 x 38.1cm.) (3)

Blanche (Bli) Ryan, the artist's sister, and thence by descent to Merlin Montagu Douglas Scott; Christie's London, 16 May 1995, lot 217.

Specialist note

The caterpillars of both uraniids illustrated on the first sheet feed on spurges (Euphorbiaceae), and the adults are probably chemically repellent. The brilliantly iridescent Alcides are day-flying and behave rather like hyperactive butterflies, keeping territories in forest clearings or beside watercourses, to dash out in pursuit of any large insect remotely like themselves. The noctuids include Erebus (15,16) and Phyllodes (13,14).

The large, reddish-pink marked moths in the central column of the second sheet are Phyllodes imperialis, a rainforest species that also occurs in Australia. The 'yellow underwing' moths include members of the fruit-piercing genus Othreis, often pests in Citrus groves, where their proboscides are strong enough to penetrate even the rind of an orange. Species of the genus Achaea have three bluish-white spots ranged around the margin of the hindwing (e.g. 5,6,19-22).