The relationship among the collector, merchant and collection owner, puzzling out the specimen tags

概要

論文の詳細を見る
The Hainan mole, Mogera hainana Thomas, 1910, was recorded to be collected by "a native employed by Mr. Alan Owston" in the original description of the species. We noticed the specimen tag of the holotype was printed and handwritten in Japanese characters. The same tag was attached to another specimen of this species deposited at the Forestory and Forest Products Research Institute (Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan). Those specimens were both collected in November, 1906; therefore, the Hainan mole was collected by a Japanese person who visited Hainan Island in this period. We searched for the same form of specimen tags, and found many among bird specimens from Hainan Island at the Yamashina Ornithological Institute (Abiko, Chiba, Japan). In this period, Zensaku Katsumata collected the birds in Hainan Isl. and sent them to the Lord of Lionel Walter Rothschild in England. We estimated the type series of the Hainan mole was also collected by Z. Katsumata, who was a collector employed by a merchant A. Owston, and he sent it to L. W. Rothschild in UK. L. W. Rothschild communicated with the Natural History Museum and his name was dedicated to 18 mammalian species by researchers of this museum. It is possible to consider that Rothschild's mammalian collection was presented to the Natural History Museum and examined by mammal researchers. Although Zensaku Katsumata was an obscure person in mammalogy, we discuss his contribution to the dawn of natural history in Japan.