Vicar of the Amazon: The Reverend Arthur Miles Moss - In the Footsteps of Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates

Description:

This masterpiece chronicles the travels, discoveries and accomplishments of Miles Moss, who went to Peru in 1907, and from 1912 to 1945 was the Anglican Chaplain of the largest parish in the world, one that encompassed the whole of the Amazon basin from Iquitos in Peru to the Atlantic; an area roughly 3,000 miles long and 800 miles wide, amounting to about one quarter of the South American continent.

Moss' great passion was Lepidoptera: his major contributions to science were in the form of three classic works on hawk-moths and swallowtail butterflies, all published in the journal of his patron Lord Walter Rothschild who established Tring Museum containing the largest collection of butterflies and moths in the world.

Following in the wake of great Victorian naturalists such as Wallace and Bates, Moss’ story has been neglected: apart from his publications in scientific journals he left a collection of 25,000 insects, unpublished manuscripts on Amazonian natural history, and some exceptionally beautiful water-colours of bizarre-looking caterpillars now archived in the Natural History Museum, London.

Authored by Philip E. Howse, this beautifully illustrated book is fascinating account of the works of one of the most important naturalists in Amazonia during the early 20th Century.