what butterfly did pieter cramer discover?
Although it looks like an exotic swallowtail butterfly, Urania sloanus (Cramer, 1779) is considered to be the worlds most beautiful moth. It was first described by Pieter Cramer, a Dutch merchant and entomologist. He named it after the British naturalist Hans Sloane, who was probably the first to illustrate this moth in the second edition of Natural History of Jamaica, in 1725 (below, plates 11 and 12.)
The Butterflies of Massachusetts. 15 Bronze Copper Lycaena hyllus (Cramer, 1775) Host Plants and Habitat Relative Abundance Today State Distribution and Locations Broods and Flight Time Outlook. Bronze Copper was described in 1775 by the Dutch naturalist Pieter Cramer, from a female specimen now lost. But the original watercolor drawings of Cramerâs type specimen were recently re-examined by John Calhoun, who deduces that the specimen was collected by a Thomas James around 1766, probably in Brooklyn, New York, on Long Island--- a habitat long since lost to urban sprawl (Calhoun 2010b).