2025/06/26 by Luis M. P. Ceríaco, Thamara Zacca, Helen F. de Menezes +5 · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Animal and Plant Science Education #Historical and Literary Studies #Lepidoptera: Biology and Taxonomy
paper · pdf · doi:10.3897/nhcm.2.153540
openalex publication_date 2025/06/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Early Portuguese natural history collections regarded Brazil as one of its main interests, influenced by the kingdom’s political authorities and naturalists’ own fascination. Two unique and almost identical copies of the same work on Brazilian butterflies, “Lepidoptera Fluminensis”, with specimens predating Brazil’s independence, are held today at the Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência da Universidade de Lisboa (MUHNAC), in Portugal, and in the private collection of António Bonchristiano in Brazil. Both books were prepared using a poorly known and now extinct technique, lepidochromy, sometimes labeled as “nature printing”. Here we present a concise history on lepidochromy, as well as the history of these books from conception until the present day, including their conservation status, and a taxonomic review of their content. We suggest that the authorship of the books should be attributed to two authors, Friar José Mariano da Conceição Veloso and Father Francisco Solano, while previous works had only identified the former as the possible author. As the authors used Linnaeus’ “Systema Naturae” as a major reference for the species’ identification in “Lepidoptera Fluminensis”, here we provide a taxonomic update for all species based on current classification of Lepidoptera. Originally regarded as having representatives of 169 different taxa, “Lepidoptera Fluminensis” represents specimens of 145 taxa currently recognized, from nine families. We also present a brief note on the importance of Friar Veloso’s work as an early scholar of Brazil’s natural history and the relevance of “Lepidoptera Fluminensis ”as both an artwork and a naturalistic endeavor.