Naturalist on Lake Victoria with an Account of the Sleeping Sickness and the Tse-tse Fly.

Description:

First edition. Two chromolithographic plates of mimetic butterflies by E.C. Knight. An engaging early-20th-century natural history narrative, Carpenter’s work records his observations of the flora, fauna, and ecological conditions of the Lake Victoria region made whilst undertaking research on the bionomics of the Tse-tse fly (Glossina palpalis) in Uganda for the London School of Tropical Medicine. Blending scientific insight with travel writing, it offers an important contemporary account of East African biodiversity and one of the period’s most accessible studies of the lake’s environment and its biological communities. Geoffrey Douglas Hale Carpenter (1882-1953) was a British entomologist and medical doctor. He worked at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and in Uganda, on tse-tse flies and sleeping sickness. His main work in entomology was on mimicry in butterflies, an interest he developed while in Africa. He succeeded E.B. Poulton as Hope Professor of Zoology at Oxford University from 1933 to 1948.

Condition

8vo, orig. cloth, gilt title and vignette to spine, blind-stamped title and tse-tse fly design to front board; corners slightly bumped, fore- and bottom page edges uncut. Very good. From the library of British dipterist, D.J. Greathead (1931-2006), with his name to endpaper.