Odoardo Beccari and Enrico D’Albertis in Australia and New Zealand, 1878: botanical and zoological collections

Abstract

Though acclaimed for his scientific exploration and botanising in Borneo, New Guinea and Sumatra, Odoardo Beccari travelled briefly through Australia and New Zealand between 19 January and 5 April 1878. During this time, Beccari was in the company of navigator and ethnologist Captain Enrico Alberto D’Albertis. Although primarily a leisure tour, Beccari and D’Albertis engaged in botanical and zoological collecting when circumstances allowed. Specimens were collected in Queensland at Percy Islands and the Brisbane Botanic Garden; in New South Wales at the Blue Mountains; in Tasmania at Launceston, Corra Linn, Mount Wellington and Huon Road and in New Zealand at Bluff, Napier, Moeraki and Titirangi. Of the Australian and New Zealand specimens that have been located, the main life-form is bryophytes, with about 46 taxa of which 11 were described as new based on their collections. Only 13 herbarium specimens of vascular plants have been located and two of these were described as new taxa and represent type specimens. Of the zoological collections, about 20 ant (Formicidae) specimens were collected of which three were described as new taxa. Also collected were two specimens of earthworms (Lumbricidae), both of which were described as new, and three crustaceans (Amphipoda), two of which were described as new. This paper outlines their travel itinerary, provides a critical assessment of the collections, and examines the collaboration between Beccari and Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, Victorian Government Botanist at the time.