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Maria Ernestine Walsh-Held

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Maria Ernestine Walsh-Held
Born1881
Geneva
Died1973
Geneva
Other namesMaria Ernestine Walsh
Maria Ernestine Held
Mrs Walsh
Mrs H. S. Walsh
Occupation(s)Botanist
Entomologist
Years active1915-1958
Known forScientific collecting in Indonesia

Maria Ernestine Walsh-Held (1881-1973) was Swiss botanist and entomologist who lived and worked for many years in Indonesia.

Biography

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Walsh-Held was born Maria Ernestine Held at Geneva in 1881.[1]

Maria married Herbert Shirley Walsh, an Australian produce merchant[2] and later cattle dealer,[3] at Perth in 1905.[4] Maria and Herbert had two daughters, named Elizabeth Muriel (b. 1907)[5] and Cecile Helene (b. 1908).[6] The Walshes moved to Java in 1911 where Herbert worked as an agent for the cattle firm Jenner and Company.[7][3]

In 1913 Herbert Walsh was on a trip back to Australia where he died on 20 November 1913 as a result of an accident, after being hit by a train on the Bunbury railway bridge at East Perth.[8][9][10]

After the death of Herbert, Maria did not remarry. Maria Walsh-Held spent about four decades working in Indonesia before repatriating to Switzerland.[11] Walsh-Held died at Geneva in 1973.[11]

Argyreia walshae Ooststr via Bijmoer R, Scherrenberg M, Creuwels J (2020). Naturalis Biodiversity Center (NL) - Botany. L.2723925. Type specimen collected at Timor by Maria Ernestine Walsh-Held in 1929.

Scientific collecting

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From the time of her arrival in Java, Maria Walsh-Held had begun an insect collection.[1] In 1914 Walsh-Held was made a fellow of the Entomological Society of London.[12] By 1915 Walsh-Held had begun scientific collecting in earnest to support herself financially.[1] Walsh-Held is known to have employed local Indonesian people to assist her with collecting.[1]

A collection of moths and other insects Walsh-Held had made around her home and garden at Soekaboemi [Sukabumi], was exhibited on her behalf by Albert Hugh Jones at the Entomological Society of London on 1 December 1915.[13] Around this time Walsh-Held was in correspondence with the Lepidopterist Margaret Fountaine (who had spent a period in Soekaboemi) about Papilio butterflies.[14]

In Timor in the late 1920s Walsh-Held collected the Holotype material of the butterfly Delias lemoulti Talbot, 1931,[15] which she sent to the entomologist and dealer Eugène Le Moult. George Talbot of the British Museum named the new species for Le Moult at Le Moult's insistence,[16] not realising he was not crediting the original collector, and Talbot later expressed his regrets about what had happened:

The butterfly was actually discovered by Mrs. Walsh, a resident of Java, who sent her Timor collections to Le Moult. The author was unaware of this at the time and regrets that the species was not dedicated rightfully to the discoverer. The practice among certain dealers, of keeping secret the names and activities of their collectors is unfortunate, and is liable to recoil upon the business.[17] - George Talbot

In 1937 Walsh-Held collected plants in north east Borneo accompanied by Aët, a botanist who worked at the Herbarium Bogoriense in Buitenzorg [Bogor].[1]

Specimens collected by Walsh-Held are in the collections of Naturalis Biodiversity Center and The Natural History Museum, London.[18][19][20][21][22]

Scientific discoveries made from Walsh-Held's work

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Selected animal and plant species that were first described from specimens collected by Maria Walsh-Held include:

Zoology

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Hemiptera

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Membracidae: Elaphiceps javanensis (male specimen collected by Walsh-Held, with females collected by F.C. Drescher), Leptocentrus pubescens, Evanchon maculatum (two females collected by Walsh-Held, one female by Charles Fuller Baker) and Tricentrus carinatus, all described by William Delbert Funkhouser in 1937[23][24][25][26][27]

Lepidoptera

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Erebidae: Camptoloma mirabilis (Roepke, 1943) [originally named Leucopardus mirabilis Roepke, 1943] described by Walter Karl Johann Roepke from material that Walsh-Held had collected in western Java at Djampang.[28][29]

Lycaenidae: Arhopala moolaina subsp. javana Nieuwenhuis, 1969 collected by Walsh-Held in West Java, described by Engbert Jan Nieuwenhuis in 1969.[30][31]

Mammalia

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Pteropodidae: Chiroptera: Pteropus lombocensis subsp. salottii Kitchener, 1995 described by Darrell Kitchener and Inbu Maryanto from specimens collected by Walsh-Held in West Timor.[32]

Botany

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Equisetopsida

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Asteraceae: Vernonia walshae J. Kost described and named for Walsh-Held by Joséphine Thérèse Koster.[33]

Magnoliopsida

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Convolvulaceae: Argyreia walshae Ooststr. named in Walsh-Held's honour by Simon Jan van Ooststroom.[34][18]

The standard author abbreviation Walsh-Held is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[35]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e van Steenis, Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan, ed. (1950). Flora Malesiana. Series I, Spermatophyta. Djakarta: Noordhoff-Kolff. pp. 7, 559.
  2. ^ "Herbert Shirley Walsh in the Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980 [1909 at 11 Nash Street, Perth: produce merchant]". ancestry.co.uk.
  3. ^ a b "Thursday, March 30: (Before the R.M.): Unlawful assault [a Magistrates Court case where Herbert S. Walsh of the Jenner Cattle Company of Java was accused of making threats towards a town clerk at Broome in an argument over impounded bullocks]". Broome Chronicle. 1 April 1911. p. 2 – via Trove.
  4. ^ "Ernestine Maria Held [sic] in the Australia, Marriage Index, 1788-1950: 1905: Ernestine Maria Held [sic] to Herbert Shirley Walsh: Perth, Western Australia. Registration number 1718". ancestry.co.uk.
  5. ^ "WABMD-birth-1907/100197". wabmd.nfshost.com. Retrieved 2025-04-20.
  6. ^ "Cecile Helene Walshe [sic] in the Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922: Parents Herbt Shirley Walshe [sic] and Marea Ernestine Held [sic]. Birth Place: Hawthorn, Victoria: Registration Number: 19863". ancestry.co.uk.
  7. ^ Schintlmeister, Alexander (2020-05-28), "Material and Its Collectors", Notodontidae of the Indonesian Archipelago (Lepidoptera), Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-35425-8, retrieved 2025-04-20
  8. ^ "Station Owner: Run Over by Train: Death of Mr H.S. Walsh". The Northern Times. 22 November 1913. p. 6 – via Trove.
  9. ^ "Railway Fatality: Man Killed on Bunbury Bridge". The West Australian. 21 November 1913. p. 7 – via Trove.
  10. ^ "Recent Railway Fatality: an inquest as to the cause of death of Herbert Shirley Walsh was held this afternoon". The Daily News (Perth, WA). 28 November 1913. p. 10 – via Trove.
  11. ^ a b van Steenis, Cornelis Gijsbert Gerrit Jan (1950). "Malaysian plant collectors and collections. Supplement II". Flora Malesiana. Series I, Spermatophyta. Djakarta: Noordhoff-Kolff. pp. civ [104] – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  12. ^ "List of Fellows of the Entomological Society of London". Transactions of the Entomological Society of London. 1914: xxviii – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  13. ^ "Exhibitions: Insects from Java". Transactions of the Entomological Society of London: cxxii. December 1915 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  14. ^ Fountaine, Margaret E. "Notes on the Life History of Papilio demolion, Cram". Transactions of the Entomological Society of London. 1914: 458 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  15. ^ "Delias lemoulti Talbot, 1931". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2025-04-20.
  16. ^ "Delias lemoulti | Delias of the World". www.delias-butterflies.com. Retrieved 2025-04-20.
  17. ^ Talbot, George (1937). A Monograph of the Pierine Genus Delias, Part I. J. Bale, sons & Danielsson, Limited. p. 582.
  18. ^ a b "Specimen L.2723925 | Naturalis Bioportal". bioportal.naturalis.nl. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  19. ^ "Collection specimens - Specimens - BMNH(E)650240 - Data Portal". data.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  20. ^ "Collection specimens - Specimens - BMNH(E)650545 - Data Portal". data.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  21. ^ "Collection specimens - Specimens - NHMUK014543460 - Data Portal". data.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
  22. ^ "Collection specimens - Specimens - NHMUK014500360 - Data Portal". data.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
  23. ^ "Elaphiceps javanensis Funkhouser, 1937". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  24. ^ "Leptocentrus pubescens Funkhouser, 1937". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  25. ^ "Evanchon maculatum Funkhouser, 1937". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  26. ^ "Tricentrus carinatus Funkhouser, 1937". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  27. ^ Funkhouser, W.D. (1937). "Fauna Javanensis: Membracidae (Homoptera)". Tijdschrift voor Entomologie (80): 121–126 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  28. ^ Roepke, W. "Remarks on new or Little Known Indomalayan Moths (Lepid. Heteroc.) I". Natuurhistorisch Maandblad. 32 (5): 50 – via natuurtijdschriften.nl.
  29. ^ "Camptoloma mirabilis (Roepke, 1943)". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  30. ^ "Arhopala moolaina javana Nieuwenhuis, 1969". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  31. ^ Nieuwenhuis, Engbert Jan. "Notes on some Indonesian Lycaenidae". Entomologische Berichten. 29 (11): 217–218 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  32. ^ Kitchener, D.J.; Maryanto, I. (1995). "Small Pteropus (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) from Timor and surrounding islands, Indonesia". Records of the Western Australian Museum. 17: 151 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  33. ^ "Vernonia walshae J.Kost. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  34. ^ "Argyreia walshae Ooststr". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
  35. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Walsh-Held.
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