“Distinguished” might not be the first word to come to mind when meeting Jon Pelham, but the word certainly describes Jon’s work. Jon has been invited to the British Museum in London, England to discuss his catalog of butterfly families with an international group of scientists.

Jon’s primary purpose for visiting the British Museum is research. For the past twenty or so years, Jon has been working on a catalog of the butterflies of the United States and Canada. The catalog is much more than a list of the names of the butterflies-it includes the current name of each species; the earliest name and original description of each species with bibliographic references to the first publication that identified each species; the original name combination (family, genus, species); Jon’s comments and analysis of the development of knowledge about the species with more references to the literature and location of materials; identification of the lectotype*; and a bibliography. This catalog also includes information about all the synonyms and subspecies of each species. The British Museum holds original materials that are not available elsewhere that are essential to Jon’s work.

Two publishers have expressed interest in Jon’s butterfly catalog, which is approximately 1300 pages. Jon hopes his book will elicit discussion and help lepidopterists understand the names of butterflies so that, in Jon’s words, “names will no longer be so important, and we can study biology and the organisms themselves.”

The meeting with the other scientists will center on another of Jon’s projects: a catalog of butterfly family groupings. This catalog lists all the family groups that have been proposed with a bibliography. Jon and the others will discuss future plans for the arrangement of butterfly families.

*Editor’s Note: A lectotype is defined as a specimen designated as the individual physical specimen chosen to represent a species or subspecies.

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