Elementary, My Dear Jansy.
Nabokov said (in fact he told me personally
in 1959) that he named the Karner Blue subspecies (which now may turn out
to be a species in its own right) samuelis in honor Samuel Scudder, one
of the great American entomologists of the 19th century and one of the
two leading authorities on the Lepidoptera of North America. (The
other was William H. Edwards, born in the Catskills, who inspired Henry Walter
Bates & Alfred Russsel Wallace to explore & collect in the Amazon
Basin. Bates was the father of Batesian mimicry --- ponder that you
students of VN's magical imagery ---while Wallace gave Darwin a run for the
roses.)
For all the blizzard of emails that I
receive every time I turn on my computer about VN lit'ry matters,
allusions, this & that small point, etc. his deeply rich entomological
side gets short shrift. There must be, God knows, doctoral theses
in this vein to mine. Hey, C. P. Snow was right.
Meanwhile, Happy Birthday to All, including
Shirley Temple, .
Robert H.
Boyle.