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He received his [[Bachelor of Arts]] in 1965, with a double major in History & Philosophy of Science and History. He has a diploma in Education (Melbourne T.C., 1972).
He received his [[Bachelor of Arts]] in 1965, with a double major in History & Philosophy of Science and History. He has a diploma in Education (Melbourne T.C., 1972).


D'Abrera has spent over forty years photographing museum specimens of butterflies and moths, as well as identifying and cataloguing specimens around the world.<ref name=court>[http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/LETTOW.DABRERA081507.pdf Opinion and Order], ''Bernard d'Abrera and Hill House Publishers Pty Ltd v. United States''</ref> D'Abrera's research has been conducted primarily in the [[Natural History Museum]] in London. D'Abrera began photographing the Natural History Museum's collection in 1969, completing the task in 2005.<ref name=court2 /> He has also conducted research in the [[Macleay Museum]]<ref>[http://www.usyd.edu.au/museums/pdfs_docs/macleay_news/cnews08.pdf ''Macleay Museum News''], edited by Julian Holland, No. 8, October 1996.</ref> in [[Sydney]], the [[Museum Victoria]] in [[Melbourne]], the [[Royal Museum for Central Africa]] at [[Tervuren]], [[Belgium]], the [[Naturmuseum Senckenberg]], the [[Museum für Naturkunde]], the [[Muséum national d'histoire naturelle]] and others.<ref name=court2 /> In total he has taken over 60,000 images of butterfly and moth specimens, representing 18,000 species of buterflies as well as most of the larger moths of the world.<ref name=court2 /> In 2010 he received a settlement from the [[Smithsonian Institute] of $120,000 after they reused 1,352 of his butterfly images with seeking permission.<ref name=evon>http://www.evolutionnews.org/2010/11/pickpocketed_by_the_smithsonia040041.html</ref>
D'Abrera has spent over forty years photographing museum specimens of butterflies and moths, as well as identifying and cataloguing specimens around the world.<ref name=court>[http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/LETTOW.DABRERA081507.pdf Opinion and Order], ''Bernard d'Abrera and Hill House Publishers Pty Ltd v. United States''</ref> D'Abrera's research has been conducted primarily in the [[Natural History Museum]] in London. D'Abrera began photographing the Natural History Museum's collection in 1969, completing the task in 2005.<ref name=court2 /> He has also conducted research in the [[Macleay Museum]]<ref>[http://www.usyd.edu.au/museums/pdfs_docs/macleay_news/cnews08.pdf ''Macleay Museum News''], edited by Julian Holland, No. 8, October 1996.</ref> in [[Sydney]], the [[Museum Victoria]] in [[Melbourne]], the [[Royal Museum for Central Africa]] at [[Tervuren]], [[Belgium]], the [[Naturmuseum Senckenberg]], the [[Museum für Naturkunde]], the [[Muséum national d'histoire naturelle]] and others.<ref name=court2 /> In total he has taken over 60,000 images of butterfly and moth specimens, representing 18,000 species of buterflies as well as most of the larger moths of the world.<ref name=court2 /> In 2010 he received a settlement from the [[Smithsonian Institute]] of $120,000 after they reused 1,352 of his butterfly images with seeking permission for a book on moths of Burma.<ref name=evon>http://www.evolutionnews.org/2010/11/pickpocketed_by_the_smithsonia040041.html</ref>


He published his first book, ''Butterflies of the Australian Region'', in 1971. His ''[[magnum opus]]'' comprises a series of works forming a synoptic reference to the true butterflies, [[hawkmoth]]s and [[Saturniidae|saturniid moths]] of the whole world, which is based largely on the collections of the [[Natural History Museum]] in [[London]], and other worldwide museums, public and private. The works comprise taxonomic text of over 4 million words, illustrated with over 66,000 coloured figures, over approximately 7,500 pages (see Hill House Publishers web site for list of titles, regions and families treated). With only minimal contributions (by invitation) from others, d'Abrera has produced all of the photographs and illustrations, and all of the text in his 32 volumes (so far) on the butterflies and larger moths from all the [[Terrestrial ecozone|faunal regions]] of the world.{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}} He has also contributed his butterfly and moth photographs to other books not authored by him.<ref name=court /><ref>http://www.nhbs.com/the_butterflies_of_the_malay_peninsula_tefno_5567.html&tab_tag=album</ref>
He published his first book, ''Butterflies of the Australian Region'', in 1971. His ''[[magnum opus]]'' comprises a series of works forming a synoptic reference to the true butterflies, [[hawkmoth]]s and [[Saturniidae|saturniid moths]] of the whole world, which is based largely on the collections of the [[Natural History Museum]] in [[London]], and other worldwide museums, public and private. The works comprise taxonomic text of over 4 million words, illustrated with over 66,000 coloured figures, over approximately 7,500 pages (see Hill House Publishers web site for list of titles, regions and families treated). With only minimal contributions (by invitation) from others, d'Abrera has produced all of the photographs and illustrations, and all of the text in his 32 volumes (so far) on the butterflies and larger moths from all the [[Terrestrial ecozone|faunal regions]] of the world.{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}} He has also contributed his butterfly and moth photographs to other books not authored by him.<ref name=court /><ref>http://www.nhbs.com/the_butterflies_of_the_malay_peninsula_tefno_5567.html&tab_tag=album</ref>

Revision as of 13:03, 4 December 2010

Bernard d'Abrera (born 1940) is an Australian entomological taxonomist and philosopher of science, particularly noted for his books on true butterflies (Papilionoidea) and larger moths of the world (Saturniidae and Sphingidae). Since 1982 his work has been openly critical of the evolutionary theory.

Education and career

Bernard d'Abrera is a graduate of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. While at the university in 1964 he with a group of other students kidnapped an alligator from Taronga Zoo as a Foundation Day prank. Using 80 biology students a shield, the group captured the animal in a bag and walked out through the turnstiles. The animal was returned after payment of a £100 ransom.[1]

He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1965, with a double major in History & Philosophy of Science and History. He has a diploma in Education (Melbourne T.C., 1972).

D'Abrera has spent over forty years photographing museum specimens of butterflies and moths, as well as identifying and cataloguing specimens around the world.[2] D'Abrera's research has been conducted primarily in the Natural History Museum in London. D'Abrera began photographing the Natural History Museum's collection in 1969, completing the task in 2005.[3] He has also conducted research in the Macleay Museum[4] in Sydney, the Museum Victoria in Melbourne, the Royal Museum for Central Africa at Tervuren, Belgium, the Naturmuseum Senckenberg, the Museum für Naturkunde, the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle and others.[3] In total he has taken over 60,000 images of butterfly and moth specimens, representing 18,000 species of buterflies as well as most of the larger moths of the world.[3] In 2010 he received a settlement from the Smithsonian Institute of $120,000 after they reused 1,352 of his butterfly images with seeking permission for a book on moths of Burma.[5]

He published his first book, Butterflies of the Australian Region, in 1971. His magnum opus comprises a series of works forming a synoptic reference to the true butterflies, hawkmoths and saturniid moths of the whole world, which is based largely on the collections of the Natural History Museum in London, and other worldwide museums, public and private. The works comprise taxonomic text of over 4 million words, illustrated with over 66,000 coloured figures, over approximately 7,500 pages (see Hill House Publishers web site for list of titles, regions and families treated). With only minimal contributions (by invitation) from others, d'Abrera has produced all of the photographs and illustrations, and all of the text in his 32 volumes (so far) on the butterflies and larger moths from all the faunal regions of the world.[citation needed] He has also contributed his butterfly and moth photographs to other books not authored by him.[2][6]

D'Abrera has described several new genera as well as over 100 new species and subspecies. [3]The D'Abrera's Tiger, Parantica dabrerai, an Indonesian butterfly species is named for him, as is Gnathothlibus dabrera, a species of Indonesian moth.[7]

In 1982, d'Abrera and his wife Lucilla founded Hill House Publishers, a publishing house based in Melbourne and London, to publish inter alia, his own work. In 1987, Hill House won an exclusive license to produce antiquarian facsimiles of works from the Natural History Museum.[3]Hill House also publishes authentic facsimiles of documents, prints, and antiquarian maps, including an atlas of the Dutch Indies for the Royal Dutch Geographical Society (KNAG - Gemilang, Landsmeer, 1990).[8]

Critical Reception

Arthur Shapiro, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California at Davis, describes d'Abrera's books thus:[9]

Attention should be paid to their stupidities, their errors, their pig-headedness, their bad writing. The thing is, as I say in my reviews, they're absolutely indispensable. There's nothing else like them. If you're trying to identify exotic butterflies outside your geographic area, the primary and secondary literatures are so scattered and relatively inaccessible, you're out of hope. Big coffee table picture books are the only way to go. But if you're going to do that, at least get input from the people in the areas you cover geographically so you don't make an ass of yourself.

Thomas Emmel of the Florida Museum of Natural History has said [5] "He is a controversial biologist," "but one whose remarkable lifetime accomplishments publishing an illustrated catalogue of butterflies of the world must be admired for a unique contribution that will likely never be duplicated."

Philip James DeVries describes him as 'one of the best known Lepidopterists in the world, and therefore, an eminence on all things butterfly'.[10]

Criticisms of Evolution

D'Abrera is listed as a signatory on the petition known as "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism", a campaign begun in 2001 by the Discovery Institute. D'Abrera is also a fellow of the pro-intelligent design organization, International Society for Complexity, Information and Design.[11]

D'Abrera is strongly opposed to the theory of evolution because in his view it is not a bona fide scientific theory. He describes evolution theory as "viscid, asphyxiating baggage" that requires "blind religious faith",[12][13] He believes it cannot be tested or demonstrated in any natural frame of reference, and therefore it may not be considered even a scientific postulate.[12] The objection that evolution is unfalsifiable has been widely rejected by the scientific community.

D'Abrera states that 'No field worker who studies insects, may now freely gaze upon his discoveries of insect morphology, biology or behaviour, without the taint of speculative Darwinism compelling him to colour his conclusions.' 'He is now compelled through the pressure of insidious programming by the overlords of the scientific establishment, to subject everything he has objectively observed to the tyranny of subjectivist and useless speculation about butterflies and their hypothetical origins. He must do so for no other reason than being able to collect his grant and acquire his PhD or some other doubtful honour of mutual respectability amongst his peers.'[14]

D'Abrera has argued that the 'elite' bear 'a deadly responsibility for their criminal neglect if they should continue to ignore the plight of our planet in their futile pursuit of the phantom of Evolutionism', with resources diverted from the world's real environmental problems to the 'needless' study of evolution.[12]

References

  1. ^ http://www.recordkeeping.unsw.edu.au/historicalresources/onlineexhibitions/foundationday.html
  2. ^ a b Opinion and Order, Bernard d'Abrera and Hill House Publishers Pty Ltd v. United States
  3. ^ a b c d e http://findforms.com/single_form.php/form/307140/Notice_Other_District_Court_of_Federal_Claims_District_federal
  4. ^ Macleay Museum News, edited by Julian Holland, No. 8, October 1996.
  5. ^ a b http://www.evolutionnews.org/2010/11/pickpocketed_by_the_smithsonia040041.html
  6. ^ http://www.nhbs.com/the_butterflies_of_the_malay_peninsula_tefno_5567.html&tab_tag=album
  7. ^ http://www.sphin-sea.unibas.ch/SphinSEA/species%20pages/Gn_dabrera.htm
  8. ^ "Official Website for Hill House Publishers". Hill House Publishers. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
  9. ^ Laufer, Peter. (2009). The dangerous world of butterflies : the startling subculture of criminals, collectors, and conservationist. Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press. p. 215. ISBN 1-59921-555-1.
  10. ^ http://peabody.research.yale.edu/jls/pdfs/2000s/2003/2003-57%281%2975-DeVries.pdf
  11. ^ Society Fellows, International Society for Complexity, Information and Design official website.
  12. ^ a b c http://creation.com/butterfly-blast
  13. ^ Concise Atlas of the Butterflies of the World, Bernard d'Abrera, Hill House Publishers, Melb.& Lond., 2001, ISBN 978-0-947352-37-0.
  14. ^ The Concise Atlas of Butterflies of the World - Bernard D'Abrera, (London: Hill House, 2001), 353 pages., quoted in What Have Butterflies Got to Do with Darwin?, William A. Dembski, Review of Bernard d'Abrera, The Concise Atlas of Butterflies of the World, Metanexus

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