What experiment turned into a yearly disaster?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
December 25, 2001
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
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Etiene Leopold Trouvelot was a portrait artist. In 1852, Louis Napoleon (Bonaparte's nephew) managed a parliamentary coup d'etat and named himself Emperor Napoleon III. Trouvelot fled France.
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In 1855, Trouvelot, his wife, and two children arrived in Massachusetts. With an interest in the natural sciences, Trouvelot joined the Boston Society of Natural History. Trouvelot moved his family into a house in the Boston suburb of Medford around 1860.
Silk production in the U.S. was a troubled industry from its start in the early 1600s. Originally, there was not the infrastructure for silk textiles, then there had been a get-rich-quick scheme with growing mulberries. Silkworms (Bombyx mori) did not survive well in this country. Trouvelot decided to experiment with the native silkworms. (See Plants that Changed History, December 11, 2001)
Trouvelot had five acres of land outside his Medford home. Within five years he had an estimated one million native silkworms (Polyphemus sp.) living under nets on the property. But the native silkworm did not produce a quality filament that could be used in textiles.
The gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) had been named by Linnaeus in 1758 and was well known for its destructive appetite. In 1802, the caterpillar was mistakenly renamed Bombyx dispar which put it into the silkworm family.
In 1868, Trouvelot returned from Europe with eggs of the gypsy moth. It was a well-meaning attempt to hybridize the native silkworms and improve the production of silk. The gypsy moth caterpillars escaped. Trouvelot knew of the destructive habits of the gypsy moth caterpillar and notified other entomologists, but no one understood the enormity of the accident.
Trouvelot stopped his experimentation with silkworms and went on to using his talents as an artist. In 1870, he did several detailed drawings of the aurora borealis. Two years later, he was using the 15-inch refracting telescope at Harvard and rendering drawings of celestial bodies. Trouvelot had a successful career as an astronomer.
Trouvelot returned to France in 1882. It was the same year the gypsy moth population first exploded on Medford. When Trouvelot died in 1896, gypsy moths had spread over Massachusetts. (See Weird Plants, November 8, 2001)
The New York Public Library has an internet exhibition of Trouvelot's paintings of celestial events. To view the exhibition, click on the link:
http://www.nypl.org/research/sibl/trouvelot/trouvelot.html
Click on the arrows to view the entire exhibit.
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
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What moth makes insect repellant? Renfield's Garden - August 28, 2002
How did the mulberry push Westward Expansion? Plants that Changed History - December 11, 2001
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