{"id":1611,"date":"2012-01-16T15:36:53","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T23:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/?p=1611"},"modified":"2012-01-17T16:14:09","modified_gmt":"2012-01-18T00:14:09","slug":"trouvelot-astronomical-drawings-and-invasive-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/reinhardkargl.com\/iBlog\/2012\/01\/16\/trouvelot-astronomical-drawings-and-invasive-species\/","title":{"rendered":"Trouvelot: Astronomical Drawings And Invasive Species"},"content":{"rendered":"

In June 1881, a brilliant comet streaked across the skies of the northern hemisphere.\u00a0This image is part of a recently digitized series of illustrations by the French-born\u00a0artist Etienne Leopold Trouvelot (1827-1895).<\/p>\n

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Other images show Jupiter, Saturn and details of the Moon and Sun. Another records a meteor shower that lit up the skies one night in November 1868. [See Trouvelot’s Astronomy Illustrations<\/a>]. All images were made available by the\u00a0New York Public Library.<\/p>\n

Trouvelot was less known for his astronnomical drawings, but more for his work\u00a0as an amateur entomologist. This, however, had unintended results. As part of an\u00a0attempt to produce silk in America, Trouvelot brought in\u00a0gypsy moths<\/a> from Europe — to be bred in the United States. Things went awfully wrong. Some larvae escaped and became an invasive species. To this day, gypsy moths are a devastating pest in America, destroying forest foliage in parts of the Southeast and Midwest, and in\u00a0the northeastern United States.<\/p>\n

I wish Trouvelot had stuck to drawing astronomical objects.<\/p>\n

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