New species of beetle named in honour of Gerald Durrell

Growing up in Latvia during the height of the Cold War, Dmitry Telnov had little access to published material from outside the Soviet Union. But among the few books he could get his hands on were some of the works by Gerald Durrell.

Recounting Gerald’s adventures as he travelled through exciting places such as West Africa and South America in search of wildlife, these books made huge impression on Dmitry’s early life. The books spurred Dmitry on to become an expert in beetles, who now himself explores remote regions in search of wildlife.

“Travelling outside the Soviet Union was banned,” Dmitry recalls. “So Gerald’s stories provided a way for many of us to peer from behind the Iron Curtain into the wider world.”

Dmitry now cares for and researches our collection of beetles, and has chosen to honour Gerald by naming a new species of Madagascan beetle after him.

The new species is part of the genus Macratria, which is a large group of beetles containing over 320 species. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, but mainly live near the tropics. Astonishingly, Dmitry has described almost half of these beetles, giving official names to over 150 species in this group alone.

The Macratria are part of a larger group known as the antlike flower beetles. Their name likely comes from the way they move their heads, using their antenna to feel their environment in a similar way to ants.

A description of the new species and other newly described Madagascan beetles has been published in the journal Annales Zoologici.

“Gerald Durrell has been a huge inspiration to me throughout my life,” says Dmitry. “He helped me realise, as a scientist, that we have to use our knowledge to help conserve nature and not just study it.”

“This new species of beetle is from Madagascar, a country where Gerald worked for a long time. It was part of his work here that made him realise that species were disappearing and we had to do something about it.”

“This year also marks 100 years since the birth of Gerald Durrell, so I felt it was a perfect time to honour his extraordinary legacy.”

Who was Gerald Durrell and what is his legacy?

Gerald Durrell was born in India in 1925 but spent much of his childhood on the Greek island of Corfu.

This period of his life ignited Gerald’s passion for wildlife. He collected and studied all the animals and plants he could find from snakes and scorpions to butterflies and tortoises, often keeping them in an array of containers around the house. He would eventually document this period of his life in the popular book My Family and Other Animals.

Shortly after the breakout of the Second World War, Gerald and his family moved back to Britain. He eventually got a job as a student keeper at Whipsnade Zoo. But he always dreamed of setting up his own zoo one day.

At the age of 21, Gerald went on his first expedition to collect animals, choosing to travel to West Africa.

To help fund more expeditions, Gerald decided to write and publish stories about his adventures, as he trekked through rainforests and camped on remote savannas. The books proved hugely popular, and he was eventually able to open his own zoo in Jersey in the Channel Islands.

Throughout his travels, Gerald became increasingly aware of the plight of many animals he encountered. He turned his attention to conserving these threatened species and went on to establish the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, which is known today as the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

“Gerald Durrell really changed our understanding of the role of zoos,” says Dmitry. “He understood from very early on that they can play an important role in conservation.”

“He brought species that were on the brink of extinction to Jersey Zoo, he bred them and released them into the wild.”

Gerald Durrell passed away on 30 January 1995. A memorial celebration to honour his extraordinary life was held at the Natural History Museum later that year and attended by many important figures, including Sir David Attenborough.

Gerald Durrell and the Soviet Union

Growing up in Latvia as it was occupied by the Soviet Union, Dmitry had been interested in nature from a very young age. He would often ask his parents for books about the natural world.

But at the time, Latvia was under the shadow of the Iron Curtain. This was a physical and political boundary that snaked across eastern Europe following the Second World War. It separated European nations in the west from the states controlled by the Soviet Union in the east.

It also meant that books were heavily censored and frequently banned, with tight restrictions on publications from foreign countries and the west.

This meant that getting hold of books in Latvia at this time wasn’t easy, with most people relying on the few that made it into the public libraries. But some books did become publicly available for people to buy, and among those were Gerald Durrell’s stories.

Dmitry read his first Gerald Durrell book at the age of 13 and was instantly hooked. He asked his parents for more, which he collected one by one as they became available in the shops.

This helped Gerald’s books to become hugely popular in the Soviet Union. Many of his stories were translated into Russian, and millions of copies were sold.

“People were desperate for books that weren’t about politics,” says Dmitry. “Gerald Durrell captured many of us with his unique writing style, combining humour with popular science and nature conservation.”

“As I read more, I became obsessed with becoming a scientist and working with animals. I was already collecting insects in my local area, but his stories made me dream of going to the tropics.”

“After the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, I eventually managed to become a scientist and live out my dream of working with tropical insects.”