Journeys
The expeditions, reassembled
Every dated label is a diary entry. Read a collector’s labels in order and the voyage comes back: the islands in sequence, the days at each, the specimens from every stop. 36 journeys so far, 1921 to 2004, 9,816 specimens between them.
22 collectors and expeditions891 days in the field320,017 km between stops4,287 photographed specimens
36 journeys match
Jacques Florence
4 islands of French Polynesia · Feb – Mar 1986
Jacques Florence across 4 islands of French Polynesia, February – March 1986133 specimens · 7 stops · 27 days · 15,964 km
Whitney Expedition
12 islands of French Polynesia · Jun – Sep 1922
Whitney Expedition, June – September 192263 specimens · 16 stops · 86 days · 4,274 km
Jacques Florence
4 islands of French Polynesia · Apr – May 1982
Jacques Florence across 4 islands of French Polynesia, April – May 1982122 specimens · 6 stops · 54 days · 3,245 km
Pacific Entomological Survey
Nuku Hiva · May – Jun 1931
Pacific Entomological Survey, May – June 1931105 specimens · 4 stops · 24 days · 6 km
Johnson Randall
9 islands of French Polynesia · Feb – Jul 1957
Johnson Randall across 9 islands of French Polynesia, February – July 195786 specimens · 22 stops · 146 days · 1,617 km
B.G. Decker
5 islands of French Polynesia · Jan – Apr 1960
B.G. Decker across 5 islands of French Polynesia, January – April 196069 specimens · 12 stops · 67 days · 865 km
A. Mouly
5 islands of French Polynesia · Jun – Jul 2004
A. Mouly across 5 islands of French Polynesia, June – July 200460 specimens · 17 stops · 37 days · 1,785 km
Jacques Florence
Raiatea and Nuku Hiva · Jun – Jul 1982
Jacques Florence in Raiatea and Nuku Hiva, June – July 1982127 specimens · 5 stops · 13 days · 1,520 km
M. Teikiteetini
4 islands of French Polynesia · Jul – Aug 1988
M. Teikiteetini across 4 islands of French Polynesia, July – August 1988102 specimens · 3 stops · 30 days · 195 km
Dennis M. Devaney
16 islands · Sep – Oct 1967
Dennis M. Devaney across 16 islands, September – October 196750 specimens · 18 stops · 56 days · 7,816 km
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Steven L. Montgomery
7 islands of French Polynesia · Jul – Sep 1977
Steven L. Montgomery across 7 islands of French Polynesia, July – September 197745 specimens · 12 stops · 71 days · 4,361 km
Jacques Florence
Raiatea and Nuku Hiva · Aug – Sep 1982
Jacques Florence in Raiatea and Nuku Hiva, August – September 198265 specimens · 4 stops · 20 days · 1,513 km
How a journey is found
Every specimen with a full date (year, month and day; a bare “1 January” is treated as a missing day) and a named collector is a diary entry. For each collector the days are read in order, each day given the place most of its labels name. The place where a collector spent more than forty percent of their days, and at least sixty of them, is home: days there are left out.
A gap of more than 21 days between collecting days ends one journey and begins the next. A journey must run five to four hundred days, hold at least forty specimens and touch at least two places. Within it, consecutive days inside the same or a neighbouring tenth-of-a-degree cell (about eleven kilometres) are one stop; the stop’s point is the mean of its labels’ coordinates, or the island’s centre when none carry any.
Companions are collectors whose own labels put them in the same cell on the same days. Staff can name a journey, write about it, feature it or hide it; those words survive every rebuild. Everything else is read off the specimens and rebuilt by harvest.mjs expeditions as the records improve.