Acknowledgements!

Thanks!

Finally, I would like to thank a number of people, often also very personal friends, who during more than 45 years I have occasionally worked with during this study have helped me with information about Colias ponteni / imperialis and its relatives. Unfortunately, however, many of these friends, Bengt Sjöström, Erik von Mentzer, Yngve Christiernsson, Adolf Schulte, Jan Haugum and Sten Jonsson have left this earthly life during the time I have been working with this investigation, something I can of course only deeply regret. That my own health also feels like being on the slope downwards is why I feel that if my investigation will be told at all it is good to do it now in June 2019.

Arne Anderberg The Swedish Royal Museum of Natural History, Stockholm Oskar Brattström, Sweden Dr. Diego Jose Carpinteri, Buenos Aires, Argentina Bernard D´Abrera, Melbourne, Australia Forstmästare Yngve Christiernsson, Gävle, Sweden Dr. Ariel Camousseight, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural. Santiago de Chile Dr. Roy Danielsson, Zoologiska museet, Lund, Sweden Head of department Mats Eriksson, Museum of Evolution Uppsala, Sweden Curator Hans Meilon, Museum of Evolution Uppsala, Sweden Intendent Lars Hedström, Museum of Evolution Uppsala, Sweden Intendent Bert Gustafsson, The Swedish Royal Museum of Natural History, Stockholm Hiroshi Hara, Japan Sheila & David Howell, England Christer Hägg, Sweden James Stewart, England Jan Isidorsson, Trollhättan, Sweden C. M. Jimenes, Chilenska Ambassaden, Stockholm Sten Jonsson, Zoologiska Institutionen, Uppsala, Sweden Torbjörn Kronstedt, The Swedish Royal Museum of Natural History, Stockholm Erik von Mentzer, Stockholm, Sweden Roland Moberg, Museum of Evolution Uppsala, Sweden Professor Sivert Nilsson Vetenskapsakademien, Stockholm Bertil Nordenstam The Swedish Royal Museum of Natural History, Stockholm Fredrik Sjöberg, Runmarö, Stockholm Professor Keiichi Omoto Tokyo, Japan Pavel Bína, Uppsala och Tjeckien Jack Harry, Salt Lake City, USA Chris Samson, England Dr. Adolf Schulte, Tyskland Jan Haugum, Vejle, Denmark Bengt Sjöström, Studiefrämjandet Gävle, Sweden Markus Franzén, Öland Björn Cederberg, Sweden Professor Nicklas Wahlberg, Lunds Universitet, Sweden Bengt-Åke Bengtsson, Öland Sweden Dr. Gerardo Lamas, Lima, Peru Nick Garding, BOA (Butterflies of America) USA Alexander Kiryanov Moskva, Ryssland Clas Källander, Roslagen Daniel Rosengren, Gävle, Sweden, www.danielrosengren.se Instagram: @naturebydanielrosengren

To some of these gentlemen I want to pay particular attention. Unfortunately, however, I have to say that many of these have died during the many years I worked with this project.

Bernard D´Abrera, who in letters encouraged me in this work but not least through his pictures of almost all the worlds butterflies and especially his first part about South America's butterflies. He opened my eyes to the fact that Colias ponteni and Colias imperialis were the same species. His great work, during a 40-year period, in extremely beautiful and content-rich books for everyone and anyone, shows virtually all the butterflies we still have on our planet today, is of course absolutely outstanding. Only that he has the power to complete his outstanding project of depicting virtually all known butterflies is astonishing. I think back to Butler who unfortunately missed Wallengren's description because of the lack of a picture. Of course, it is with great grief that I have recently been told that he has left us now, but whose life-work he left behind for all of us who are fascinated by the earth's butterflies!

Speaking of D´Abrera's photos: A very interesting example of what a picture can show is a small Hairstreak from South America that Linnaeus probably saw in the mid-1750s in Queen Lovisa Ulrika's priceless “Natural-Cabinet” and apparently thought to be the same species as our Purple Hairstreak, Favonius (Querqusia) quercus because in his book on The Queen's Natural Collection, "Museum Ludovicae Ulricae" he mentions precisely this specimen under the species “Papilio Querqus”! Our Swedish authority on tropical butterflies, Professor Aurivillius apparently considered that this butterfly, no. 132 in the museum book, was the same species as Cramer described in 1775 as Thecla cyllarus. From D´Abreras: “Butterflies of the Neotropical Region Part VII, Lycaenidae”, I could see that Linnaeus and Queen Lovisa Ulrika's South American Hairstreak is actually a "Thecla occidentalis" described by Lathy only in 1926! This butterfly is also available at The Museum of Evolution in Uppsala.

Yngve Christiernsson was for me during his last 20 years in life as a father I never had before. With his tremendous enthusiasm and his great knowledge of most things in our nature, he became my mentor. It was also through him that I first discovered Colias ponteni at the Natural History Museum in Stockholm 47 years ago, which started my studies of this butterfly.

Curator Bert Gustafsson at The Swedish Royal Museum of Natural History, who during my schooling had always been accommodating and helped me with all kinds of questions about butterflies and who also lent me the type animals for closer studies as well as the big book "The Royal Swedish Frigate EUGENIE'S TRAVEL Around The Earth" - "Scientific observations II” Where all 1311 species described are reported. Erik von Mentzer who with his great language skills helped me with the translation of the older Latin descriptions.

Bengt Sjöström who paid for the publication of our magazine Insectifera, which became crucial for my continued studies of this butterfly. The same also applies to Dr. Adolf Schulte who, with his letters about the Colias family of butterflies, opened my eyes to these amazing butterflies around our earth. The same also applies of course to Jan Haugum, who unfortunately never ended his work on the Colias family and how it went when many of the spectacular species were discovered, something he so painfully described in his letters to me.

Among my friends who, unfortunately, are no longer with us, I also want to mention Sten Jonsson, chairman of Uppland´s Entomological Society who has always been a positive influence to my various ideas. Especially regarding both our association and journal as well as my studies of Linnaeus and his works as well as opening my eyes to the treasures The Museum of Evolution in Uppsala has, above all, Queen Lovisa's Ulrikas completely unique Butterfly collection, described by Linnaeus with his upcoming binary nomenclature system several years before the same was presented in 1758 in his Systema Naturae.

Oskar Brattström, who through the isotope studies he contributed to, meant that for the first time since the butterflies were collected, we could carry out any investigation that could really show where the butterflies were collected. In this context, I would also like to mention Jack Harry who kindly gave me one of his butterflies collected on Oahu to enable the comparisons necessary for this isotope survey. Unfortunately, Jack is no longer with us anymore.

Finally, I would also particularly like to thank my friends Hiroshi Hara and Daniel Rosengren who, on their own on separate journeys, based on my speculation, travelled to one of the most inaccessible places on our planet but did not find the butterfly which, on my advice, they could possibly find there. I am immensely grateful and cannot possibly show my appreciation enough for this because without their investigations on this site on the Strait of Magellan, at the only alternative site to Pontén's own local description of "his" butterfly, this whole examination would be meaningless. The same applies to Christer Hägg, who together with the frigate Eugenie's Captain´s son-son-son Ivar Virgin with The Swedish ship HMS Carlskrona in connection with the 150th anniversary of the world voyage when Eugenie visited Punta Arenas and Port Famine on the Strait of Magellan and even at that time kept eyes open for any Colias ponteni butterflies! Christer Hägg's absolutely fantastic book has of course also helped me a lot with facts and pictures to this article.

However, the person who has meant the most to me for this study is doubtless Hiroshi Hara, with four trips to the Strait of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego and another six trips to other places in western South America, a total of four hundred and ten days between 1998 and 2005. He is also the person who made me most clearly to question Butler's assumption that Port Famine would be the place where Colias ponteni (C imperialis) was collected, although he perhaps still has some doubts about Hawaii as the origin of Colias ponteni. Unfortunately, the political situation in Argentina did not allow a visit for me to the Strait of Magellan during the three months in 1979 - 1980 that I spent with my friend Diego José Carpintero and his family in Argentina, but this wonderful "winter" without snow and cold in this amazing country became an unforgettable memory with a December with a temperature on + 40 C in Misiones, more than 70 degrees Celsius, warmer than 1978-1979 at my home in our house outside Gävle (-31 C) and without any electricity for seven days between Christmas and New Year!

Speaking of my South American contacts, I would also like to thank Dr. Gerardo Lamas for his email to me after reading my first version of this article where I regretted stealing my pictures on the type specimens. Now that BOA, "Butterflies of America" by Nick Garding, has taken on all the blame for this fad and Gerardo has declared himself completely innocent of this and I have accepted this, I also would like to thank Gerardo for pointing out the wrong concepts such as holotype and allotype I have used for Wallengen's described new sp. of the butterfly and that the correct name should be the syntype. Here I would also like to thank my friend Bengt-Åke Bengtsson for his clarification of the conceptual confusion that can easily hit us who is not a specialist in the very naming of newly found plants and animals.

In order for this article to come about at all, I would also like to thank some, who through their encouragement and general support have made me publish, despite great concern, which is what I have come to expect during 47 years of thinking about this butterfly. Especially Jan Isidorsson who was there when we rediscovered the two Colias ponteni butterflies and the pupa in the Museum of Evolution in Uppsala and who took the picture of me and Lars Hedström and also the enclosed photo on Appendix 6 from that amazing evening!

My old friend James Stewart in England who for more than 25 years has helped me with my African collection including the ponteni-like Colias electo but above all with my English translation of this article and also made many valuable comments and corrections. James has also visited just north of the Bachelor Peninsula and at El Calafate but only found Colias vauthierii cunninghamii.

Pavel Bína who for many years handled the publication of our magazine "Insectifera" and also made sure that this article was published online. My friends and I, during the 47 years we have been working on this investigation, have never sought or received any contribution from any institution or similar but have chosen to pay for everything ourselves, which is why I have chosen to publish this article in our own magazine "Insectifera". Since my schooldays I have chosen to have an interest in the worlds butterflies as a pure hobby alongside my civilian job. This includes responsibility for the property valuation of Sweden's largest process industries.

Some others I would also like to mention in this context are curator Hans Mejlon at The Museum of Evolution in Uppsala and of course also the always accommodating head of that museum Mats Eriksson. Finally, my dear friend Markus Franzén, who in the last few years, since my heart attack and retirement, made me see that butterflies are my source of inspiration and have been since adolescence. I also feel that in this enumeration of people who meant a lot to this article's appearance, I could not exclude my oldest friend Clas Källander, who aroused my interest in butterflies when at school almost 60 years ago. He was certainly among the very first to introduce catches of tropical night-flying moths in Ecuador using a 400 w UV-lamp with the result that I was completely overwhelmed and sold on the huge variety of species the tropics offer. Before that it had only been plants and birds in my life. A big thanks also to my dear Gun-Britt who has stood by me all these years despite the fact that almost all the spaces in our house were cluttered with books, butterflies and moths from all corners of the earth.