A tribute to Sir Torben B. Larsen

Photo by Jon Baker

5/27/15

Dear Fellows in (African) Butterfly Research

Torben Larsen

Very sadly we need to report that Torben passed away last week at home in London. 
This will be a shock for all of you especially as he recently seemed in much better health 
(his doctor was pleased with his pacemaker) and he was planning to visit his sister in Denmark 
later this month (and even come onto Africa in July).

The plan is for a private cremation and a memorial service fairly soon which will likely be in Denmark. 
If you would like to put some personal thoughts together, these could be shared at the memorial, 
we (ABRI) would also be happy to consolidate a set of thoughts from an Lepidoptera perspective 
and put them together a set of tributes that will be published in the Lepidopterists Society 
Journal – Metamorphosis (an appropriate name right) in respect of Torben’s huge contributions 
to Africa/Middle East Lepidoptera.

Nancy Fee’s email is (feen@unaids.org) if you wish to write personally. 
The editor of Metamorphosis is Dave Edge (Orachrysops@gmail.com) or at my email 
where we will also consolidate material/tributes.

As many of you are aware Torben was working (quite an advanced stage) on a monograph 
of the African Hesperiidae which we will not let go and would hope to complete in 
due course (although this might take considerably longer than originally planned).

Please share this with people whom have inadvertently been missed or whom would 
wish to know.

Sad Regards,
Steve Collins

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Photo by Jon Baker

Photo by Michael Libert
Torben in Tervuren (with, from left to right, Jacques Hecq, Ugo d’Allasta, Michel Libert and Robert Ducarme )

Very sad news - a great loss of a great man.  It was an honour to know him.  
With kind regards and condolences to Nancy

Julian

Dr. Julian Bayliss (FRES FRGS)
Biodiversity and Protected Areas Specialist - Technical Advisor
Shire River Basin Management Programme
Government of Malawi

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A sad day indeed and so sudden; he will certainly be missed, both as a scientist as well as a great character. 
I have met Torben a few times but more often by correspondence. My condolences go to Nancy and family.
Thanks Steve for circulating this sad news.

Alan Heath

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Very that indeed, and so unexpected: I exchanged mails with Torben exactly two weeks ago…
As he often did, he asked questions about a few specimens in my collection 
(in that case, Abantis), and commented my answers; he was working hard, 
may be too hard, but nothing suggested a problem, let alone a serious one.

We will miss him and he will be missed even more by the African entomology.

Michael Libert

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Very sad news indeed. We have lost an icon of African Butterfly Research. 
My condolences to the family.
 
Regards, 
Hermann Staude

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Dear Steve

Thank you for relaying this sad news.  Like Torben, I first learned about butterflies 
in Nigeria nearly 50 years ago, and although I did not know him then I have enjoyed 
our contact in recent years.  He last wrote to me in March requesting Osmodes photos.  
He elevated the study of butterflies to a very high level and will be sorely missed.

Sincerely
Nicholas E. Baker

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Bien triste nouvelle que le décès de notre ami Torben!

Nous avons encore eu un échange de mails ce 11 mai et il avait plein de projets.

Nous sommes convaincus qu'il restera à jamais un des plus grands noms de la lépidoptérie africaine.

Nous présentons nos sincères condoléances à toute sa famille

Robert  et Ginette  Ducarme

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Photo by Zdenek Faltynek Fric

Photo by Teresa Di Micco de Santo‎
Torben @ African Butterfly Research Institute

Dear all,
I just opened my laptop after two days and I see this sad information...
All the best to everybody,

Zdenek Faltynek Fric

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Dear all,
This was surely unexpected sad news.  We met Torben 20 years ago in Kenya at the 
international conference, when Andre was only 10.  Through the years we have met and 
talked with him several times, last time in Ghana.  E-mail communication was on-going 
as late as a few weeks ago.  Definitely a great loss to all enthusiasts and the 
scientific community and he will be well remembered.
Our condolences to his family and friends.
 
Bennie Coetzer

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Dear all,

I think I speak for many more when I say I would probably never have ventured into the 
study of African butterflies were it not for Torben. When travelling to Nigeria for 
an exchange course in conservation biology back in 2005 I tried to get hold of a good 
book on the butterflies of the region to be able to do basic monitoring for comparative 
studies of savannah habitats on the Jos Plateau. Having heard that someone called 
Torben Larsen was working on the now classic book ‘Butterflies of West Africa’ 
I contacted him to see if it by any chance would be available to buy before my 
first ever trip to Africa. His reply was stunning: ‘Unfortunately the book is 
not yet published, but if you want to I am more than happy to send you the complete 
manuscript as a Word-document. Hopefully you will be able to use it, and of course 
tell me if I missed anything!’

Together with some older books with pictures helping me find the correct group to 
start dig into Torben’s text the book helped me identify everything I came across 
and his rather anecdotal and personal way of writing was refreshing, especially 
for someone then new to the field of taxonomy. To this day it is rarely a week 
passing without me grabbing for my own well read and travelled copy to look 
some new information up.

My initial visit to Nigeria was the first of many visits to study butterflies 
across Africa, and I have now been working on pheromonal ecology and taxonomy 
of Bicyclus butterflies for well over seven years. Nothing of this would ever 
have happened without Torben! I will miss our written correspondence and 
regular phone-calls. I will never forget his generosity in helping and 
guiding anyone that was interested in anything about butterflies.

Torben, I will miss you my friend, but you will always be remembered!

Oskar Brattström

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Before he became a student of African butterflies, Torben Larsen was a student of 
Arabian butterflies, about which he literally "wrote the book" -- several books, 
in fact, and two scholarly monographs. These have remained the principal Arabian 
resources -- apart from Torben himself, who continued to keep an eye on studies 
and reports from Arabia, and to offer his friendly critiques, guidance and (always) 
encouragement. His death seems all the more untimely because, as others have observed, 
in recent correspondence he was full of enthusiasm for his on-going (and ramifying) 
projects. Torben's photo on the book jacket of Butterflies of Saudi Arabia and 
its Neighbours (1984) captures his signature combination of diligence and irreverence; 
that is the way I will always think of him.

We will have memorials in a couple of naturalist publications here in the United 
Arab Emirates; I will try to prepare something for incorporation in Metamorphosis as well.

Gary R. Feulner

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Dear Friends,
 
I first met Torben & Kiki over 30 years ago in their house in London; two beautiful 
young Danish couple. We were talking late in the night about Lebanese & Israeli 
butterflies having the same ethology on both sides of the border.  Our friendship 
and correspondence continued through and up to the tragic ends..  
In late May 2008 I hosted Torben in my house during the First International 
Congress on the Middle Eastern Butterflies where his presentation was : Tropical 
butterflies of the Levant, Torben Larsen (United Kingdom). Later he participated 
in our field trip to the Jordanian – Saudi Arabian border where he insisted to 
climb to the Gebel Um-Adami  biotope of Pseudophilotes jordanicus. I was worried 
about his health as he was already after an open heart surgery, I was urging 
him to avoid climbing but …in vain, Torben was determined to be one of very 
few lepidopterists to see this rare blue flying on top of the mountain -  
summary of this adventurous trip was published in one of his "Hazards" – a personal one.
Torben my friend, I already miss you.
 
Dubi Benyamini

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Torben. He got about a bit, didn’t he? He even found me in my remote fastness 
high in the Udzungwa Mountains in southern Tanzania. We destroyed a bottle of 
whisky together one evening in November ‘92.
 
Will miss his lugubrious expression, which concealed his puckish sense of fun – 
and of course his immense knowledge and experience.
 
Colin Congdon

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Torben Larsen
 
Thanks for your outstanding responses to the earlier mail. This man clearly 
touched many of our lives. Please keep the tributes recollections coming in and 
we would love pictures that you might have of him or with him, if you are willing to share!
 
The memorial service planned for Denmark will not now happen, this is a departure 
from the normal local tradition so the plan now is to have a memorial before 
the next Lepidoptera conference in South Africa on 7th August 2015, and there 
will be a tribute to Torben from Blanca Huertas of NHM at the next 
European Congress in September 2015.
 
Several journals from different parts of the world have indicated 
that they will run articles on Torben.
 
Will keep you posted.
 
Sincerely,
 
Steve Collins (ABRI)

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