{{Short description|New Zealand lepidopterist and collector (1917–2008)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=July 2019}} [[File:Ray Shannon 1996.jpg|thumb|Ray Shannon, October 1996, with his butterfly collection]] '''Raymond Thomas Shannon''' (1 July 1917 – 7 June 2008) was a New Zealand butterfly collector who at one point had New Zealand's largest collection in private hands. His collecting began while on military service in WWII in the [[Solomon Islands]], and continued for over fifty years. On his death his specimens were donated to the [[Auckland War Memorial Museum|Auckland Museum]].
== Life == [[File:Ray T Shannon in graduation robes.jpg|thumb|Ray Shannon in graduation robes, c. 1940]] Shannon was born in [[Ngāruawāhia]], New Zealand, to Gertrude and Thomas Shannon.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collections-research/collections/record/am_library-manuscriptsandarchives-7387|title=Raymond Thomas Shannon – Papers|date=9 July 2018|publisher=[[Auckland War Memorial Museum]]}}</ref> His childhood was spent in [[Hamilton, New Zealand|Hamilton]], where he attended Whitiora Primary School and [[Hamilton High School, New Zealand|Hamilton High School]], and later [[Wellington Technical College]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/176797|title=Raymond Thomas Shannon|work=Online Cenotaph |publisher=[[Auckland War Memorial Museum]] |access-date=9 July 2018}}</ref> As a young man he was a keen sportsman, excelling in rowing, swimming, rugby, and hunting. He graduated in 1940 from [[Victoria University College]] of the [[University of New Zealand]] with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.<ref name=":0" /> Shannon joined the New Zealand Air Force in June 1942 as a radio mechanic, and served in [[Guadalcanal]] in the [[Solomon Islands]].<ref name=":1" /> After the war he worked as an engineer in the [[New Zealand Post Office|Post and Telegraph Department]] for the rest of his career.<ref name=":0" /> He never married, retired to [[North Shore, New Zealand|Birkdale]], North Shore, and died in [[Tauranga]] in 2008.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|title=Things of beauty in a drawer forever…|last=Perry|first=Keith|date=23 July 1999|work=New Zealand Herald|page=A14}}</ref><ref name=":1" />
== Butterfly collecting == [[File:AMNZ128061 Pachliopta mariae mariae.jpg|left|thumb|Female Philippines swallowtail butterflies (''[[Pachliopta mariae|Pachliopta mariae marie]]'') from Shannon's collection]] [[File:Mynes woodfordi shannoni upper NHMUK010430238.jpg|thumb|Male ''[[Mynes woodfordi|Mynes woodfordi shannoni]]'' in the collection of the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]], London]] As a young man, Shannon was an avid butterfly collector, and before his posting in the Solomon Islands in World War II he consulted with entomologists at the Plant Diseases Division of the [[Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (New Zealand)|DSIR]], who supplied him with [[cyanide]] for killing insects. He converted large biscuit tins for butterfly storage by installing racks of card on which to pin his collections.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/visit/exhibitions/secret-world-of-butterflies/the-ray-shannon-collection|title=The Ray Shannon Collection|last=Early|first=John|last2=Herrick|first2=Mandy|website=[[Auckland War Memorial Museum]]|access-date=9 July 2018}}</ref> On one occasion he observed a male [[Birdwing|birdwing butterfly]] from a sandbagged radar station 15 feet above ground. Shannon jumped off the embankment, net in hand, and caught the butterfly before hitting the ground. "The bruises were worth it," he later said.<ref name=":2" /> On the island of [[Malaita]] he observed one species, ''[[Mynes woodfordi]]'', that congregated only in the tops of [[papaya]] trees, and constructed a special net with several bamboo pole extensions to capture one; the specimen many years later became the [[holotype]] of a new subspecies, which was named ''Mynes woodfordi shannoni'' in his honour.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tennent|first=W. John|date=2001|title=Twenty new butterflies from the Solomon Islands (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae; Lycaenidae; Nymphalinae; Satyrinae; Danainae)|url=http://bionames.org/references/87a3fcef764328556bf0efdcb7577877|journal=British Journal of Entomology and Natural History|volume=14|pages=1–27}}</ref> The butterflies Shannon collected were preserved in his storage tins, which were carried on boats and though surf from island to island throughout his military service.<ref name=":2" />
[[File:Ray Shannon in flat 1996.jpg|thumb|Ray Shannon in his Birkdale flat in October 1996, showing part of his butterfly collection to Rosemary Gilbert, entomology technician at Auckland Museum.]] After the war, he continued collecting well into his 80s, making expeditions to many tropical countries including Peru, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Guinea, Japan, and Costa Rica.<ref name=":2" /> He eventually amassed 400 drawers of butterflies, approximately 13,000 specimens: possibly the largest private butterfly collection in New Zealand.<ref name=":2" /> Shannon was also an assiduous collector of reference books about [[Lepidoptera]], and continued to purchase butterfly specimens from dealers after his declining health prevented further expeditions.<ref name=":3" /> On his death, his papers and butterfly collection were donated to [[Auckland War Memorial Museum|Auckland Museum]], and became the centrepiece for the 2018 exhibition ''The Secret World of Butterflies''.<ref name=":3" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{Commons}} * [https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/discover/collections-online/search?entcl=http%3a%2f%2fapi.aucklandmuseum.com%2fid%2fperson%2f41690 Ray Shannon specimens] in Auckland Museum's Collections Online
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shannon, Ray}} [[Category:2008 deaths]] [[Category:1917 births]] [[Category:New Zealand entomologists]] [[Category:People from Ngāruawāhia]] [[Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni]] [[Category:20th-century New Zealand engineers]] [[Category:People associated with the Auckland War Memorial Museum]] [[Category:20th-century New Zealand zoologists]] [[Category:People educated at Hamilton High School]] [[Category:People educated at Wellington High School, New Zealand]]