Antwerp Edgar Pratt | |
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| Born | 6 March 1852 |
| Died | 4 January 1924 Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey |
| Nationality | British |
Antwerp Edgar Pratt FRGS (6 March 1852 - 4 January 1924) was a Victorian naturalist, explorer, author, and renowned collector of plants, insects, and other animals. Species named for Pratt include three mammals and two reptiles. Two of his sons and a nephew were also collectors.
Pratt was born on 6 March 1852 on the Isle of Wight in England to Charles, a grocer, and Ann Pratt. He had two elder siblings, Florence and Vienna.
He married Alice Mary Spanner in 1882 and they had six children, four sons and two daughters. Felix Pratt and Charles Pratt followed their father and became successful insect collectors. His other sons Henry and Joseph also made important contributions to science.
He was a member of the Royal Geographical Society and in 1891 he received the Gill Memorial Award for the encouragement of geographical research in early career researchers who have shown great potential. In the same year he visited Tibet and China. [1] In China his activities were treated with suspicion and notices were posted warning locals of assisting him. He made some progress by employing Chinese Christians. These employees were harassed by the locals and his German assistant had to retreat from his work. [2] Whilst he was in Tatsienlu in China he met and was assisted by the French missionaries and naturalists Bishop Felix Biet and Father Jean André Soulié. [1]
In 1892 he published an account of his journey "to the snows of Tibet through China". [3] This book is thought to show that Pratt did not actually get to Tibet but he only got close enough to meet the missionaries who had been ejected from the country. Incidentally Pratt's book is thought to be a source for the work of Vladimir Nabokov. [4]
He died in 1924 in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, aged 71.
In the course of thirty years of almost continuous journeyings in both hemispheres, it has been my fortune to stray far from the beaten tracks and to know something of the spell and mystery of the earth’s solitudes. My work in quest of additions to the great natural history collections, both public and private, of England, and to a less extent of France, has led me to the Rocky Mountains, the Amazons, the Republic of Columbia, the Yangtze gorges and the snows of Tibet. It is safe to say that none of these has aroused my interest and curiosity in so great a degree as the scene of my latest and my next expedition, the still almost unexplored Papua, second largest of the world’s islands and almost the last to guard its secrets from the geographer, the naturalist and the anthropologist.
A.E. Pratt, 1906. Introduction to Two Years among New Guinea Cannibals.
Antwerp Edgar Pratt and his sons travelled and collected specimens on behalf of a number of prominent people including the English entomologists John Henry Leech, Sir George Hamilton Kenrick and James John Joicey as well as Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild.
Birmingham Museums Trust holds substantial natural history collections gathered by A. E. Pratt and his sons.
Hermann Schlegel was a German ornithologist, herpetologist and ichthyologist.
Salomon Müller was a German naturalist. He was born in Heidelberg, and died in Freiburg im Breisgau.
Carl Wilhelm Erich Zimmer was a German zoologist specialising in crustaceans, especially the order Cumacea.
The green acouchi is a species of rodent in the acouchi genus, part of the family Dasyproctidae. It is found in western Amazonia, west of the Rios Negro and Madeira, in northwestern Brazil, northeastern Peru, eastern Ecuador, southeastern Colombia, and southern Venezuela. There is substantial variation within this range, and the Green Acouchi, as currently recognized, may contain more than one species. Because the application of the scientific name acouchy, currently in use for the Red Acouchi, has historically been disputed, the name Myoprocta acouchy has sometimes been used for this species instead of Myoprocta pratti. The species is named for Antwerp Edgar Pratt who was a British naturalist.
Scincella reevesii is a species of skink, a lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to Asia.
Pratt's vole is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is endemic to Mount Emei, Sichuan, China. It was named in 1891 for Antwerp Edgar Pratt.
Colostethus pratti is a species of frog in the family Dendrobatidae. It is found in the northwestern Colombia and Panama, possibly also in southeastern Costa Rica. It is sometimes known as the Pratt's rocket frog. Colostethus pratti is named after Antwerp Edgar Pratt, an explorer who collected the type series.
Litoria pratti, commonly known as Pratt's tree frog, is a species of frog in the subfamily Pelodryadinae. It is endemic to the Vogelkopf Peninsula, West Papua, Indonesia, where the type series was collected. There are no confirmed records of this species after it was first recorded, so very little information exists on it.
Pratt's roundleaf bat is a species of bat in the family Hipposideridae. It is found in China, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Maurice Maindron was a French entomologist.
Lieven Ferdinand de Beaufort was a Dutch biologist who, in 1903, participated in the North New Guinea Expedition. In the 1920s he was director of the Zoological Museum of Artis in Amsterdam and later zoogeography professor at the University of Amsterdam.
Felix Kopstein was an Austrian-Dutch physician and naturalist, known for his work in the field of herpetology.
Sphenomorphus pratti is a species of skink, a lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to Papua New Guinea.
Dipsas pratti, known commonly as Pratt's snail-eater, is a species of arboreal snake in the subfamily Dipsadinae of the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to northern South America.
Sphenomorphus maindroni is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae. The species was originally described by Sauvage in 1879. According to the Catalogue of Life, the species Sphenomorphus maindroni does not have known subspecies.
Sphenomorphus darlingtoni is a species of skink, a lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to Papua New Guinea.
Glaphyromorphus darwiniensis, also known commonly as Darwin's ground skink and the northern mulch-skink, is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to Australia.
Sphenomorphus cranei, also known commonly as Crane’s skink and Crane's forest skink, is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to the Solomon Islands.
Sphenomorphus derooyae is a species of skink, a lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is native to Oceania.
Sphenomorphus forbesi, also known commonly as Forbes' forest skink and the slender litter skink, is a species of lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to Papua New Guinea.
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