Landcare Research - Manaaki Whenua

Landcare-Research -Manaaki Whenua

FNZ 54 - Hierodoris (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Gelechioidea: Oecophoridae) - Frontispoem

Hoare, RJB 2005. Hierodoris (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Gelechoidea: Oeco­phoridae), and overview of Oecophoridae. Fauna of New Zealand 54, 100 pages.
( ISSN 0111-5383 (print), ; no. 54. ISBN 0-478-09378-0 (print), ). Published 24 Dec 2005
ZooBank: http://zoobank.org/References/58787BD7-116F-42F4-B565-26BE1BC948AD

Frontispoem

The Titirangi Tyger

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright
In the Titirangi night,
What immortal pair of mits
Could frame thy silver stripy bits?

In what distant trees or shrubs
Munch’d thine undiscovered grubs?
In what pupae grew they wings?
Where may I find the blessèd things?

And what hand, in little lines,
Could insert thy tergal spines?
When thou wast scaled, who made thee scalier?
And who designed thy genitalia?

What the hammer and what the tongs
Furnished thine aedeagal prongs?
What dread instrument sans mercy
Fashioned thy bulging corpus bursae?

When the arachnids gave a hiss
And said “We will not feast on this!”
Did he smile his work to see?
Had he no spider-sympathy?

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright,
In the Titirangi night,
What mere mortal tube or vial
Dare cramp thy fearful stripy style?

R. J. B. Hoare (after W. Blake)

(see cover illustration, p. 42–43 and Fig. 41, 42)

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