With the passing of Jeremy Holloway, in March of this year, entomologists and biogeographers have lost a highly productive and key figure in lepidopteran studies. He will be remembered, especially by taxonomists, for his multi-volume work The Moths of Borneo, but he also made numerous contributions to Lepidoptera research including the phylogeny, general biology and numerical analysis of distribution patterns of the group. Of particular relevance to members of Forum Herbulot, was his special interest in the family Geometridae.

Although he had impressive academic credentials, Jeremy was a naturalist with a lifelong and broad interest in the natural world, from observations of wildlife to being an enthusiastic and skilled, wildlife-friendly gardener at his home in Wootton near the town of Dorking in the English county of Surrey.

Jeremy was born in Epsom in 1945 and grew up in Leatherhead, Surrey. It was in a chalk grassland meadow near his childhood home, that he developed an interest in Lepidoptera. This interest blossomed at Bryanston School, where there was a strong biology department, which also provided him with the opportunity to run a moth trap. From Bryanston he won an Exhibition to study Natural Sciences at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Cambridge Natural History Society. After his undergraduate studies, he completed his doctorate, also at Cambridge, on applying numerical methods to analyse biogeographic and ecological data on moths gathered from the island of Borneo.

It was, indeed, prior to his doctoral studies, and with his lifelong friend and collaborator Henry Barlow, that he made what proved to be a defining field trip to Mount Kinabalu in Borneo. The material from the series of transects from base to close to the summit provided the core material for Jeremy’s doctorate, where he subjected the data to quantitative analyses. His study provided the methodological experience for many of his subsequent publications. His meticulous recording of the altitudinal distribution of certain species on the mountain formed the baseline for a study of changes 50 years on in 2015, due to climate change. This subsequent study was done by a Taiwanese lady, I-Ching under the supervision of Jane Hill at York who resampled the altitudinal limits of certain moth species, showing that the species distributions had invariably moved up the mountain to varying degrees. The results probably the first exercise of this kind to measure the effects of global warming on tropical lepidoptera.

Members of Forum Herbulot will be aware of Jeremy’s special interest in Geometridae. He considered them of particular importance as habitat indicators with many results and publications arising from transects he carried out in SE Asia. Besides his taxonomic work, he published on geometrid hostplant profiles, hostplant specificity, abundance, phenology and the general biogeography of the group.

Jeremy was a man with a mission. Following the Kinabalu expedition and with a doctorate under his belt he made numerous subsequent expeditions sampling moths in many localities in SE Asia and Australasia (New Caledonia; Mount Mulu, Sarawak; Seram; Sulawesi; and Norfolk Island). The data gathered from the extensive sampling of moths from these areas by Jeremy himself and colleagues resulted in a plethora of papers, either solo or with collaborators, using quantitative methods to analyse patterns of distribution and other aspects of the biology of these insects.

But his sense of purpose and focus is assuredly to be seen in the 18-volume work that comprises The Moths of Borneo. This series cover the taxonomy of the larger moths of the island – around 4,500 species. The value to those interested in the insect fauna of SE Asia and indeed the Indo-Australian tropics more widely is obvious. But the wider context, explicit in these works, provides many insights into the taxonomic and phylogenetic aspects of the Lepidoptera as a whole rendering them of great value to lepidopterists worldwide. Three substantial volumes cover the Geometridae. Here again, there is a wealth of information, including novel observations on higher taxa, that is of interest to all geometrid workers wherever their geographical focus. Producing such a mammoth series demands long-term focus and determination – personal qualities that Jeremy had in abundance. It was highly appropriate that Jeremy was awarded the Karl Jordan Medal in 1995, significantly for his work on The Moths of Borneo (MoB). That award was followed by the Linnean Society Gold Medal for services to science in 2018.

From 1978-1996, Jeremy was employed by the International Institute of Entomology (later CAB International), with a base at the Natural History Museum, London, providing access to the excellent collections and library at that organisation. He took enhanced retirement in 1996, a decision that allowed him to work intensively on the MoB and to publish further on his eco-biogeographical research. After MoB was completed, he remained active and even throughout his last years published many papers with collaborators, despite suffering the loss of his wife Phillipa (Pippa) in 2021 and impairment from seriously declining eyesight that rendered him virtually housebound. He was a member of the Scientific Board of Forum Herbulot, and he will be missed deeply not only by members of this forum, but also by many others in the UK and around the world as a colleague, friend and highly productive entomologist.

Malcolm Scoble

Scientific Associate

Natural History Museum, London

Acknowledgements. For input directly or from various sources, I thank: Henry Barlow, Nigel Winser, Manfred Sommerer, Nick Holloway, Scott Miller, Geoff Martin, Pasi Sihvonen.