Pacific Grove Monarch Conservancy :: E.F. Ricketts and Monarchs

Ed Ricketts bust by Jesse Corsaut Edward Flanders Ricketts, the marine biologist famous for his early work in ecology, was also a strong influence on the life and writings of Nobel Prize-winning writer John Steinbeck. He was the inspiration for "Doc" in the novels Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday.

In the early 1930s, both men lived and worked in Pacific Grove. Ricketts collected mostly marine specimens for his firm, Pacific Biological Laboratories (PBL), which supplied slides and preserved flora and fauna for schools and museums around the world.

He also collected monarch butterflies, vast amounts of them, leading to speculation that the anti-monarch molestation ordinance established in the Pacific Grove municipal code in 1935 was a result of his collecting activity.

While this cause and effect has yet to be firmly established, a newspaper article from the August 31, 1934 Pacific Grove Tribune and Grove at High Tide states that PBL "sold during this past summer 15,000 Monarch butterflies and have on hand about 17,000 of them. One of their collectors caught 3800 of this type of butterfly in the Grove before breakfast one morning. The popularity of certain acacia trees in Pacific Grove among this species of butterfly has resulted in the phenomenon referred to at certain seasons of the year as the “butterfly tree.” Just to show you what these biologists know about habits, they have learned that the blossoms of the acacia secrete a substance on which the butterfly gets drunk. In this state, it is easily caught."

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Here is the transcribed article in its entirety:

Floral Specimens Sent From
Pacific Grove To Indian Government College

Last week several hundred inhabitants of Pacific Grove went to India, destined for the government college at Lahore. They were floral specimens, most of them, and will in a few weeks come under the sharp scrutiny of Indian science students' eyes.

This week a complete set of microscope slides is being packed by the Pacific Biological laboratories for the Philippine Islands. This scientific firm, which is located on cannery row in New Monterey, plumbs the depths of Monterey bay, dredges rivers, hunts butterflies with nets, and engages in a thousand more or less arduous pursuits to gather its stock.

Market Scattered
Its market is scattered over the globe—schools and colleges in China and Japan, in the Philippines, Australia, South Africa, India, England, to say nothing of thousands of educational institutions throughout the United States. They supply all equipment for King's College in London.

Its bookkeeping entries run the curious gamut of “500 frogs; one set of every stage of eel development; two dozen sets of influenza germs; 100 Monarch butterflies; half dozen specimens of different jellyfish; specimen of a tapeworm; one pig embryo; one specimen Venus flower-basket; one rattlesnake; two white mice,” etc., etc., etc., with curious deviations.

Unaffected by prevailing styles and advertising brands, not addicted to “clearance sales,” this biological business moves steadily forward. Demand fluctuates with school terms and college and the remarkable increase in interest in the subject of biology has resulted in a doubling in the amount of business in the past year.

Only One On Peninsula
This firm is probably the only one on the Peninsula that has its own private exhibit at the Century of Progress. Some two dozen of the finest and rarest specimens have been on display in Chicago throughout the exposition.

Qualifications for this work? One must know the feeding as well as defensive habits of snakes; the sex life of anemones; the appetite of white rats; the idiosyncrasies of squid and sharks and whales, to mention but a few of the subjects with which they deal. Skill in mounting microscope slides and in preserving and bottling rare floral and faunal specimens is paramount. Ingenuity and persistence in collecting anything from an earthworm to a starfish counts as equipment.

25,000 Earthworms
Since most of us are impressed by figures, consider that the Pacific Biological laboratories sold 25,000 earthworms (not Peninsula denizens) last year; that they sold during this past summer 15,000 Monarch butterflies and have on hand about 17,000 of them. One of their collectors caught 3800 of this type of butterfly in the Grove before breakfast one morning. The popularity of certain acacia trees in Pacific Grove among this species of butterfly has resulted in the phenomenon referred to at certain seasons of the year as the “butterfly tree.” Just to show you what these biologists know about habits, they have learned that the blossoms of the acacia secrete a substance on which the butterfly gets drunk. In this state, it is easily caught.

As for the value of these tiny glass slides on which are mounted queer spots and blobs, representing germs, one pair alone are valued at over $900. They are a cross-section of the human embryo.

Laboratory Records
Rogue's gallery files with pictures and thumb prints have nothing on the records to be found in this laboratory of many types of plant or animal life. Just for example, did you know that there are 26 different stages in the life of an eel, ranging all the way from three mm. In length to 120 mm., its full stature, as it were. Each of these is available mounted on glass. This is but one of hundreds of life histories to be found in the curious glass library of the laboratory.

For what are these used? The laboratory deals in several types of order. Materials for dissection are provided. Most popular for this purpose are earthworms, frogs, and white rats. Microscope slides are required for study. Bottled specimens are needed for museum purposes. Some types of embryos are loaned. Often orders are received for “a complete” high school or college set of specimens and microscope slides. Certain standard textbooks are used as a guide by the laboratory in determining what “a complete set” implies.

The Pacific Biological laboratory was opened about seven years ago by E.F. Ricketts of Pacific Grove, and for the past four years he has been assisted by his father, C.A. Ricketts. With the help of three collectors they do all of the work themselves. Monterey Bay's prolific marine flora and fauna make this “the happy hunting ground” for the biologists. Practically every species required for their orders can be secured here or somewhere along the Pacific coast. Only one other port in the United States approaches Monterey bay in the abundance and variety of its marine growth and that is Woods Hole, Massachusetts, according to C.A. Ricketts.