|
Although P. Ralph worked mostly on the hydroid fauna of New
Zealand, her outstanding publications were immediately valued by systematists
on other continents. Below is a biography kindly provided by Elliot W. Dawson,
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Pat Ralph was a quiet, modest, and gentle person who endeared herself to a
postwar generation of biology students at Victoria University College (later
the Victoria University of Wellington) in New Zealand. She was an encouraging
and friendly teacher who was able to see many of her students eventually
achieve international standing as research scientists or teachers themselves.
Her own research on the taxonomy and biogeography of hydroids of the New
Zealand Region still stands as a fundamental contribution despite modern
advances in this field. The environment in which she did this work, New
Zealand in the 1940s and 1950s, was a difficult one for anyone attempting
wide-ranging systematic studies of this sort - access to scientific literature
was very limited, overseas travel was an expensive luxury, colleagues in one’s
field of interest were many miles away, research grants were a novelty, and
teaching had priority. Collections, especially of the offshore or deeper water
fauna, were old or limited or yet to be made, and even local travel was
financially constrained. Considering these restrictions, Pat ’s work was
quite outstanding, and her list of publications will bear this out. Patricia
Marjorie Ralph was born in Wellington on 5 April 1920, the only child of
Clarence John Ralph, an electrical engineer, and Elin Elfie Ralph (née
Jacobson). She died from a stroke on 23 March 1995 at Paraparaumu, a coastal
township north of Wellington to which she had retired. Pat first attended the
Brooklyn Primary School in Wellington, going on to Wellington Girls’ College
for her secondary education in Forms 3 to 6 from 1934 to 1937. She enrolled at
what was then known as Victoria University College, one of the constituent
colleges of the University of New Zealand, later to become the autonomous
Victoria University of Wellington. There she graduated B.Sc. in 1941 and was
capped M.Sc. in 1943. Her thesis was entitled "The anatomy and life
history of a nudibranch mollusc Pellibranchus cinnabareus n.g., n.
sp." (now held in the university library). She was appointed as a
Demonstrator in 1943, Junior Lecturer in 1945, Lecturer in 1948, Senior
Lecturer in 1959, and Reader (equivalent to Associate Professor) in 1967,
being the first woman in the university to gain this title. She was one of the
founding members of the Victoria University College Biological Society, and
was the first Publisher for the highly-successful student journal Tuatara
(which ran to 32 volumes up to 1993 when funding problems caused its
lamentable demise). In the first issue (September 1947, the forerunner of
which was a single cyclostyled handout in 1942(1) she is recorded as having
given a talk on the trip which the V.U.C. biology students made to the United
States and Canada during the previous vacation.(2) This was recalled as one of
the early highlights of not only of her own career but also in the memories of
the students who accompanied her, for whom a demonstration of the cyclotron
and, especially, the electron microscope at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (with micrographs of the trichocysts of Paramecium shown by Dr
Jakus) was a relevation long before its time in New Zealand. Pat had another
opportunity in 1958/1959 when she was awarded an Nuffield Travelling
Fellowship, which enabled her to work at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory where
she was encouraged by the Director Dr F.S. Russell, and, especially,
cooperated with Dr W.J. Rees at what was then known at the British Museum
(Natural History). She published four interesting studies from this period: on
an abnormal specimen of the nudibranch Phylliroe lichtensteini
Eschscholtz, a detailed examination of the anatomy and relationships of the
pelagic scyphozoan Tetraplatia , and on the rare anthomedusan Paragotoea,
the latter being of current interest among some European workers based on her
observations. She also wrote up at a later date her work on the peculiar
floating tubularian hydroid Pelagohydra mirabilis, a study begun in
1958 with Dr W.J. Rees subsequently desceased. In 1963, she was enabled to
travel again, attending the International Congress of Zoology in Washington,
D.C.
Her first publication, in 1943, was a joint report on an investigation of the
internal fauna of some mental hospital patients, with a following study of
some non-clinical individuals (a group of Home Guardsmen and their families).
This work has still some considerable clinical value with regard to
contemporary interest in Giardia and Escherischia coli. In 1943,
also, she published her first ‘solo’ paper - on a new genus and species of
nudibranch mollusc (the subject of her M.Sc.thesis), which she subsequently
discovered had another correct generic placing and she published a note to
that effect in 1948. In 1947 she published her first contribution to a study
of the Hydroida, a group which became her main research interest and which was
to bring her high academic recognition. Pat’s major papers consisted of a
series of five taxonomic and biogeographical studies on the Hydroida of New
Zealand, published between 1957 and 1961, for which she was recognised by the
award of a D.Sc. by Victoria University in 1962, being also the first woman in
the university to receive this honour.These hydroid papers are still benchmark
contributions in our knowledge of this group of coelenterates and have stood
up well in the light of studies by subsequent workers who may have had the
benefits of much more material, better bibliographical resources, and easier
access to overseas collections, which Pat had not had. Her own collections,
research notes, and scientific literature are now in the archives of the
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and form yet another of its treasures
or taonga for posterity.
In conjunction with Mr A.C. Kaberry, an earlier student at Victoria University
College, who had made a remarkable pioneer study of the pelagic cnidarians of
the wild waters of Cook Strait (3) (which separates the North and South
Islands) during 1934/1935, Pat began an examination of the peculiar
comb-jellies or Ctenophora of New Zealand waters. No one has yet taken up
their challenge to study this group locally, so this work remains as another
benchmark (4). The existence of the smallest and least-known of the
4-tentacled Cubomedusae, Carybdea sivicksi Stiansy, in New Zealand
waters was first noted by Pat Ralph from plankton off Island Bay, Wellington,
in 1963 and provided a basis for new studies (done by Alan Hoverd of Victoria
University) resulting from several later collections in the same region.(5,6)
With Don Squires, Pat laid the foundations for Stephen D. Cairns’
comprehensive, and magnificently illustrated, monograph of the scleractinian
corals of the New Zealand Region.(7)A not so well-known but rather useful
contribution which Pat made was her suggestions and guidelines on what work
could be done on antarctic coelenterates as part of the New Zealand plans for
biological work in the Ross Sea in the 1950s. A special baseline study which
has stood the test of time and has proved especially useful for the many
international visitors who regard the Portobello Marine Biological Laboratory
of the University of Otago as a Southern Hemisphere marine biological mecca is
a comprehensive account of the seafloor animals of Otago Harbour which Pat
published, as the result of a class trip, with one of her students of the
time, John Yaldwyn (who subsequently became Director of the National Museum of
New Zealand - now known as the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa - and a
noted authority on decapod Crustacea). He recalls that another of Pat’s
contribution was the organising and presentation of a study of the internal
parasites of the green tree frog, Hyla aurea, done as a class project
but with characteristic modesty not bearing her name in its final publication
in Tuatara(8). Pat retired in 1971 to look after her ailing mother, and,
following her mother’s death shortly afterwards, tried to establish a
biological supply business but this was not able to thrive in the economic
environment of the country at that time.Two new species have been named in her
honour: Sphenotrochus ralphae Squires, 1964, an endemic New Zealand
species, described from off Great Barrier and now known from North Island
waters from Cape Egmont to the Bay of Plenty, and Caryophyllia ralphae Cairns,
1995, also a scleractinian coral, described from the Gifford Guyot of the
northern Lord Howe Seamount Chain and known from only there and south of the
Chesterfield Islands in the Tasman Sea.
A note must be added now regarding some of her material now lodged in the
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa ....
In their "Inventory of cnidarian, pycnogonid and crustacean type
specimens in the National Museum of New Zealand" (National Museum of New
Zealand Miscellaneous Series 22: 23 p., 1991), Hicks et al. list the types of
new species of hydrozoans decribed by P.M. Ralph, as well as some syntypes of
Allman and Totton which she also left to the Museum. Regarding her material,
they have noted:
"In 1956, 1957 and 1961, Dr P.M. Ralph published a series of new
"forma" names for New Zealand thecate hydroids. Those of her new
form names published before 1961 are here regarded as subspecific as she
considered these taxa as characteristic of particular geographical areas
and/or environmental or ecological conditions (ICZN Article 45 f). Moreover,
she did not regard, or use, these new names as of infrasubspecific rank in her
series of papers (ICZN Article 45 g). Some of these 1956 and 1957 new form
names were originally published by Ralph as junior synonyms, but as they were
published before 1961 and treated by Ralph as available names for taxa, they
are thus available under the Code (Article 11 d). Type material for the 1956
new form names was not listed in Ralph (1956), but was given in detail in her
1957 paper. The Ralph slide collection in NMNZ is labelled with the locality
numbers used in her series of papers. The new form named Symplectoscyphus
johnstoni forma subtropicus n. forma Ralph, 1961 is
infrasubspecific under the Code as it was published after 1960 (Article 45 g),
and is thus unavailable (Article 16). A "syntype" of this name is
listed here without prejudice as this was the last of the Ralph new form
series and was treated by her in the same way as her 1956 and 1957 new form
names."
1 Dawbin, W.H. 1962: The beginnings of Tuatara. Tuatara 10 (1): 2-4.
2 Biological Society notes. Tuatara 1 (1): 26-29.
3 Kaberry, A.C. 1935: Pelagic Coelenterates of Cook Strait. Thesis for M.Sc.,
Victoria University College, Wellington, New Zealand. Vol. 1: 1-168. Vol. 2:
pls 1-35.
4 Mianzan, H.; Dawson, E.W.; Mills, C.E. 2000: Comb Jelles Phylum Ctenophora -
the most beautiful, delicate, seemingly-innocent yet most voracious, sinister
and destructive of plankton organisms. In: Gordon, D.P. (ed.) The New
Inventory of Biodiversity: a Species2000 Symposium Review. University of
Canterbury Press, Christchurch - in press.
5 Hoverd, W.A. 1977: The value of histological and histochemical techniques in
identifying the anatomy of the cubomedusan tentacle. Thesis for the Diploma of
Applied Science, Wellington Polytechnic, Wellington, New Zealand.
6 Hoverd, W.A. 1985: Occurrence of the order Cubomedusae (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa)
in New Zealand: collection and laboratory observations of Carybdea sivicksi.
New Zealand Journal of Zoology 12: 107-110, text-fig. 1.
7 Cairns, S.D. 1995: The marine fauna of New Zealand: Scleractinia (Cnidaria:
Anthozoa). New Zealand Oceanographic Institute Memoir 103: 1-210, pls 1-44,
maps 1-22.
8 The frog, Hyla aurea as a source of animal parasites. Report from a Class
Project, Department of Zoology, Victoria University College, 1952. Tuatara 5
(1): 12-21, text-figs 12-15, pl. I (figs1-11).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: PATRICIA M. RALPH [compiled by Elliot W. Dawson, Museum of New
Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, September 2000]
1. 1943: RICHARDSON, L.R., CLARK, A.E., & RALPH, P.M.Studies on the
Entozoa of Man in New Zealand. Part 1. - A preliminary note on the results
from the examination of inmates of a mental hospital; Part 2. - Results from
the examination of a small number of non-clinical patients. Transactions of
the Royal Society of New Zealand 73 (3): 239-247; 248-249.
2. 1944: Pellibranchus cinnabareus new genus and species of non-pelagic
nudibranch mollusc. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 74 (1):
24-31, pls 8-9.
3. 1947: The hydroid and medusa of Cnidonema vallentini (Anthomedusae) from
Wellington, New Zealand. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of
New Zealand 76 (3): 414-420, 1 text-fig., pl. 35.
4. 1948: Synonymy of the nudibranch genera Pellibranchus and
Okadaia. Nature
161 (4092): 528; April 1948.
5. 1948: Some New Zealand corals. Solitary hydrocorals and black corals from
local waters. New Zealand Science Review 6 (6): 107-110, figs 1-4.
6. 1949: Review: ``Biology for Australian Students'' By W.M. Curtis.Tuatara 2
(1): 52.
7. 1950: Ctenophores from the waters of Cook Strait and Wellington Harbour.
Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 78 (1):
70-82, text-figs 1-7.
8. 1950: RALPH, P.M. & KABERRY, C. New Zealand coelenterates.Ctenophores
from Cook Strait. Zoology Publications from Victoria University College,
Wellington 3: 1-11, text-figs I-IV.
9. 1952: RALPH, P.M. & HURLEY, D.E. The settling and growth of wharf-pile
fauna in Port Nicholson, Wellington, New Zealand.Zoology Publications from
Victoria University College, Wellington 19 : 1-22, 4 figs.
10. 1953: A guide to the athecate (gymnoblastic) hydroids and medusae of New
Zealand. Tuatara 5 (2): 59-75, pls I-IV.
11. 1955: RALPH, P.M. & SALMON, J.T. Notes on staining techniques for
polyvinyl alcohol mountants. The Microscope 10 (6): 141-144.
12. 1956: Variation in Obelia geniculata (Linnaeus, 1758) and
Silicularia
bilabiata (Coughtrey, 1875) (Hydroida, F. Campanulariidae).Transactions and
Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 84 (2): 279-296, text-figs
1-3.
13. 1956: Coelenterates of the Ross Sea Dependency.Royal Society of New
Zealand, Antarctic Research Committee, Special Report 19: 1-5.
14. 1956: RALPH, P.M. & YALDWYN, J.C. Sea floor animals from the region of
Portobello Marine Biological Station, Otago Harbour. Tuatara 6 (2): 57-85, pls
I-VIII.
15. 1957: A guide to the New Zealand heteropod molluscs.Tuatara 6 (3):
116-120.
16. 1957: New Zealand thecate hydroids. Part I. - Campanulariidae and
Campanulinidae. Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New
Zealand 84 (4): 811-854, text-figs 1-8.
17. 1958: New Zealand thecate hydroids. Part II. - Families Lafoeidae,
Lineolariidae, Haleciidae, and Syntheciiidae. Transactions and Proceedings of
the Royal Society of New Zealand 85 (2): 301-356, text-figs 1-18.
18. 1959: Notes on the species of the pteromedusan Tetraplatia. Journal of the
Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 38 (2): 369-379, text-figs
1-3.
19. 1959: Notes on an abnormality in the liver caeca of the nudibranch
Phyllirhoe lichtensteini Eschscholtz, 1825. Proceedings of the Malacological
Society of London 33 (5): 186-192, text-figs 1-5.
20. 1959: The status and affinities of the anthomedusan Paragotoea bathybia
Kramp, 1942. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 133 (2): 171-177,
text-fig. 1.
21. 1960: Tetraplatia, a coronate scyphomedusan.Proceedings of the Royal
Society (B) 152 ( 947): 263-281, text-figs 1-7, pl. 19.
22. 1961: New Zealand thecate hydroids. Part III. - Family
Sertulariidae.Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 88 (4):
749-838, text-figs 1-25.
23. 1961: New Zealand thecate hydroids. Part IV. - Family Plumulariidae.
Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Zoology 1 (3): 19-74,
text-figs 1-10.
24. 1961: New Zealand thecate hydroids. Part V. - The distribution of the New
Zealand thecate hydroids.Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of
New Zealand, Zoology 1 (7): 103-111, text-fig. 1.
25. 1961: Biological Results of the Chatham Islands 1954 Expedition. Part 5. A
checklist of the hydroid fauna of the Chatham Islands. New Zealand
Oceanographic Institute Memoir 13: 235-238.
26. 1962: RALPH, P.M. & SQUIRES, D.F. The extant scleractinian corals of
New Zealand. Zoology Publications from Victoria University of Wellington 29:
1-19, pls 1-8.
27. 1965: SQUIRES, D.F. & RALPH, P.M. A new scleractinian coral of the
genus Flabellum from New Zealand, with a new record of
Stephanocyathus.
Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 78: 259-264.
28. 1966: Port Phillip Survey 1957-1963. Hydroida. Memoirs of the National
Museum of Victoria 27: 157-166, figs 1-4.
29. 1968: RALPH, P.M. & THOMSON, H.G. Seasonal changes in the growth of
the erect stem of Obelia geniculata in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand.
Zoology Publications from Victoria University of Wellington 44: 1-21, figs
1-11, pls I-III.
30. 1968: RALPH, P.M. & HOVERD, W.A. Plastic embedding of zoological
specimens. Zoology Publications from Victoria University, Wellington 45: 1-8,
figs 1-5.
31. 1970: REES, W.J. & RALPH, P.M. An interpretation of the structure of
the cnidarian Pelagohydra mirabilis (Coelenterata: Hydrozoa). Journal of
Zoology, London 162 (1): 11-18, text-figs 1-4, pls I-II.
|
