Phasmid Study Group

Volumes 1-35 & special issue (1988-1996)

Some notes – by P.E. Bragg.

Publication

Le Monde des Phasmes was published in French by the Groupe d’Etude des Phasmes (GEP) from 1988 to 1996. The GEP was a French organisation based on similar lines to the Phasmid Study Group (PSG); several of the founding members of the GEP were PSG members. Le Monde des Phasmes was produced four times per year. There were 32 individual numbered volumes, plus one special issue; three of the numbered volumes were combined issues so the final volume was number 35. The special issue, on the results of the GEP expedition to French Guyana, was published in November 1993.

Publication ceased in 1996 after the Groupe ran into financial problems.

In November 2007 I scanned all the back issues and you can now download Le Monde des Phasmes.

Title & ISSN

The early volumes had no specific title: they were headed Groupe d’Etude des Phasmes and numbered from the first issue. Volume five was labelled “Groupe d’Etude des Phasmes Revue No. 5” (Groupe d’Etude des Phasmes Magazine No. 5). The title Le Monde des Phasmes was introduced in volume 7 in March 1990 and used thereafter.

The ISSN was first used on volume 9-10 in October 1990.

Typing and handwritten corrections

Prior to volume 17 many volumes contained several different typefaces and seem to have been typed by different people. In some cases text from other publications was obviously photocopied directly into Le Monde des Phasmes. There are quite a few handwritten corrections in some of the earlier volumes; I am not sure if these were present in the original published versions or if I have later reprints of somebody’s personal copy.

Margins & bindings

Volumes 1, 2, and perhaps 3 originally had comb-bindings. Volumes 4-16 had a glued spine and a plastic dust cover enclosing the printed cover which was on coloured paper; reprints of the very early volumes were also given this type of binding. From volume 17 onwards Le Monde des Phasmes was printed professionally and bound in a stapled magazine style. The margins in earlier volumes were very irregular. Although the total margin size was appropriate, the individual left and right margins varied from zero to four centimetres, with no regard to the position of the spine. It may have been due to poor photocopying changing the original margins. This problem was so pronounced in volumes 1, 2, and 7 that I had to reprint the whole of these volumes in order to have them properly bound.

Publication dates

Publication did not always occur in the month shown on the cover. I only kept records for the last five issues, none of these were issued on time (at least not to me); the final two arrived in the same envelope. Dates of posting to me were as follows:

Combined issues

On three occasions two parts were issued together as a combined volume. These were volumes 9 & 10, volumes 15 & 16, and volumes 27 & 28.

Page numbering

Pages in volume one were not numbered originally. Numbers were used in the index that was issued as part of volume 15&16. When I scanned and reprinted volume one I added page numbers in agreement with the index.

In volume three pages 1-13 were numbered but the reverse of page 13 was not numbered. The un-numbered page 14 was followed by 20 pages of culture census results, then a few other sheets, including membership forms, and finally two pages numbered 25-26 which listed members of the Groupe. Many of the sheets of census results were typed in the same style but some are clearly in the respondent’s handwriting or in a completely different print; presumably they were late additions. It is possible that not all these pages were in the original publication. The copy that I have may be a reprint because, although it is a glue-bound copy, it appears to have been photocopied from a comb-bound original.

In volume four there was an extra page between 39 and 40 that was not numbered. I numbered my copy by hand as 39b. The reverse of page 40 was blank. In volume six, page 23 is followed by page 23b, and there is no page 34. In volume eight there was no page 26. Volume 12 had two un-numbered pages between page two and page three.

Errata

Some volumes contained corrections to items in earlier issues. Volume 11 was issued with a small erratum slip which simply said “ATTENTION: Lire holométabole et pas aullométabole”. The slip did not indicate to which page it referred, however it was intended for page 23.

Index

Volume 15-16 contained an index to all the previous volumes. Volumes 21, 24, 27-28, and 32 each contained an index to the volumes published since the previous index. I have compiled a combined species index to all 35 volumes. I did not include the special volume on French Guyana because it contains a large number of species and they are easily found within that volume.