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Post by nomad on Aug 25, 2016 11:47:18 GMT
"An Aberration of Papilio machaon ssp. britannicus (Seitz, 1907) bred from Wicken Fen" Very nice specimens and interesting aberration, thank you very much for posting them here. I should point out though that "Seitz, 1907" should not be in ( ). Author and year together is only placed in ( ) if the taxon has been moved from the genus it was originally described in to a different genus. Sometimes the year of a reference is placed in ( ) after the author, but putting both in ( ) has a particular inference which is not the case here. Adam. Thanks for pointing this out.
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Post by wollastoni on Aug 25, 2016 13:19:56 GMT
Here is one of my favourites, a extreme Papilio machaon brittannicus aberration. Bred from a wild collected Larvae at Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire on the 12th August 1902 by A.H. Hamm. The imago appeared on the 16th June 1902, almost certainly to the great delight of the collector. O.U.N.H.M. This ab looks like a case of "peroneurose" disease.
Henri Descimon recently wrote a brilliant article about this disease that rarely affects various species. La "péroneurose", une anomalie du développement alaire chez les papillons (Lepidoptera) (Henri DESCIMON) Descimon found in various collections some specimens with "peroneurose" disease and he explains the biological mechanism behind this result. You can buy this article here : www.lepido-france.com/revue/143-revue-n-55-vol-22-2013-lepidopteres.html Even if in French, it worths the 14 euros to see those specimens.
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Post by nomad on Aug 25, 2016 14:35:09 GMT
That's interesting. I know aberrations are produced in the wild by temperature and by genetics but not by disease especially like this Machaon with wings that show such symmetry. Certainly something has happened to this specimen and it is unusual sport or freak. However, the reasons that produced this specimen must be extremely rare because out of the many thousands of collected and bred Papilio machaon ssp. britannicus, it is the only one that seems to have been recorded.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2016 17:07:15 GMT
Lovely and informative article again Peter, this is one of the many reasons why I think insect collecting still has an important part to play in modern science, although the unsilent majority would not agree with me, abs of even common species are a very exiting find and although not as extreme as some of the well known and famous rarities in your pictures can be found locally, in your vicinity, every year with careful searching. I find, even after over 40 years that something interesting always turns up, year after year without the need to travel hundreds of miles, sometimes very little travel is involved. Over the past 10 years or so I have been putting together a collection of the butterflies and moths that are found within a 10 mile radius of where I live and some superb abs have been taken over that time, hopefully after I am long gone somebody can put it to good use so that those who are interested can see the beauty of our local fauna that has been lost and what used to be and if it encourages even one young person to take up the interest then I will not have wasted my time.
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Post by wollastoni on Aug 25, 2016 17:58:11 GMT
That's interesting. I know aberrations are produced in the wild by temperature and by genetics but not by disease especially like this Machaon with wings that show such symmetry. Certainly something has happened to this specimen and it is unusual sport or freak. However, the reasons that produced this specimen must be extremely rare because out of the many thousands of collected and bred Papilio machaon ssp. britannicus, it is the only one that seems to have been recorded. Yes this disease is rare + the specimens cannot fly so nearly impossible to find in the wild You should read Descimon article
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Post by nomad on Aug 25, 2016 18:01:39 GMT
I will have to join you on a future collecting trip and you can read it for me Otherwise it might be slow going using google translate.
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Post by nomad on Dec 20, 2016 11:58:15 GMT
Mosaic Gynandromorph of Gonepteryx rhamni. Ex Leonard Woods Newman (1873-1949). Almost certainly bred by Newman on his butterfly Farm at Bexley in Kent. Ex Charles Bartlett coll. Bristol City Museum collections.
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Post by nomad on Jan 8, 2017 16:32:44 GMT
Aglais urticae ab nigra Tutt. Lacock, Wiltshire. David Coney. 21, September 1966. Bristol Museum collections.
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Post by wollastoni on Feb 6, 2017 8:19:54 GMT
This ab looks like a case of "peroneurose" disease. Henri Descimon recently wrote a brilliant article about this disease that rarely affects various species. La "péroneurose", une anomalie du développement alaire chez les papillons (Lepidoptera) (Henri DESCIMON)This P. demoleus looks like another case of "peroneurose" disease ab
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Post by nomad on Apr 5, 2017 15:36:39 GMT
Extreme wild caught aberrations are very rare but there were certain years when they were more frequent. Some collectors may never have had the good fortune to meet with such an aberration, while others were blessed with phenomenal luck and were lucky enough in the course of their field work to encounter a good number of such red letter days when a rare variety fell to their net. Those that were fortunate to be wealthy, often visited the auction houses to seek out such rare aberrations to adorn their vast collections. The auction houses are a thing of the past and those that amassed such large collections of aberrations have also largely vanished but many of their precious specimens remain, most of them in museums where they continue to delight the enthusiastic lepidopterist who enjoy such unusual freaks of nature. Here is a melanic aberration of Argynnis aglaja Linn, 1758 that was taken by C.S.H. Blathwayt at Priddy in the Mendip Hills of Somerset in western England on the 5 July, 1975. Many aberrations are not always easy to name, as several authors often gave different names to the same kind. However, there is a similar specimen named ab viridiatra Strand to the Blathwayt specimen that is figured on plate 53 in A.S. Harmer's Variation in British Butterflies, which was taken by the author a year earlier on the 21.7.1974, also on the limestone Mendip Hills.
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Post by nomad on Apr 8, 2017 7:43:15 GMT
Melitaea cinxia ab obscurior Seitz ( Staudinger in litt). A unusual aberration where the reddish brown is replaced by blackish ground colour . This female specimen was taken at Ventnor on the south coast of the Isle of Wight. Once more widespread in Britain, today this species is confined as a native to the undercliff along the southern coast of the Isle of Wight. Two typical specimens, a male and female are shown for comparison. They were photographed by me at Ventnor in 2011.
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Post by nomad on Apr 8, 2017 7:55:30 GMT
These remarkable aberrations of Euphydryas aurina ab biolor Wehrti were bred in June 1936 from larvae collected on Hod Hill in Dorset by J. Shepherd. Two other specimens of E. aurina ab biocolor that were bred by Shepherd in June 1936 are figured by A.D.A Russwurm on plate 62 of Variation in British Butterflies (2000) by A.S. Harmer. A typical male of Euphydryas aurina photographed in the Cotswold Hills, Glos in 2015 is also shown here.
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Post by nomad on Apr 11, 2017 9:48:12 GMT
The Orange Underwing, Archiearis parthenias Linnaeus, 1761 of the Geometridae family is a Spring species that is on the wing during March-April and the males are usually seen flying around the tops of mature Birch trees in the sunshine. In the J.C. Dale & C.W. Dale collection there is perhaps a unique aberration that is entirely brown. James John Walker described this as " A magnificent melanic aberration of the male, the forewings above being entirely very deep rich sepia-brown, the reniform stigma and the sub- apical costal blotch being alone almost faintly traceable in a somewhat darker tint ; the hindwings and body also a very dark smooth sepia-brown, the fringes being a little paler. The underside of the wings is very similar but a slightly lighter shade". " From the J. G. Ross Coll. 1888 (C.W.D.) Shown here with a typical specimen from the Dale Collection. OUMNH.
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Post by nomad on Apr 11, 2017 9:53:13 GMT
The Speckled Yellow, Pseudopanthera macularia Linnaeus, 1758 is a most attractive day-flying woodland moth that is fairly frequent species. There is a very rare aberration of P. macularia where the wings are almost yellow except for the brown forewing costal markings, ab. quadrimaculata Hatchett, once thought to be a distinct species, the Pinion Spotted Yellow. Richard South mentions that this rare aberration used to occur in the Dartford District in Kent. Typical specimen of P. macularia P. macularia ab. quadrimaculata from Briggs sale, 1896 bought by Charles William Dale, with Abbott's Wood place at its side. Abbott's Wood was a famous collecting ground in Sussex. J.C & C.W Dale collection. OUMNH. P. macularia ab. quadrimaculata was figured by Edward Newman in his British Moths (1869). Charles Barrett Figured a number of aberration of this species including P. macularia quadrimaculata on Plate 272 Figure 1h ( See Below) in his Volume 6 of his Lepidoptera of the British Islands (1900). Above. Typical specimens and aberrations of P. macularia with ab quadrimaculata (Fid 1h) from Lepidoptera of the British Islands by Barrett. The specimen figured of ab quadrimaculata was one of several in the Sydney Webb coll, Ex Frederick Bond specimen. Webb had acquired the famous F. Bond Collection. Barrett states there was a specimen of ab quadrimaculata in the Doubleday Coll (BMNH). Pseudopanthera macularia photographed in Bentley Wood, South Wiltshire in May 2014. Pseudopanthera macularia photographed at Chiddingford Woods in Surrey in May 2011.
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Post by wollastoni on Aug 12, 2017 9:49:37 GMT
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