A History of the Extinct British Moth, Idaea humiliata.
Feb 20, 2016 11:34:42 GMT
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Post by nomad on Feb 20, 2016 11:34:42 GMT
A History of the Extinct British Moth, Idaea humiliata.
It was many years ago that I heard of a moth called the 'Isle of Wight Wave' that was restricted to just a single English locality. A collector elsewhere, on the subject of which species they would most like to own, surprised me, by mentioning this extinct British little moth. This fired my enthusiasm to know more about the history of this moth in Britain and I believe this article is the first comprehensive account.
The Isle of Wight Wave, as the British called this small moth of the Geometridae family, was known to the early collectors as Acidalia humiliata (Hufnagel 1767). Idaea humiliata as it is called today, is extinct in Britain and was a species on the edge of its range. This moth was only to be found on a single well vegetated precipitous ledge that the local people called Rose Hall Green, which was situated on the high chalk cliffs lying to the west of Freshwater Bay in the Isle of Wight. The lovely and often peaceful Isle of Wight is situated opposite the coast of Hampshire in Southern England. Idaea humiliata was perhaps the most localized of all the British moth species and certainly had one of the strangest and awe inspiring habitats.
In 1908, W.J. Kayne exhibited a series of I. humiliata at the South London Entomological and Natural History Society Annual Exhibition. Kayne had captured his specimens at Freshwater during 1907 and noted that the British specimens of this species differed from those that had been taken on the Continent. The Isle of Wight examples were smaller and less strongly coloured than those of other European specimens. The entomologist R.F. Bretheron in the Entomologist's Gazette for 1951, also referred to differences of the British I. humiliata that had been noted by Kayne and further wrote " There is no evidence of migration, probably a true resident which, if it is really gone is irreplaceable". One expected migrant of I. humiliata supposedly did turn up a couple of years later on the Hampshire coast of England.
This moth was first found by a London collector Albert J. Hodges who captured it on the Freshwater cliffs during 1890. Hodges recorded his capture of I. humiliata, a species that was new to the British List in the Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation for 1893. He recorded that I. humiliata was " far from plentiful and feared it had not established a firm foothold in this country". One might wonder why A.J. Hodges had chosen to explore that rather inaccessible ledge.
Three of A.J. Hodges specimens of I. humiliata. Charles Barlett Collection. Bristol City Museum.
J.W. Tutt the editor of the same journal wrote " Plate c. 19, is a representative of one of Mr Hodges specimens, and from this it will be seen, that the wings are much narrower than our commoner interjectaria (= Idaea seriata); the costa, too, is, as Guenee remarks, of the colour of our postage stamp (that is, of course, our old penny red postage stamp). There are interjectaria with reddish costa, but the red generally has a tendency to brown". I have noticed that in many of the specimens of moths in the older British collections, their colours have a tendency to fade with time and this fact should be taken into account when viewing old specimens of I. humiliata and those of other species.
A plate from Tutt's Entomologist's Journal of Variation published in 1893. Figure 19, one of Hodges specimens of I. humiliata. Also shown on this plate, figures 15-18, are Hodges specimens of Colias edusa = C. Croceus that he also took at Freshwater. The other specimens shown on this plate are British moth rarities taken by a number of other collectors. Plates such as this one, were largely absent from the British entomological Journals from that period, they were just too costly to produce.
For generations before Albert Hodges and the other collectors visited the rather inaccessible cliff ledge to collect I. humiliata, the local Cliffs men used to visit the more extensive of the vegetated ledge they called Rose Hall Green to harvest sea birds and their eggs but mainly to gather Rock Samphire, Crithmum maritimum. Rock Samphire was to them an important maritime wild vegetable and a source of nourishment. Then came the botanist. This windswept ledge had a large population of an always very rare plant, the parasitic Oxtongue broomrape, Orobanche picridis which only occurs in the Isle of Wight and in Kent and is today a protected species. They were other unusual rare plants here too and a botanist was visiting the Ledge by 1840 with his vasculum, his metal plant specimen holder. Other like minded souls probably visited in his footsteps.
In the Great Naturalist's Edward Newman's journal 'The Phytologist: A popular botanical Miscellany', there is an interesting account of a visit to the cliff ledge of Rose Hall Green by the botanist, William Arnold Bromfield during 1844 who discovered the Orobanche picridis there and he again visited the site in June 1848. He approached the towering cliffs by sea in a boat. Bromfield mentions that this only possible in calm weather for even then the water swelled as met the bottom of the precipices. Leaving the boat there was a scramble up large chalk blocks, passing a huge chunk known as the Wedge stone that was stuck between the cliff face and a standing pyramid of chalk. Rose Hall Green he said, was situated close to the Wedge Stone. Most of the entomologists that would come here would descend by a very dizzy path leading down a steep gully in the cliffs.
A fine engraving by the Irish artist George Brannon (1784-1860), showing the Freshwater Cliffs and the feature known as the 'Wedge Stone' during 1828. The ledge Rose Hall Green, the site of the I. humiliata colony may be the one shown to the right of the Wedge Stone. Notice the boat approaching and high up on the cliffs, a brave local dangling at the end of a rope collecting sea birds or their eggs.
One of the best accounts we have of I. humiliata in Britain comes from Hodges friend, P.W. Abbott of Sutton Colefield. In the Entomologist for 1898, Abbott wrote " I was in the Isle of Wight with Mr Hodges this year during June, and in company with him I made my first acquaintance with the species, in its somewhat inaccessible locality. I spent about three hours at the most tiring collecting that I ever remember to have experienced, owing to the roughness of the ground. However, as I was successful in obtaining five specimens, mostly in very fine condition, I felt amply repaid for my exertions, I did not however, succeed in getting any females but subsequent comparison with a series captured by Mr Hodges, shows them to be smaller than the males, and with narrow pointed wings, whereas the males have fuller, broader, and rounded wings ".
In the same volume of the Entomologist of 1898, A. J. Hodges added in his article 'The summer season of 1898' that " My friend P.W. Abbott was very anxious to make acquaintance with Acidalia humiliata, and visited the spot where they occur, in company of me, during the last week in June, succeeding in capturing about half a dozen specimens, but he was disappointed in not obtaining a female. In this I was fortunately more successful, and, having induced her to lay, I sent the ova to him, and have recently had the pleasure of seeing the larvae, and of comparing them with the Continental authorities. " It is not known what the larvae foodplant was in the UK but on the continent this species utilizes a number of food plants. Hodges and Abbott reared their captive larvae on Dandelion.
Hodges added " I am amused at the wild and frantic efforts made by many of our most energetic collectors (I mean sale-room collectors) to try to persuade both themselves and their friends that this unwelcome little stranger has no right of entry to their cabinet, and I would not like to be unkind enough to suggest that it is because in spacing out their columns, there is no blank left for it. Another cogent reason, is that it does not appear in Newman, and in cutting up their label list, no mystic printed slip is found for it ".
In the Entomologist Record and Journal of Variation for 1907, Russell J. Jones wrote of his collecting experiences at Freshwater in the Isle of Wight. While he was there he came across a fellow collector, Mr W.J. Kayne who was soon to be leaving for a collecting expedition to Trinidad. Jones showed Kayne his fine specimens of I. humiliata and Setina irrorella that he had taken before breakfast which fired the enthusiasm of Kayne to go on collecting British Moths. Jones wrote that the moth " daily increased in numbers in its special locality until July 20th when it began to get worn and by the end of the month it was over. Our last visit on August 2nd only showed two other worn females. It is excessively local, but I should imagine it has gained ground since Mr Hodges discovered it. Moreover, as only a few yards of its special spot are workable, it should be safe from over-collecting. As, a matter of fact Mr Kayne thought none of it looked workable. He took a few, however by the much more laborious means of working in from a boat from below ".
In the Entomologist for 1913, there are some details of the sale of the Hodges collection at Stevens auction rooms. " humiliata Hodges specialty sold in two lots with about seventy other Acidalias, a lot bought containing a dozen sold for 13 shillings and one containing eight, 11 shillings.
R.F. Bretheron (1951) mentioned that this species was caught in 1907 and 1908 but there are no records of any captures of the moth until 1931 when a good number were taken between the 4th-18th July . He mentioned that " it is said that a landslip swept away the accessible portion of the ground, but whether this natural disaster destroyed the whole colony is unknown". The landslide when the ledge known as Rosewall Green was swept in the sea certainly happened at some point before 1940 and along with I. Humiliata went the large population of the rare Broomrape, Orobanche picridis but unlike the moth, that plant survives elsewhere in the Isle of Wight.
In the ' Butterflies and Moths of the Isle of Wight (1974) by B. Goater, the author wrote of I. humiliata " Its only known locality is along the precipitous chalk cliffs to the west of Freshwater, and it would seem that peculiar weather conditions are required to bring it in reach of the entomologist's net. Following its discovery in the early 1890's, it was taken from time to time in greater or lesser numbers for about 20 years, and again in some quantity in 1931. It does not seem to have been seen again in its traditional haunts, but R. Hayward exhibited a specimen that he had taken at Portsmouth in 1954. One is reluctant to believe that the species has gone from the Isle of Wight”.
Hayward's specimen if in fact taken in Britain, was almost certainly a migrant from France. To date no other specimen of I. humiliata has been taken in Britain and is presumed to be extinct as a British native.
It was many years ago that I heard of a moth called the 'Isle of Wight Wave' that was restricted to just a single English locality. A collector elsewhere, on the subject of which species they would most like to own, surprised me, by mentioning this extinct British little moth. This fired my enthusiasm to know more about the history of this moth in Britain and I believe this article is the first comprehensive account.
The Isle of Wight Wave, as the British called this small moth of the Geometridae family, was known to the early collectors as Acidalia humiliata (Hufnagel 1767). Idaea humiliata as it is called today, is extinct in Britain and was a species on the edge of its range. This moth was only to be found on a single well vegetated precipitous ledge that the local people called Rose Hall Green, which was situated on the high chalk cliffs lying to the west of Freshwater Bay in the Isle of Wight. The lovely and often peaceful Isle of Wight is situated opposite the coast of Hampshire in Southern England. Idaea humiliata was perhaps the most localized of all the British moth species and certainly had one of the strangest and awe inspiring habitats.
In 1908, W.J. Kayne exhibited a series of I. humiliata at the South London Entomological and Natural History Society Annual Exhibition. Kayne had captured his specimens at Freshwater during 1907 and noted that the British specimens of this species differed from those that had been taken on the Continent. The Isle of Wight examples were smaller and less strongly coloured than those of other European specimens. The entomologist R.F. Bretheron in the Entomologist's Gazette for 1951, also referred to differences of the British I. humiliata that had been noted by Kayne and further wrote " There is no evidence of migration, probably a true resident which, if it is really gone is irreplaceable". One expected migrant of I. humiliata supposedly did turn up a couple of years later on the Hampshire coast of England.
This moth was first found by a London collector Albert J. Hodges who captured it on the Freshwater cliffs during 1890. Hodges recorded his capture of I. humiliata, a species that was new to the British List in the Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation for 1893. He recorded that I. humiliata was " far from plentiful and feared it had not established a firm foothold in this country". One might wonder why A.J. Hodges had chosen to explore that rather inaccessible ledge.
Three of A.J. Hodges specimens of I. humiliata. Charles Barlett Collection. Bristol City Museum.
J.W. Tutt the editor of the same journal wrote " Plate c. 19, is a representative of one of Mr Hodges specimens, and from this it will be seen, that the wings are much narrower than our commoner interjectaria (= Idaea seriata); the costa, too, is, as Guenee remarks, of the colour of our postage stamp (that is, of course, our old penny red postage stamp). There are interjectaria with reddish costa, but the red generally has a tendency to brown". I have noticed that in many of the specimens of moths in the older British collections, their colours have a tendency to fade with time and this fact should be taken into account when viewing old specimens of I. humiliata and those of other species.
A plate from Tutt's Entomologist's Journal of Variation published in 1893. Figure 19, one of Hodges specimens of I. humiliata. Also shown on this plate, figures 15-18, are Hodges specimens of Colias edusa = C. Croceus that he also took at Freshwater. The other specimens shown on this plate are British moth rarities taken by a number of other collectors. Plates such as this one, were largely absent from the British entomological Journals from that period, they were just too costly to produce.
For generations before Albert Hodges and the other collectors visited the rather inaccessible cliff ledge to collect I. humiliata, the local Cliffs men used to visit the more extensive of the vegetated ledge they called Rose Hall Green to harvest sea birds and their eggs but mainly to gather Rock Samphire, Crithmum maritimum. Rock Samphire was to them an important maritime wild vegetable and a source of nourishment. Then came the botanist. This windswept ledge had a large population of an always very rare plant, the parasitic Oxtongue broomrape, Orobanche picridis which only occurs in the Isle of Wight and in Kent and is today a protected species. They were other unusual rare plants here too and a botanist was visiting the Ledge by 1840 with his vasculum, his metal plant specimen holder. Other like minded souls probably visited in his footsteps.
In the Great Naturalist's Edward Newman's journal 'The Phytologist: A popular botanical Miscellany', there is an interesting account of a visit to the cliff ledge of Rose Hall Green by the botanist, William Arnold Bromfield during 1844 who discovered the Orobanche picridis there and he again visited the site in June 1848. He approached the towering cliffs by sea in a boat. Bromfield mentions that this only possible in calm weather for even then the water swelled as met the bottom of the precipices. Leaving the boat there was a scramble up large chalk blocks, passing a huge chunk known as the Wedge stone that was stuck between the cliff face and a standing pyramid of chalk. Rose Hall Green he said, was situated close to the Wedge Stone. Most of the entomologists that would come here would descend by a very dizzy path leading down a steep gully in the cliffs.
A fine engraving by the Irish artist George Brannon (1784-1860), showing the Freshwater Cliffs and the feature known as the 'Wedge Stone' during 1828. The ledge Rose Hall Green, the site of the I. humiliata colony may be the one shown to the right of the Wedge Stone. Notice the boat approaching and high up on the cliffs, a brave local dangling at the end of a rope collecting sea birds or their eggs.
One of the best accounts we have of I. humiliata in Britain comes from Hodges friend, P.W. Abbott of Sutton Colefield. In the Entomologist for 1898, Abbott wrote " I was in the Isle of Wight with Mr Hodges this year during June, and in company with him I made my first acquaintance with the species, in its somewhat inaccessible locality. I spent about three hours at the most tiring collecting that I ever remember to have experienced, owing to the roughness of the ground. However, as I was successful in obtaining five specimens, mostly in very fine condition, I felt amply repaid for my exertions, I did not however, succeed in getting any females but subsequent comparison with a series captured by Mr Hodges, shows them to be smaller than the males, and with narrow pointed wings, whereas the males have fuller, broader, and rounded wings ".
In the same volume of the Entomologist of 1898, A. J. Hodges added in his article 'The summer season of 1898' that " My friend P.W. Abbott was very anxious to make acquaintance with Acidalia humiliata, and visited the spot where they occur, in company of me, during the last week in June, succeeding in capturing about half a dozen specimens, but he was disappointed in not obtaining a female. In this I was fortunately more successful, and, having induced her to lay, I sent the ova to him, and have recently had the pleasure of seeing the larvae, and of comparing them with the Continental authorities. " It is not known what the larvae foodplant was in the UK but on the continent this species utilizes a number of food plants. Hodges and Abbott reared their captive larvae on Dandelion.
Hodges added " I am amused at the wild and frantic efforts made by many of our most energetic collectors (I mean sale-room collectors) to try to persuade both themselves and their friends that this unwelcome little stranger has no right of entry to their cabinet, and I would not like to be unkind enough to suggest that it is because in spacing out their columns, there is no blank left for it. Another cogent reason, is that it does not appear in Newman, and in cutting up their label list, no mystic printed slip is found for it ".
In the Entomologist Record and Journal of Variation for 1907, Russell J. Jones wrote of his collecting experiences at Freshwater in the Isle of Wight. While he was there he came across a fellow collector, Mr W.J. Kayne who was soon to be leaving for a collecting expedition to Trinidad. Jones showed Kayne his fine specimens of I. humiliata and Setina irrorella that he had taken before breakfast which fired the enthusiasm of Kayne to go on collecting British Moths. Jones wrote that the moth " daily increased in numbers in its special locality until July 20th when it began to get worn and by the end of the month it was over. Our last visit on August 2nd only showed two other worn females. It is excessively local, but I should imagine it has gained ground since Mr Hodges discovered it. Moreover, as only a few yards of its special spot are workable, it should be safe from over-collecting. As, a matter of fact Mr Kayne thought none of it looked workable. He took a few, however by the much more laborious means of working in from a boat from below ".
In the Entomologist for 1913, there are some details of the sale of the Hodges collection at Stevens auction rooms. " humiliata Hodges specialty sold in two lots with about seventy other Acidalias, a lot bought containing a dozen sold for 13 shillings and one containing eight, 11 shillings.
R.F. Bretheron (1951) mentioned that this species was caught in 1907 and 1908 but there are no records of any captures of the moth until 1931 when a good number were taken between the 4th-18th July . He mentioned that " it is said that a landslip swept away the accessible portion of the ground, but whether this natural disaster destroyed the whole colony is unknown". The landslide when the ledge known as Rosewall Green was swept in the sea certainly happened at some point before 1940 and along with I. Humiliata went the large population of the rare Broomrape, Orobanche picridis but unlike the moth, that plant survives elsewhere in the Isle of Wight.
In the ' Butterflies and Moths of the Isle of Wight (1974) by B. Goater, the author wrote of I. humiliata " Its only known locality is along the precipitous chalk cliffs to the west of Freshwater, and it would seem that peculiar weather conditions are required to bring it in reach of the entomologist's net. Following its discovery in the early 1890's, it was taken from time to time in greater or lesser numbers for about 20 years, and again in some quantity in 1931. It does not seem to have been seen again in its traditional haunts, but R. Hayward exhibited a specimen that he had taken at Portsmouth in 1954. One is reluctant to believe that the species has gone from the Isle of Wight”.
Hayward's specimen if in fact taken in Britain, was almost certainly a migrant from France. To date no other specimen of I. humiliata has been taken in Britain and is presumed to be extinct as a British native.
