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Post by nomad on Dec 28, 2014 17:43:59 GMT
There is a excellent web-site on papers concerned with British Butterflies called dispar. I have written a paper for dispar called New Perspectives on the Mazarine Blue (Cyaniris semiargus) in the British Isles. It shows some very interesting historical specimens and has some newly discovered historical information. I do however, rather prefer the more informal approach to writing my articles. Check out the paper here - www.dispar.org/reference.php?id=90
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2014 18:14:42 GMT
Glad that you mentioned the colony on the Doncaster/Lincolnshire border Peter which was usually ignored but is believed to be the last surviving colony that lasted until around 1910, Samuel Hudson collecting 2 specimens at Epworth with his brother around 1910, both my specimens are Welsh.
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Post by mygos on Dec 28, 2014 18:26:05 GMT
Very interesting website Peter, thanks for the link !
A+, Michel
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Post by nomad on Dec 28, 2014 20:05:56 GMT
Glad that you mentioned the colony on the Doncaster/Lincolnshire border Peter which was usually ignored but is believed to be the last surviving colony that lasted until around 1910, Samuel Hudson collecting 2 specimens at Epworth with his brother around 1910, both my specimens are Welsh. dunc, the reference I have seen mentioned is 1904 for the extinction of those on the North Lincolnshire border, Thomas ( 2010) and he mentions it was only a rumour that the colony survived till that date. I have not heard of the Samuel Hudson specimens from Epworth 1910, please can you provide a link to where this is mentioned or where those specimens are, I would be most interested to read or hear more about them and where collector was from. You are lucky to own such historic specimens.
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Post by wollastoni on Dec 29, 2014 9:51:53 GMT
I did not know that website. Some very interesting articles including yours Peter.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2014 11:39:26 GMT
You have to look in local sources Peter, details can be found of the account in Edward Rimmingtons excellent book the butterflies of Doncaster.
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Post by nomad on Dec 29, 2014 18:52:30 GMT
Thank you dunc, just bought the book on The butterflies of Doncaster by Edward Rimington.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2014 19:21:50 GMT
Fantastic little read, through the history of collecting in that particular area, which has some surprising names including Dale but also sad as to what has been lost.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2014 11:48:37 GMT
I t seems my feeble memory is at fault again as the Hudson specimens from Epworth were from 1903 and not 1910, still as fascinating account though.
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Post by nomad on Dec 31, 2014 8:11:42 GMT
Thanks dunc, the Lincolnshire records are substantiated, which is the main thing. It does seem then that the Kershaw North Wales specimens taken in 1905 as mentioned in my article including the cobweb specimen are the last British records. It is a pity we lost C. semiargus. I saw this species in the Dolomites where numbers were visiting horse droppings along a track near a meadow.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2014 14:27:59 GMT
I suppose I am lucky to have access to these things, the history of British butterflies has always intrigued me, I must seek out a copy of the Aurelians fireside companion.
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Post by nomad on Jan 1, 2015 15:34:40 GMT
My little copy of the excellent local ' Butterflies of Doncaster District ' 1992 has turned up this morning, from where else but Doncaster in the U.K. As dunc has pointed out, these local butterfly books can be a valuable source of information, especially this slim paperback volume because it contains much historical information. There are some very nice b/w drawings of butterfly aberrations captured from this area The book is sad testament to what that county has lost.
I am of course especially interested in the account given by Rimington of The Mazarine Blue -C. semiargus. Extinct British and other butterflies do fascinate me. Well it is good to see that Rimington mentioned that the butterfly was once found in various habitats including woodland. He also mentions heathland, I have never seen evidence of a colony from that habitat.
Rimington mentions that C. semiargus was then generally supposed to have become extinct in Britain at Cardiff in 1877. There is however, a record by Dale that a specimen was taken at Tenby in 1883. It seems it hung on in South Wales for a few more years.
Rimington then refers to a record in the ' Entomological Weekly Intellinger ' by a Samuel Hudson who wrote in 1860 that he took a female of Cyaniris argus in a field where his brother took one last season. He does not mentioned the locality but as Hudson lived at Epworth in North Lincolnshire this is thought to have been where he caught C. semiargus. Later he did mention in a letter to the ' Zoologist ' that he did indeed take his specimens in a meadow at Epworth. Just before his death in 1903, Hudson sent a letter to a friend that was reproduced in the journal the ' Naturalist' 1904 that the late S.H. Hudson informs us that C. semiargus was not extinct. These Epworth records of C. semiargus have been doubted by some British lepidopterists; hence Thomas statement in 2010 " it was rumoured that a colony survived on the north Lincolnshire border untill as late as 1903". Rimington had in fact seen two specimens from Epworth, one male was labelled 1876 or 1878 and the other 1902, however the later specimen also had a label " Wales". Rimington suggested the " Wales label was added later by a collector ignorant of the location of Epworth. Unfortunately in 1992 Rimington did not know about the whereabouts of the Hudson Epworth specimens that he had seen. I wonder who has them today, hopefully they are still extant. Interestingly, I have just found a appeal from W.E. Rimington in the ' Entomological Record and Journal of variation for 1997 for information regarding the whereabouts of any specimens of C. semiargus from Epworth. These Epworth records are valuable not only in their historical context but because they also relate to the northern most limit of C. semiargus in Britain.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2015 19:35:34 GMT
The problem with local records, even today when things are documented closely is that the information does not get passed on, that is where we start to get records second or third hand. I was acutely aware of this when I started my local collection of Barnsley and Pontefract butterflies and moths so everything is not only catalogued by data but also in the form of a diary so that in years to come, when everything is under concrete, people can quite easily see what was around, and where and in what number in my day, it is a labour of love and gives me just as much satisfaction as obtaining that long sought after exotic rarity.
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Post by nomad on Jan 13, 2015 20:50:56 GMT
Specimens of the extinct British Cyaniris semiargus that were Part of the Frederick William Hope ( 1797-1862 ) collection. It was Frederick's large bequest of specimens and money that formed the start of the insect collections at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Today, the very valuable worldwide collections are housed in the Hope Department of Entomology. Unfortunately for science, Hope's early specimens of C. Semiargus from his original collection that are shown here, do not have any data; a strange but not unusual omission from one of the early Aurelians.
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Post by nomad on Feb 3, 2015 20:43:47 GMT
I was born in the wrong century to have seen British Cyaniris semiargus in Britain. A number of years ago, I was walking in a high Alpine valley in the Dolomites of Italy when I came across many Cyaniris semiargus visiting horse dung on a track from the nearby meadows. I doubt in our cooler climate they ever visited dung here, I certainly have not come across any historical records of this. I must admit, that I never at the time recognized these as C. semiargus, the British males never seemed to have such wide blackish borders. I certainly at that time wish I had a better camera.
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