British Butterfly collections at BMNH.
Mar 14, 2015 9:34:33 GMT
deliasfanatic, cabintom, and 3 more like this
Post by nomad on Mar 14, 2015 9:34:33 GMT
The entire British butterfly collections at the British Museum of Natural History have been photographed with their data and will be available online this year. This important advancement of the 21st Century will generate a new interest and study in these unparalleled British collections. Some of the major aberrations have already been photographed by the museum for the Rothschild, Cockanye and Kettlewell collection website. See here
www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/scientific-resources/biodiversity/uk-biodiversity/cockayne/rck-collection/index.html
The amount of material in the British collections is very comprehensive showing a wide range of variation within the different species.
Recently I paid a visit to the British butterfly collections at the Natural History Museum. As the entire collections are going online, no photography was allowed by the curator. Each specimen has been given an accession number and I made a note of the specimens that particularly interested me and will look forward to see what their data will reveal. Many of the old historical specimens are without data even those by very prominent British entomologists such as James Franicis Stephens (1792 - 1852 ) and Henry Tibbats Stainton ( 1822- 1892 ). It is really hard to understand why these greats of British Entomological placed no data on their specimens. Those entomologists were men of Science and both produced fine books. Their reluctance to add data is one of the great mysteries of entomology and has never been fully explored or explained. So when you do find good data on old historical museum specimens it is a real treasure and just as valuable as the specimen that it is attached to. Today, the collections are housed in Insect pest Proof metal cabinets with large wooden drawers.
This is part of the World collections.
I went to the museum to study certain British butterfly species. Here are my brief impressions of what I studied. The images are from RCK website mentioned above and remain the copyright of the BMNH.
Lycaena dispar dispar.
Easily the largest collection anywhere with over 300 hundred specimens of this extinct subspecies. A few fine aberrations. The specimens are poor as regards data and those with data that I was able to see, came from the classic Yaxley-Whittlesea Mere localities. I find it strange that the dispar in the collections of museums have little or no data while many of those in private hands have excellent data. The specimens in private collections are without doubt mostly old British dispar that have usually passed through many collections. One wonders if some of those collectors, added a little data themselves, to give a little provenance to their specimens. Adding false data with the known information mentioned in old lepidoptera books would certainly have given their British dispar a greater monetary value. Certainly some of the data on British dispar in private collections is genuine, such as those posted by Weymouthent recently that were collected by W.T. Bree. I was given the distinct impression, that among the many treasures from Britain here, these three boxes of dispar where considered the most valuable and precious. My favourite specimens in these boxes were some extra large females and these were much larger than those produced by any of the surviving continental races. There was quite a range within the populations of the extinct female dispar with some lovely golden specimens. I especially liked the large female aberration shown below. Interestingly this aberration has a holotype label placed by its side and so do other original aberrations of other species in the British collections.
L. dispar dispar ab cuneigera. Tutt 1906. No data ab holotype.
Maculinea arion.
A huge collection of the extinct M. arion eutyphron with around 1500 hundred specimens. The North Cornwall and Devon coast seems to have been most favoured collecting locality, especially in the 1950s. Those specimens from the old locality on the South Devon coast are very few in number, probably because it became extinct here in the latter part of the 19th century. There is a series of around 30 specimens from Barnwell Wold in Northants. The arion collection has many fine aberrations and my favourite of these is ab magnifica. Surprisingly among the many Cotswold specimens there were only three of ab cotswoldensis and these were rather dull brown unlike the ones shown in my article on this species. This aberration was a real rarity. See
collector-secret.proboards.com/thread/197/maculinea-arion-britain-ssp-eutyphron
M. arion eutyphron ab magnifica Heydemann 1910.
Plebejus Argus. A really impressive large collection with a host of major aberrations with many bilateral gynandromorphs. Although very rare, gynandromorphs do seem to occur in this species more often than in other British Lycaenidae and indeed any other British butterfly. There were several superb drawers each of the extinct Plebejus argus races masseyi and cretaceus containing again many rare and unique aberrations. It would take many weeks just to study the P. argus specimens.
Lysandra coridon.
Because of the great interest from British collectors in the aberrations of this species and large bequest of the huge Robert Watson collection and others such as N.A Watkins, the specimens occupy many cabinets. I have to say, I was hard put to pick a favourite coridon specimen but it would have to a male verso specimen of the very rare ab extrema. There were seven specimens of both sexes of ab extrema and the same amount of the other great rarity ab ultraradiata. I have never seen these abs in a private collection.
L. coridon male ab extrema. South Downs. R. M Long 1953.
Cyaniris semiargus.
One drawer of the extinct species, most specimens having no data. Interesting to find a few from the New Forest. Most of the British females had plain brown uppers and rarely have any amount of blue as we see in some populations in the rest of Europe.
Papilio Machaon brittanicus and gorganus.
Splendid collection of brittanicus in one cabinet with a number of unique aberrations including the fine historic and rightly famous bred black melanic series. These fine black specimens and other fine aberrations would be better explained in another article. How much better it is to view naturally occurring melanic aberrations than those as a result of human temperature and chemical experiments. Although experiments may produce similar melanic aberrations to those that occur in the wild or by selective breeding, there are often marked differences . There were a number of old huge old females of brittanicus from Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire and surprisingly a small perfect male from Whittlesea Mere that was captured by J. C Dale on July 23rd 1819. In another cabinet there was an additional drawer of the immigrant subspecies gorganus mostly captured on the south-east coast of England.
A day well spent.
www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/scientific-resources/biodiversity/uk-biodiversity/cockayne/rck-collection/index.html
The amount of material in the British collections is very comprehensive showing a wide range of variation within the different species.
Recently I paid a visit to the British butterfly collections at the Natural History Museum. As the entire collections are going online, no photography was allowed by the curator. Each specimen has been given an accession number and I made a note of the specimens that particularly interested me and will look forward to see what their data will reveal. Many of the old historical specimens are without data even those by very prominent British entomologists such as James Franicis Stephens (1792 - 1852 ) and Henry Tibbats Stainton ( 1822- 1892 ). It is really hard to understand why these greats of British Entomological placed no data on their specimens. Those entomologists were men of Science and both produced fine books. Their reluctance to add data is one of the great mysteries of entomology and has never been fully explored or explained. So when you do find good data on old historical museum specimens it is a real treasure and just as valuable as the specimen that it is attached to. Today, the collections are housed in Insect pest Proof metal cabinets with large wooden drawers.
This is part of the World collections.
I went to the museum to study certain British butterfly species. Here are my brief impressions of what I studied. The images are from RCK website mentioned above and remain the copyright of the BMNH.
Lycaena dispar dispar.
Easily the largest collection anywhere with over 300 hundred specimens of this extinct subspecies. A few fine aberrations. The specimens are poor as regards data and those with data that I was able to see, came from the classic Yaxley-Whittlesea Mere localities. I find it strange that the dispar in the collections of museums have little or no data while many of those in private hands have excellent data. The specimens in private collections are without doubt mostly old British dispar that have usually passed through many collections. One wonders if some of those collectors, added a little data themselves, to give a little provenance to their specimens. Adding false data with the known information mentioned in old lepidoptera books would certainly have given their British dispar a greater monetary value. Certainly some of the data on British dispar in private collections is genuine, such as those posted by Weymouthent recently that were collected by W.T. Bree. I was given the distinct impression, that among the many treasures from Britain here, these three boxes of dispar where considered the most valuable and precious. My favourite specimens in these boxes were some extra large females and these were much larger than those produced by any of the surviving continental races. There was quite a range within the populations of the extinct female dispar with some lovely golden specimens. I especially liked the large female aberration shown below. Interestingly this aberration has a holotype label placed by its side and so do other original aberrations of other species in the British collections.
L. dispar dispar ab cuneigera. Tutt 1906. No data ab holotype.
Maculinea arion.
A huge collection of the extinct M. arion eutyphron with around 1500 hundred specimens. The North Cornwall and Devon coast seems to have been most favoured collecting locality, especially in the 1950s. Those specimens from the old locality on the South Devon coast are very few in number, probably because it became extinct here in the latter part of the 19th century. There is a series of around 30 specimens from Barnwell Wold in Northants. The arion collection has many fine aberrations and my favourite of these is ab magnifica. Surprisingly among the many Cotswold specimens there were only three of ab cotswoldensis and these were rather dull brown unlike the ones shown in my article on this species. This aberration was a real rarity. See
collector-secret.proboards.com/thread/197/maculinea-arion-britain-ssp-eutyphron
M. arion eutyphron ab magnifica Heydemann 1910.
Plebejus Argus. A really impressive large collection with a host of major aberrations with many bilateral gynandromorphs. Although very rare, gynandromorphs do seem to occur in this species more often than in other British Lycaenidae and indeed any other British butterfly. There were several superb drawers each of the extinct Plebejus argus races masseyi and cretaceus containing again many rare and unique aberrations. It would take many weeks just to study the P. argus specimens.
Lysandra coridon.
Because of the great interest from British collectors in the aberrations of this species and large bequest of the huge Robert Watson collection and others such as N.A Watkins, the specimens occupy many cabinets. I have to say, I was hard put to pick a favourite coridon specimen but it would have to a male verso specimen of the very rare ab extrema. There were seven specimens of both sexes of ab extrema and the same amount of the other great rarity ab ultraradiata. I have never seen these abs in a private collection.
L. coridon male ab extrema. South Downs. R. M Long 1953.
Cyaniris semiargus.
One drawer of the extinct species, most specimens having no data. Interesting to find a few from the New Forest. Most of the British females had plain brown uppers and rarely have any amount of blue as we see in some populations in the rest of Europe.
Papilio Machaon brittanicus and gorganus.
Splendid collection of brittanicus in one cabinet with a number of unique aberrations including the fine historic and rightly famous bred black melanic series. These fine black specimens and other fine aberrations would be better explained in another article. How much better it is to view naturally occurring melanic aberrations than those as a result of human temperature and chemical experiments. Although experiments may produce similar melanic aberrations to those that occur in the wild or by selective breeding, there are often marked differences . There were a number of old huge old females of brittanicus from Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire and surprisingly a small perfect male from Whittlesea Mere that was captured by J. C Dale on July 23rd 1819. In another cabinet there was an additional drawer of the immigrant subspecies gorganus mostly captured on the south-east coast of England.
A day well spent.
