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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2015 15:33:24 GMT
Indeed there are, I have some 100+ year old specimens of Catocala sponsa, one of my favourite British moths, but it is the cyaniris semiargus specimens that intrigue me the most, extinct for over 100 years now, mine are from around 1860, the condition they are in is incredible, the Dale ones around 200 years old, superb.
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Post by nomad on Aug 22, 2015 16:49:57 GMT
A favourite of mine because it was actually caught by J.C.Dale himself, plus there are few Polyommatus icarus aberrations such as this. Dale's red letter day was on the 5th August 1826, 189 years ago. Label at side obsolete var and what a splendid example it is.
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Post by nomad on Aug 23, 2015 10:02:31 GMT
One of the Dale Sphingidae drawers. Species and British status. Left to right. Sphinx ligusteri ( Frequent native). Agrius convolvuli ( rare immigrant). Hyloicus pinastri ( local native). Hyles euphorbiae ( Very rare immigrant ). Hyles gallii ( Very rare immigrant ) Hyles livornica ( rare immigrant) Note there are four specimens of Hyles euphorbiae From a Mr Raddon that were said to have been bred from Braunton Burrrows in 1815, a series of sand dunes near Barnstaple in Devon in the West Country of England. P.B.M. Allan in his excellent and very witty ' A Moth-Hunter's Gossip ( 1937) writes about H.euphorbiae " used to be as rare in this country as a spotted elephant. But when his larvae was ' discovered' a plenty on Braunton Burrows by William Raddon, that prince of entomological hoaxers, it was impossible any longer to compare him with so rare a beast, and the ' Spruge Hawkmoth he became."
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Post by nomad on Apr 9, 2016 14:21:51 GMT
The Dale collection cabinet drawers are priceless time capsules into our past, with their rare aberrations, geographical forms and extinct races. Here is a fine drawer from the Dale collection of species of moths that were formerly placed in the Bombycidae which today are the Eggar moths of the Lasiocampidae family. Many of the specimens in this drawer were collected by James Charles Dale in the fields, woods and marshes in his parish of Glanvilles Wootton in Dorset in Southern England and in the East Anglican fens and elsewhere. His son, Charles William Dale enriched the collection at the auction houses adding splendid rare aberrations. The Specimens in this drawer are listed below with notes from Rows 1-7 Left to Right. Row one.Small Eggar Eriogaster lanestris. Sixteen Specimens of both sexes from Glanvilles Wootton, Dorset. Once a common species, now much declined and scarce in the UK. Lackey Malacosoma neustria. Sixteen examples of both sexes from Glanvilles Wootton, Dorset. Both the pale and dark colour forms of the males are represented with one female with the label Var bitineatus Haworth placed at the side. A common species. Row Two.Ground Lackey Malacosoma castrensis. Fifteen examples of both sexes including an example of a very smoky female aberration from Gravesend in north Kent. A scarce moth of the south-eastern coastal salt Marshes. Fox Moth Macrothylacia rubi. Eight specimens, three males from Hartlepool, County Durham and three males and two females from Parley Heath in Dorset. A common fast flying species. Row three.
Macrothylacia rubi. Three females, two from Parley Heath and one from Bournemouth. Grass Eggar Lasiocampa trifolii. 12 specimens of both sexes. Eight specimens of the normal form from Parley Heath, Dorset, and Cornwall. A very local species of sea cliffs, heaths and sand dunes. Four specimens of the Pale Grass Eggar, Lasiocampa trifolii f flava labelled Romney Marsh, Essex. Today form flava is a rare and much declined insect in the UK and is only found at Dungeness in Kent. Row Four.Oak Eggar Lasiocampa quercus. Ten examples, five of both sexes, mostly taken at Glanvilles Woottton Dorset, One female is a rare miniature. Northern Eggar Lasiocampa quercus callunæ. Three specimens, two males and one female. One of the males is a very rare aberration , which is entirely deep chocolate colour from Mr Head (dealer), Scarborough 1904 (CWD) . The female is labelled Var spartii Hubner. Row Five.
Oak Eggar Lasiocampa quercus. Seven specimens, two males and five examples of a extinct Fenland race of Lasiocampa quercus that certainly from these specimens seems to have been a distinct race. The males have pale wing borders and the females are very Pale. J.C. Dale labelled these specimens, The Large Eggar, Bombyx roboris.Northern Eggar Lasiocampa quercus callunæ, six males. Row Six.
Northern Eggar Lasiocampa quercus callunæ, three females from Yorkshire. Drinker Moth Euthrix potatoria. Ten specimens showing the colour range within the males. Row Seven.Drinker Moth Euthrix potatoria. Twelve examples, Four males, one rare aberration with the label Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire at its side, showing the very pale colour of the female, from the J.G.Ross collection, 1884. (CWD). Seven females from Glanvilles Wootton, Dorset.
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Post by nomad on Jun 15, 2016 9:15:33 GMT
Nymphalis antiopa specimen captured in 1793. Nymphalis antiopa is a very beautiful species which is a rare migrant to Britain from Scandinavia. It has never been able to establish itself here and there are no proven breeding records. 18th century captures of this butterfly from Camberwell in Kent, might attest that it once bred in the UK. In the Aurelian published in 1766, the author Moses Harris recorded that the first British captures were made at Cool Arbour Lane, Camberwell where two were taken flying among Willows. There were Sporadic captures of this insect from Camberwell, which in the 18th Century was a peaceful country village, long since gobbled up by the urban sprawl of London. A Nymphalis antiopa specimen taken at Camberwell in 1793 can be found the Dale collection. This historic specimen was one of several that were captured in that locality by the Physician, Naturalist and author John Latham (1740-1837). One other Nymphalis antiopa specimen in the Dale series of this species with no data is thought to have come from the same source. This specimen at 223 years old, is one of the most historic of British insects being figured by E.B. Ford in his work 'Butterflies' first published in 1945 with later editions. Unfortunately, someone recently, has broken one of the antennae!! Nymphalis antiopa. Camberwell 1793, Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
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Post by exoticimports on Jun 17, 2016 15:25:55 GMT
Peter,
I always look forward to your latest rendition of entomological history. I know it takes time to compile these!
Thanks,
Chuck
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Post by nomad on Jun 17, 2016 18:22:16 GMT
Thanks Chuck. I am pleased that you enjoy these pieces of entomological history.
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Post by nomad on Jul 25, 2016 6:52:48 GMT
Historic specimens from the Dalean collection.
Some very old insect specimens are a visible link to the pioneer entomologists, those grand early Aurelians. These specimens were prizes in the Aurelian's collections where their rarity gave so much pleasure to themselves and their visiting entomological friends. Here are two specimens from the Dale collection that were captured in the earlier part of the 19th century. Vanessa virginiensis Drury 1773. A specimen in the collection at Oxford of Vanessa virginiensis, Dale's " huntera" was figured by E.B. Ford in his work 'Butterflies' (1945) on plate 1, figure 11 and was the first example to be taken in Britain. A Small and dull specimen, it was taken by a Captain Blomer in Pembrokeshire, Wales a 188 years ago. In Loudon's Natural History Magazine for 1830 in Vol 3 page 332, J.C. Dale reported the news of its capture " I beg to announce that Vanessa huntera new to Britain has been captured by Captain Bloomer at Withybush near Haverfordwest, South Wales (about ten miles from a seaport) in 'July or August 1828' which was till lately considered by him to be a small form of Vanessa cardui".
It seems that Bloomer's specimen of Vanessa virginiensis was either a vagrant or perhaps arrived on a ship. What is known is that there have been around a 20 genuine records of this species in the UK (Thomas 1991) and it is perhaps likely that these are vagrants from North American bought over with the help of strong winds. Captain Charles Blomer (1778-1835) studied insects principally in Southwest England and South Wales during the 1820s and 1830s. He is remembered by the moth ' Blomer’s rivulet', Venusia blomeri (Curtis 1832) which he discovered at Castle Eden Dene, County Durham in Northern England. Not much is known about Charles Blomer's personal life except that he lived in London at the Prestige address of 'Burton Crescent' and was clearly a friend of James Charles Dale. In one of Blomers' letters to Dale written in 1831, he wrote that while he was residing in a hotel in Bristol, the Queen's Street riots broke out and the mob attacked the house next door. The riot was the culmination of a long struggle for democratic rights. Blomer being a military man, joined the Dragoons to take military action to suppress the mob. Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Brereton (1782–1832) who commanded the Dragoons in Bristol, refused to open fire into the crowd. A few days later Brereton led the Dragoons into Queen Square and commanded them to draw their swords on the crowd and It is thought that many of the civilians were killed or severely wounded. However, for his original leniency, Brereton was court marshaled but before his trial had ended, he shot himself through the heart. Isambard Kingdom Brunel who was at that time building the Suspension Bridge in Clifton, was sworn in as a special constable to keep the peace during the Bristol riots of 1831 and gave evidence at the trial of Brereton. Vanessa cardui Linnaeus, 1758. While scores of man made aberrations of this species have appeared in recent years, extreme examples are very rare in the wild and this is an exceedingly fine specimen. This specimen was obtained by Charles William Dale from the sale of the Samuel Stevens collection during 1900 and is probably the specimen figured in Edward Newmans' British Butterflies' published in 1869. At that time the specimen was in the collection of the well known London Lepidopterist ' Thomas Ingall' and it was originally taken in the Hampshire New Forest. Top, Blomer's Vanessa virginiensis specimen with bottom, the extreme aberration of Vanessa cardui bought at the Stevens' sale by C.W. Dale. Dale collection, Hope Department of Entomology Oxford.
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Post by nomad on Oct 8, 2016 3:38:28 GMT
Thank you Nomad for this, it is the latest in a series of fine articles, a great read, I do hope you produce a book sometime! Cheers, Mick I have to agree with Mick wholeheartedly, and would also like to point out that online work such as the absolutely superb coverage by Peter of historical matters relating to entomology will sadly one day be lost to us all. For example if the Proboards business ever closes that will be the end of all the archives both here and on Insectnet. I really hope that Peter does eventually publish something more permanent on the subject. This is actually a serious issue for websites in general, such as Inayoshi's Butterflies of Indochina and Rich's Stichophthalma site. What happens to all these sites in the long term future? Adam. I have been thinking of what Adam Cotton wrote here recently and about the the longevity of websites such as this. While I do hope this forum will go from strength to strength and be here for many years but it will not be here for ever and the information here will be lost. We rely on the server Proboards . Do you remember when Clark updated his InsectNet Proboards Forum all that information was lost in a second and he just shrugged it off, I do not think that he even bothered to inform the members that those thousands of posts would be lost. As for the information in many of mine and others articles will not be lost, it poses a problem. Most publications today are all of a mainly scientific bent, take a look at the recent BENHS journal, pages of information on tiny insects, not even a mention of a butterfly. That information would be only be of interest to very few specialists. There is really no interest in this type of journal for information such as those on historical collectors and even if they were, perhaps one or two images would be allowed. Peter.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Oct 8, 2016 3:59:53 GMT
Peter - I would urge you to keep copies of your articles on your home computer, at the barest minimum. If you have space on a "cloud" server, that would give another level of protection. Doing this will go a long way, at least for the present, of preserving your articles.
As for entire websites, it's also important to take the initiative to back them up. I don't run a bulletin board, and I imagine that the issues are different from a view-only website, but to make an example of my own business website (photography-oriented), I keep copies on several computers at home as a backup. Even though the hosting company does their own backup, one can't put 100% trust into someone else to keep one's own important work safe.
Longer term is a bigger question. It would be smart to have backup copies on remote computers maintained by trusted friends, and in the case of a website such as this one, make sure that at least 1-2 persons in addition to the owner are able to access it and keep it going.
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Post by nomad on Oct 8, 2016 5:40:13 GMT
Thanks for the input Danny. I have downloaded my Documents and PDFs on several external devices and most of my wanted images. I am a strange fellow in that I keep all of my best Camera images also on my memory cards ( I do not delete them when I upload them) in tins as well as on external devices.
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Post by nomad on Oct 8, 2016 5:46:42 GMT
I would add that if this forum is updated I hope all the current posts are being backed up and will not be lost as happened on InsectNet. Then a massive amount of useful images/information went down the drain without any endeavour to save them.
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Post by wollastoni on Oct 8, 2016 7:33:34 GMT
No risk on this.
Proboards business model is to make you pay a monthly fee for attachments and number of visits. Losing existing topics will make them lose a lot of money.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Oct 8, 2016 13:47:21 GMT
That is only true as long as Proboards itself continues to exist. What happens if one day the owners decide enough is enough and they are better off putting their money into something totally different?
Another issue to consider is long term archiving - perhaps in 20 years or more people won't be able to read formats that we take for granted today. Think about a simple example, video tape. Nowadays everyone watches video either online or from a CD/DVD. Does anyone still use the old magnetic tapes and video players? I still have a few tapes somewhere but no way to play them, even if they have actually not deteriorated such that they can't actually be played anyway.
Adam.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2016 15:51:52 GMT
I store screen capture video of recently updated post for a few forums that are important to me. I was doing text documents for a while, but it is a lot of work to transfer the information to other programs like word and keep everything organized. The data loss of the old forum was indeed unexpected, and the pictures that I had saved were later destroyed when my hard drive crashed (now I only use SSD storage in RAID config). As they say, "save early, save often." If memory serves, somebody mentioned that Peter should make a little book containing all of his stories. It would be fun to periodically make a hardcopy of the entire forum, not sure how you would format it though.
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