The Extinct Lepidoptera Rarities of Aller Hill, Somerset.

[nomad]

The Extinct Lepidoptera rarities of Aller Hill, Somerset. Part one.

Introduction.

Aller Hill is a low limestone wooded ridge with a few small discrete areas of limestone grassland. The Aller Hill ridge rises above the pastures of the Somerset Levels which was once a huge area of marshland. In a hollow beneath the hills, there are the stone and red brick cottages of the village of Aller. Up to the middle of the 19th century, the steep south-western facing slopes of herb rich grasslands of Aller Hill, held a unique assemblage of rare lepidoptera species. The grasslands are still botanically rich today, containing several scarce plant species.

Between 1834 and 1845, James Charles Dale, the well known entomologist, paid several visits to the Langport area to collect insects. Dale stayed as a guest of the Quekett family in the small market town of Langport. The rich populations of lepidoptera at Aller Hill, were originally discovered by John Quekett in 1833. Dale visited this locality mainly to catch two rare species, Maculinea arion and an unusual and striking day-flying moth he knew as the Idaea dealbata which today is known as Slona lineata. These two rare species have never been recorded together from any other known locality in Britain . Flying with them in this Somerset locality was a limestone population of Plebejus argus. The geographical race of Plebejus argus from the Aller Hills, was notable in that it had females with blue scaling on their uppersides and males with very pale undersides. A little over a decade later in June 1844, after a collecting trip to Aller Hill, Dale recorded in his diaries that the very localized populations of M. arion and S. lineata had disappeared. The Aller limestone race of P. argus also became extinct at some point in the 19th century and it was last recorded there by J. C. Dale in 1845.

During his visits to Aller hill, J. C. Dale found that the woods and grasslands of the small stretch of limestone were rich in different insects orders. James Dale first visited Aller Hill to collect insects with John Quekett in 1834 . During this period he also corresponded and may have collected with the other Langport collectors, Edward Paul and his brother William. The best source of information that we have on the species that were collected at Aller Hill, are from J.C. Dale's diaries and letters that are held at the Oxford University Museum Entomology library. Dale's diaries are a treasure trove of information, a record of the distribution of British insects in the middle part of the 19th century. The letters that John Quekett wrote to J.C. Dale during this period, are also a valuable source of information.
Aller Hill, July 2015.




J.C. Dale, John Quekett and the Paul brothers are known to have taken a long series of both Maculinea arion and Siona lineata from Aller Hill.  Dales small series of specimens of M. arion and S. lineata from that locality are in his collection at Oxford. James Dale usually only included a small series of rare species from their different localities in his collection. Entomologists such as Dale and the Langport collectors were eager to obtain as many examples of M. arion and S. lineata as they were able to capture. Their duplicate specimens of those prized species were invaluable in exchange for other rarities with other entomologists . J. C. Dale had a very wide circle of entomological friends that he exchanged insects with. At that period both M. arion and S. lineata were known from just a couple of localities and were much sought after by other collectors.

In a letter dated November 7th 1836 that John Quekett wrote from Langport to J.C. Dale , he said " In answer to yours of the 1st of no-number I beg to say that I will be very happy to exchange some specimens of arion and dealbata for Colias electra from B. Morris and others you may be pleased to send. As I have no box intermediate between a pocket collecting box and a large storebox, I shall be very much obliged if you could send down one of yours and I shall return to you with my insects. I can send 12 or 14 specimens of arion and 10 specimens of dealbata for you to distribute to yourself, Morris, Ghant, Burney. Henderson."  .

Quekett also mentioned in the same letter that in exchange for his insects specimens of Maculinea arion and I. dealbata ( S. lineata), he would like specimens of P. machaon, L. dispar and the hairstreak S. w-album. Colias electra was an early Aurelian name for Colias croceus . Beverley Robinson Morris was a doctor, naturalist and artist. He was the brother of one of the leading entomologists of the day, the Reverend Francis Orpen Morris who had wrote ' The Natural History of British Butterflies, which was published in 1853. Through Dale, John Quekett also exchanged insects with F.O. Morris.

Idaea dealbata ( Siona lineata ) at Aller Hill.

The aptly named ' Black Veined Moth' Siona lineata ' Dale's Idaea dealbata', is today a protected species in Britain and is confined to a couple of sites on the North Downs of Kent. S. lineata has been recorded in a few other herb rich sites on calcareous hills in Southern England but where it has long been extinct. Even Newman in his ' Natural History of British Moths' which first appeared in 1869 noted that it was only found on a few chalk downs in the county of Kent.

In a letter dated 18th June 1836, John Quekett wrote to Dale about Maculinea arion and Siona lineata's (I. dealbata) capture on Aller Hill. " arion has again made its appearance and Paul and myself have succeeded in taking 12 specimens between us, but perhaps you will be more astonished when I tell you that Idaea dealbata is more abundant than arion, I have since Thursday taken 18 specimens and Paul 12 and there is every chance of taking more. I hope these new captures will be the means of bringing you to Langport" .

In his diary entry for the 27th June 1843, J.C. Dale records his last captures of I. dealbata = Siona lineata in its Aller locality and in his diary dated June 20th 1844, Dale wrote that he had seen  "no arion or dealbata " while he was collecting on the Aller Hills.

  

Specimens of Siona lineata captured by J.C. Dale at Aller Hill, Langport. Dale collection Oxford.

Next, Part two: A Notable and Forgotten Extinct Plebejus argus race that occurred on Aller Hill, Somerset.

[nomad]

Part two. An Extinct Limestone race of Plebejus argus from Aller Hill, Somerset.

Introduction.

Today in Britain, only the nominate Plebejus argus argus and its endemic subspecies caernensis are currently recognized as distinct taxons. Two other endemic subspecies of P. argus, masseyi and cretaceus, with many other P. argus populations have become extinct in Britain through changes or destruction of that butterflies habitat. It is estimated than Britain has lost 80 per cent of its population of this little and charming blue.

The distribution of P. argus in Britain and its wide range of different habitats, makes it a very interesting species to study in regarding geographical variation. Professor C.D. Thomas and a research team from Leeds University with S.T. Glen from Birmingham University, studied four of the more northerly of the Welsh and English Plebejus argus populations in some detail.

Chris Thomas and his team choose to study Plebejus argus from four different habitats, coastal heathland, wet mossland and limestone grassland in North Wales and dry heathland at Prees Heath in the English Midlands. The researches found that those four Plebejus argus populations were different in their morphology, host plant choice and associated species of ant. The scientists reared the larvae from the four different populations in captivity and found that some differences were maintained, which they suggested was through "evolutionary divergence ". Thomas wrote that " Racial differentiation in P. argus suggests relatively long periods of isolation in particular habitats; the same areas contain other rare species and races," which they called " biodiversity hot spots ". When Thomas and his team tried to introduce P. argus caernensis to a heathland habitat the colony failed and so did P. argus argus from heathland when it was introduced to the limestone. Thomas noted that the four different Plebejus argus populations from different geographical areas, were highly sedentary and kept well within their tight knit colonies.

Although Thomas singled out those P. argus populations that he studied, as well defined geographical and endemic races, three of them are still placed as infraspecific taxa. Peter Eeles on his UK Butterflies website mentions that " Both Worms (1949) and Thomas (1999) provide an analysis of many populations found in the British Isles, all of which are considered to belong to the nominate subspecies by default, despite apparent differences in appearance." Other extant populations of P. argus on the Portland limestone and the sand dunes of Cornwall, have also been mentioned by C.D. Thomas and other authors because of their geographical isolation from the nominate subspecies.

The Extinct P. argus Population from Aller Hill.

While I was researching the Lycaenidae in the Dale collection at Oxford, I was surprised to find specimens of an extinct Plebejus argus population from the limestone grassland of Aller Hill near Langport in Somerset. At Aller there was a unique assemblage of rare species. Plebejus argus was accompanied at Aller by both Maculinea arion and Siona lineata. I could find no records or mention of Plebejus argus being found on Aller Hill in any publication.

The Plebejus argus population that was once found in the Limestone grassland of Aller Hill, seems to have been a notable geographical race. The small series of females from Aller Hill that were captured by J.C. Dale have blue scaling on their uppersides which is more extended on their hindwings. There are also a few male specimens in the Dalean collection that are set as undersides from the same locality. The males and females the of P. argus specimens from Aller have paler undersides and their black ocellus are less distinct than those occurring on heath and moorland sites in Southern England.

Although I was given permission to take images at Oxford of the P. argus specimens from the Dale collection in a calibrated light box, I decided to only photograph them as they had been set. Great care is needed when handling Dale's smaller specimens, they are set with very small thin black English pins. The sloping wings of the Dale P. argus specimens are almost touching the bottom of their cabinet drawer. Steady hands are needed when removing and replacing these irreplaceable historic specimens.

The Langport collector Edward Paul, wrote to J.C. Dale on the 23rd October 1834 from London where he was studying medicine at the King's College with John Quekett. In his letter, Paul is arranging an exchange of insects that included specimens of M. arion with the help of Dale to a Mr Mathews. Edward Paul wrote in his letter that " argiolus, alsus, argus, agestis are very common with us at Langport ". Dale made a note at the end letter that Mathews had received Paul's specimens but Paul had, had nothing in return.

In his diary entry for June 29th 1836, Dale records that he took P. argus at Aller with the other Lycaenids, P. icarus, A. agestis, L.  alsus, M. arion and also the moth S. lineata. Lycaena alsus is an early Aurelian name for Cupido minimus. In Dale's diary for July 1st 1845, he wrote that he had collected P. argus with the Marbled White, Melanargia galathea. Dale's capture of P. argus on Aller Hill in 1845, was the last recorded occurrence of this species from that locality.

Plebejus argus also formerly occurred on the acidic moorland of Blackdown Hills in the adjacent county of Devon. The Blackdown Hills in Devon which once held good colonies of P. argus, are 30 km to the south of Aller. I have shown a male underside specimen from that little known locality for comparison with Dale's male specimen from the limestone of Aller Hill. Unfortunately the Blackdown Hills, also saw the extinction of its Plebejus argus population, almost certainly through changes in that butterflies habitat. Also, shown are specimens of the extinct P. argus cretaceus, from the chalk downs of South East England and two specimens from the lowland heaths of Studland, Dorset and the Hampshire New Forest.

 

Plebejus argus specimens taken by Dale between 1834-1845 at Aller Hill. Two female recto specimens are shown with a male verso specimen. Dale collection OUMNH.



Male verso specimen of P. argus from Culmstock, an acidic moorland locality on the Blackdown Hills in Devon. A.H. Turner leg, Taunton Heritage Centre Collection.



Two verso specimens of Plebejus argus from English lowland Heathlands. Top male, bottom female. Oxford University Museum Natural History collections.



Two verso specimens of P. argus ssp cretaceus from the chalk downs at Eynsford in Kent. Top female. Bottom male. OUMNH collections.


It could be argued that from such a small series of specimens, that the lost P. argus population at Aller Hill cannot be evaluated as regards other known British populations. Did Dale especially seek out the blue females on Aller Hill or was this a constant feature of this race? Dale usually liked to show the variation of a species from the different localities that he visited. It is possible that the ' bluish' Plebejus argus females and the pale undersides of the males to be found at Aller, may have been a constant morphological feature of that vanished Somerset limestone population. Aller Hill and its P.argus population were certainly a biodiversity hot spot with its assemblage of rare species.

A History of Plebejus argus in Somerset.

Plebejus argus was once found in a number of scattered localities in Somerset but it is now sadly extinct in all of them. Some of these county sites for P.argus were recorded from acidic habitats but a number of others, especially in the northern part of Somerset, were found on the calcareous limestone hills.  Specimens from the Somerset extinct localities are very rare in collections. My first search through the collections of Bristol Museum revealed no definite Somerset specimens of P. argus. It is likely that most of the historic argus specimens in that museum were destroyed during the Bristol Blitz, when the museum was hit by a bomb and nearly all of its collections destroyed.

In my second visit to the Bristol Museum, I was looking at the fine cabinet drawer of Plebejus argus from the G. B. Coney collection. Coney was a resident of Batcombe, a village in the Mendip Hills of Somerset. Coney's impressive lepidoptera collection was donated to City Museum during 1945. Among the rows of Coney's lowland Plebejus argus specimens with their brown females, that were mainly from the New Forest, were a series of bluish females. These bluish females had been collected by Coney at Ashcott, a village situated in the limestone of the Polden Hills. Ashcott was mention by A.H. Turner (1956), the Somerset lepidopterist, as a former locality for P. argus.



Two females of Plebejus argus, G.B. Coney collection, Bristol City Museum, Ashcott, Somerset.

The collections of the Taunton Heritage Centre was also searched but surprisingly no certain Somerset examples of P. argus with data were found. The first major collection to be donated to the Taunton Castle Museum, later rehoused in the new Heritage Centre, was in 1878 by W.G. Rawlinson, a wealthy silk merchant from Taunton. It is now known that a few earlier specimens were placed within the Rawlinson collection. During my search through the Taunton collections, the two specimens of M. arion that were recorded as being donated by William Paul from Aller Hill to the museum were found in the Rawlinson collection. There are a few ancient specimens of female P. argus in the Rawlinson collection with no data but they are very similar to Dale's small series from Aller Hill. Without data, one cannot be certain where these old Rawlinson specimens of P. argus were captured. The Rawlinson's collection contained butterfly species, all without data from many localities in Britain.



Old specimens of Plebejus argus that were captured during the early to middle part of the 19th century. W.G. Rawlinson, Taunton Heritage centre.


I did find some Somerset 20th century P. argus specimens in the BMNH that were caught by the Bristol collector N. A. Watkins in Mid-Somerset. Watkins females were quite small and entirely brown. These specimens may have been taken on a lowland site? I have requested images of the Watkins P. argus Somerset specimens from the BMNH with their full data.

In Edward Newman's, ' An Illustrated Natural History of British Butterflies ' (1870) there is a record of P. argus from Brockley by A.E. Hudd, the Bristol entomologist. During 1884 A. E. Hudd, produced a local list of the butterflies of the Bristol District and added further limestone localities for P. argus, Weston-super-Mare and just across the County boundary in Gloucestershire at Durdham Down and Stapleton in Bristol. In a later annotation (1900) of his Catalouge of Butterflies of the Bristol District, Hudd added that P. argus had been taken at Clevedon by Mr J. Mason in 1900 where it was fairly Common.

In the ' Victoria Country History ' (1906), A.E. Hudd wrote that P. argus was then very local and uncommon in the county except at Bridgewater where it was taken freely. Hudd further listed some of those localities mentioned above and adds the Bath limestone, Taunton and Sidcot.

A. H. Turner in his ' Lepidoptera of Somerset ' (1955), wrote of Plebejus argus that it was " Very local and uncommon; it probably occurs near the south-western boundaries, as it is locally common just across in Devonshire". Turner lists some of Hudd's old argus localities and then mentions Sharpwick and formely at Ashcott.

It has also been mentioned that P. argus flew on the limestone of the Somerset Mendips Hills. However, I have yet to see a published record in the literature of P. argus occurring on the Mendip Hills and I have seen no specimens to verify these reports.

It is not known what the foodplant of the larvae of Plebejus argus was at Aller but it was probably the common Lotus corniculatus. Barnett (2003) suggested the limestone population of P. argus that once occurred in North Somerset, may have fed on the Bird's-foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, the food plant of ssp cretaceus. Barnett also mentioned that those limestone populations could either have belonged to P. argus argus or P. argus cretaceus. It is highly unlikely that the limestone population of P. argus at Aller and those elsewhere on the Somerset limestone belonged to subspecies cretaceus.

Female Variation within the Geographical Plebejus argus populations of Britain.

There was an interesting discussion on the UK Butterfly Forum, when I showed specimens of the extinct geographical race of Plebejus argus that occurred on Aller Hill. In that thread, Peter Eeles posted some interesting information on Plebejus argus that was sent to him by his friend Piers Vigus. Here is part of what that lepidopterist wrote

"Give me a net, and a couple of free days, and I could go to almost any argus colony in the country (with the possible exception of those in The New Forest) and return with a short series of exceptional specimens such as those in the photograph; however, these would in no way be representative of the 'typical' females to be found within the population. It could easily be the case that I would have to sort through hundreds, or even thousands of specimens in order to secure a series of 'blue females', although some populations do produce these forms with predictable regularity."

" It's also worth remembering that butterfly collectors tended to focus upon the exceptional, rather than the mundane, and collecting specimens that defied the norm was often the overriding consideration when venturing into the field. "

" Having said all that, there is a long-perpetuated myth in literature that 'blue females' are unusual in this species, and that they are (were) restricted in the main to the extinct 'subspecies' masseyi and the extant subspecies caernensis. In truth, 'blue females' are a regular occurrence in pretty much every population in the British Isles (with the exception of the New Forest and Dorset heaths, which probably define the English argus subspecies). I would go so far as to say that in certain areas in the east of England, in Cornwall, and in Wales; 'blue females' could truthfully be described as 'frequent' within populations. "

In that Forum thread, one of the moderators asked " That's an interesting thesis. I propose UK Butterflies members test it out this summer. Let's see if between us we can produce some photos of blue females from every  colony in the British Isles (except, perhaps, the New Forest and Dorset heaths). I have to say, I never saw any when I lived in Suffolk but nor did I have the opportunity to examine thousands of individuals. I think I will open a 'Blue Female' post when the SSB season opens to remind people to start looking! Together we can bust (or confirm) this myth! "

The U K Butterfly forum has many members that are photographers, yet no images were produced of any blue females from any of the Heathland P. argus localities in Southern and Eastern England. I have myself visited a number of lowland Heathland populations of P. argus in Central Southern England and have not yet experienced any of the really blue females. I have not visited the heathland populations of P. argus from Eastern England. It is true that the further north that you go in England and Wales, blue females become more frequent in the P. argus populations.

The P. argus colonies in Southern England, usually have populations with typical brown females. There can be little doubt that female specimens were taken with extended bluish scaling on southern heathlands in the past and they probably turn up on rare occasions today. I have seen female specimens in the BMNH from the once extensive North Hampshire heaths with extended blue scaling but the typical form was usually present in that area in much greater numbers. Unfortunately I was unable to take images of the P. argus specimens during my visit to the BMNH.

 

A typical female of Plebejus argus argus from a lowland heathland site, Silchester Common in North Hampshire in June 2012.



A pair of Plebejus argus from Felthorpe near Norwich, Norfolk. A. H. Turner leg, Taunton Heritage Centre. Once widespread in Norfolk, plebejus argus today occurs in just five sites in that county. It no longer occurs on Felthorpe Heath, a victim of afforestation.


It is true that the further north that you go in England and Wales, blue females become more frequent in the P. argus populations. Some of these northern colonies of P. argus that have bluish females, also have to a greater degree females with a typical brown colouration. The extinct mossland subspecies P. argus masseyi is said to have had, the most extended blue scaling of any race which was a defining character of that subspecies. This was true of those specimens of masseyi that were taken at Witherslack in Westmoreland but in those specimens of masseyi from Holker Moss in North Lancashire, there was less blue scaling. The dwarf subspecies P. argus caernensis, which occurs on the limestone of the Great Ormes Head in North Wales, has females that all have variable amounts of blue scaling and it is a constant feature of that population. It is notable that populations where blue females are present in all the population have been singled out as worthy of subspecific rank. There is also a little visited P. argus coastal heathland population on Holy Island, Anglesey in Wales, which also shows bluish female to a marked degree.



Plebejus argus caernensis female on the limestone of the Great Orme in North Wales, June 2014. The blue scaling on the upperwings of ssp caernensis, occasionally extends to the wing margins, to beautiful effect.


At Both Prees Heath in Shropshire and at the last remaining British mossland site in Snowdonia in Wales, the P. argus populations are a mixture of the typical brown females and again to a much lesser degree bluish examples. An extinct P. argus colony that was found in Delamere Forest in Cheshire had a population similar to that of Prees Heath. Much of the habitat at Prees Heath was destroyed but there has been some habitat restoration by Butterfly Conservation. In the far South-west of England there are also populations of P. argus on coastal sand dunes where there is again, a mixture of brown and to a lesser extent bluish females.

There was an extinct population of P. argus that used to occur on the mosslands near Manchester. Here on the Manchester mosslands, Plebejus argus flew with Coenonympa tullia, which was known locally as the Manchester Argus. P. argus masseyi also flew on the mosslands of Westmoreland and Lancashire with Coenonympa tulla and the females from the Manchester mosslands also have extended blue scaling. P. argus was still at Chat Moss near Manchester during 1908. Britain has lost a staggering 94 per cent of its wet mosslands.



Ancient specimen of a Plebejus argus, from a lost Manchester Mossland population. Dale collection. OUMNH.


Male Variation.

Although I have focused on the females of P. argus in this article, the males also show some variation within the different populations. It was said by J. M. Chalmers Hunt that ssp cretaceus was the finest of the P. argus races in his 'Butterflies of Kent ' (1961). He and others noted the bright blue males and their very pale undersides of subspecies cretaceus. It must be remembered that in studying specimens of blue male Lycaenidae, there is a marked degree in change of their colours from when they were alive to when they are dead. Those males of P. argus from limestone and chalk grassland localities tend to have paler undersides but differences have been noted even in heathland populations. Dennis (1977) observed males in heathland populations in Suffolk had silvery grey undersides but those from the New Forest were a dull grey.


The Limestone Population at Portland in Dorset.

The only surviving limestone population of P. argus in Southern England is to be found on Portland in Dorset. On Portland the population of P. argus surprisingly shows only minor differences to those occurring on the acidic soils of nearby heathlands. At Portland the P. argus colonies have slightly paler undersides. A number of lepidopterists regard the limestone population on Portland as belonging to P. argus ssp cretaceus. However, there were clear differences in the distribution, habitat and morphology of that extinct taxon.



Male P. argus, Limestone quarry, Portland, Dorset. June 2014.



Females of P. argus, Limestone quarry, Portland. June 2014.


The Early Stages of P. argus.

Plebejus argus has a very close association with ants from the larvae to the adult stages. There is no need to repeat the biology of P. argus here, as in Britain the early stages have been studied and published in detail. An account early stages of P. argus together with fine paintings showing ants attending to the larvae, pupa and emerging adult butterflies can be found in Britain's best butterfly book ' The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland ' by Jeremy Thomas and Richard Lewington. A new edition of that book has recently been published.


Conclusion.

The population that occurred on the Limestone ridge at Aller, was certainly similar in some respects, to those northerly populations of P. argus that C.D. thomas has studied. Aller Hill was a biodiversity hotspot for rare butterflies, almost certainly a unique one. The P. argus population at Aller Hill and on the neighbouring limestone Hills of Somerset, may have been a well defined geographical race that differed in their external morphology and in its biology. It is not known what percentage of the P. argus females had bluish scaling in the populations that were once found at Aller, If the bluish females were representative of that colony, then that alone would have made this geographical race an exceptional one. It is noteworthy that the collector G. B. Coney, collected on the limestone of the Polden Hills at Ashcott, series of P. argus with bluish females. Ashcott is separated by only 4km of the Somerset Levels, from the northern end of the Aller Hill ridge. Some these extant British P. argus geographical races may be regarded at present, as endemic infraspecific taxons but as Thomas suggested, the differences between the populations are evolution in progress. There can be little doubt that if the limestone population had survived at Aller and on the limestone elsewhere in Somerset, a team of researches would have produced detailed studies on that race.

All the photographs in this article were taken by me between 2012-2014. I was like to thank Dennis Parsons of the Taunton Heritage Centre, James Hogan of the Hope Department of Entomology at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH), Kathleen Santry of the Hope Entomological Library (OUMNH) and Geoff Martin at the British Museum of Natural History. I would also like to thank Piers Vigus for permission to reproduce a transcript of his P. argus notes.

References.

Barnett, R., Higgins, R., Moulin, T. and Wiltshire, C. (2003). The Butterflies of the Bristol Region: The Wildlife of the Bristol Region: 2.

Dale, J.C. (1835-1865). Entomological Diary for 1835-1865.

Eeles Peter . U.K Butterflies : Silver-studded Blue species account.

www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species.php?species=argus

Hardy P.B. (1998). Butterflies of Greater Manchester.

Hudd A.E. (1906). Insects Rhopalocera, Somerset Victorian County History. 1. pp 89-92.

Hudd A.E. (1884). Catalogue of the lepidoptera of the Bristol District District. Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalist Society. Vol II to Vol IV.

Quekett Edward (1834).  Letter to J.C. Dale. OUMNH, Hope Department of Entomology Library.

Quekett Edward( 1847).  Letter to J.C. Dale. OUMNH, Hope Department of Entomology Library. 

Newman, E. (1871). An Illustrated Natural History of British Butterflies and Moths.

Norfolk biodiversity action plan: Silver studded Blue ( 2006) www.norfolkbiodiversity.org/pdf/SAPsHAPs/SAPs/SSB_final%20version%20_June%202006.pdf

Thomas C.D, Glen S.T, Lewis O.T, Hill J.K. and Blakeley D.S. ( 1999). Population differentiation and conservation of endemic races:the butterfly, Plebejus argus.

users.ox.ac.uk/~zool0376/PargusAnimalConserv.pdf

Thomas, J. and Lewington, R. (2014). The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland. Gillingham, Dorset: British Wildlife Publishing.

Proceedings of the Chester Society of Nature Science (1948) VOL 2. page 30.

Turner A.H. Lepidoptera of Somerset  (1955). Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society.

Blackdown's Natural Area Profile.

www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/Science/natural/profiles%5CnaProfile89.pdf

Warren, M. S. (1986). The status of the cretaceus race of the silver-studded blue butterfly, Plebejus argus L., on the Isle of Portland. Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist & Arch. Soc. 108: 153–155.

[wollastoni]

I would tend to agree with my friend Piers.

I think blue females are encounterable in all colonies of P. argus at different rate, with some colonies where it is rare, and some colonies where it is abundant.

[nomad]

Dec 31, 2015 15:55:11 GMT wollastoni said:

I would tend to agree with my friend Piers.

I think blue females are encounterable in all colonies of P. argus at different rate, with some colonies where it is rare, and some colonies where it is abundant.

subspecies caernensis, extinct ssp masseyi and the extinct Manchester mossland population with those at Holy Island? have or had bluish examples in all the females, there all brown females are rare or non existent. Some populations on lowland heaths in England have no bluish females such as Silchester Common in Hants, all the population is a uniform brown. Did the Aller Hill race have all blue females, if it did it could have represented an unrecognized subspecies or more likely it was a distinct geographical race. The question being where to draw the line between subspecies and races. The Dale Aller Hill P. argus have been pinned in their box for two hundred years without anyone noticing that not only were they found on limestone, an usual biotype for Southern England but they flew with with M. arion and S. lineata.

[nomad]

I might add that now I have definite proof that the locality where M. arion occurred at Aller Hil with Siona lineata and P. argus was ploughed.  It is in a letter that Edward Quekett, the brother of John Quekett, sent to J.C. Dale in 1847, no wonder the famous collector did not go to Langport after 1845, the habitat had been destroyed.  Once again a study of history has proved that collectors were not responsible for local butterfly extinctions. More on this in part three, M. arion at Aller Hill.

[nomad]

Maculinea arion on Aller Hill and further notes on that species from Somerset.

I have written elsewhere of a visit that J.C. Dale made in 1834 to collect Maculinea arion at Langport. See collector-secret.proboards.com/thread/197/maculinea-arion-britain-ssp-eutyphron?page=1&scrollTo=1779

In a letter dated 17th June 1834 John Quekett wrote to Dale " I write to inform you of the appearance of Polyommatus arion, I now write to say, that I have taken 6 specimens since Sunday, and have every reason to suppose that they will be as abundant as they were last season " John Quekett ended his letter with " trusting that you will make a longer stay than before, and hoping that you may be able to come. Believe me your obedient servant John Quekett." J.C. Dale had visited John Quekett at Langport the year before on 14th May 1833.

John Quekett wrote under Captures, in Newman's Entomological Magazine in 1834." I took about forty specimens on the 15th June 1833, in a situation abounding with long grass and brambles at Langport near Taunton ; and on the same day in 1834, I took twenty specimens, and Mr Dale ten "
.
J.C. Dale records in his diaries that M. arion was plentiful on Aller Hill until 1839 but in the following few years there was a sharp decline in that locality. Dale took his last 4 specimens on Aller Hill in June 1843. While collecting on Aller Hill in June 20th 1844, Dale mentions that he had seen no M. arion. Dale also did not record Maculinea arion during his last visit to Aller Hill in June 1845.

 


Specimens of Maculinea arion captured by J.C. Dale at Aller Hill. Dale collection. Oxford University Museum of Natural History.


By 1845, John Quekett had been a resident of London for a number of years, where he had become the assistant conservator of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, and would only have been able to accompany James Dale on his first few collecting trips to Aller Hill. A letter that John Quekett's brother Edward, the Langport banker and ornithologist wrote his friend, J.C. Dale on the 24th June 1847, contained some very revealing information regarding M. arion. The letters reveal that the habitat where Dale and the others had captured M. arion and had been destroyed. Edward Quekett wrote

" I hope that, if you have felt inclined to look after Arion once more, you would not have stood upon the ceremony of my first having invited you, I can assure you we shall be glad to see you at any time, and if you still persevere in the search I will do the best to entertain you, this is, if I recollect, about the time the butterfly appears, but I should almost imagine its habitat is changed from the locality where you caught it in former years, for the fields have been ploughed and sown latterly, and now are covered with standing corn."

Edward Quekett's account gives details in his letter that M. arion's prime locality on the Aller Hills had gone through agricultural improvement. In his diary for June 20th 1835, Dale mentioned that M. arion was found in Sheep's slait (pasture). I can find no references of James Dale visiting Langport to collect insects after 1845. By then Dale almost certainly knew that the ' game was up ' for the Aller Hill specials , the rare butterflies and moth's last flight had been into the pages of History.
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M. arion in Somerset : New notes.

In my article ' A History of the Large Blue in Somerset ' www.dispar.org/reference.php?id=107 I mentioned  that M. arion had been rediscovered five  kilometers from the Aller Hill, Langport locality in 1945 and survived into the 1950s. This information was taken from Jeremy Thomas's account of the Large Blue in Emmet and Heath's ' The Butterflies and Moths of Great Britain and Ireland published in 1990. This information now seems to be in error and there may have been some confusion with Ian Heslop's Somerset records from the same period. Jeremy Thomas who is Britain's top butterfly expert, no longer recognizes any of the 20th century Somerset records of M. arion in Somerset!!

Whatever you believe or disbelieve regarding Heslop's 20th century Somerset records of M. arion in Somerset, I thought that I have heard the last of this subject. I was however, contacted by an interested person who said he had read my dispar M. arion article and that he knew of two Somerset specimens of M. arion that were in the Leeds City Museum's collection. It seems that during the 1950s, the curator of the museum John Armitage (1900-1996) was so interested in M. arion that he appealed in a Newspaper or periodical for information or specimens of little known M. arion populations. My Yorkshire correspondent in a telephone conservation told me that J. Armitage was sent two Somerset specimens of M. arion from two different sources and that he had previously seen that one of the Leeds specimens was taken at Exford on Exmoor by a schoolboy in 1956 and had seen previously a rough map that Armitage made of the location. The other Somerset M. arion example was sent to Armitage by a certain Mr Smith during the same year, who was a farmer and had collected the M. arion specimen at High Ham. Dale is known to have visited High Ham to collect insects and it is situated at the North end of the Aller Hill Range. There is however, a Ham Hill near the town of Yeovil in Somerset.

My correspondent photographed both of the supposed Large Blue Somerset specimens in the Leeds Museum with the John Armitage labels but these had no precise locality data. Armitage may have deliberately refrained from adding the precise localities to keep them a secret. Exford on Exmoor does seem an unlikely locality for M. arion and that butterfly has never been recorded from there but the moor is vast and the area was very unrecorded during that period. Large populations of Heath Fritillary, M. athalia were not discovered on Exmoor until late in the 20th century. The other Somerset specimen from High Ham, if that is the correct locality is intriguing. Unfortunately there has been as yet no further information from John Armitage notes regarding these two specimens. The Armitage, diaries, letters and newspaper cuttings are housed in the Leeds Museum so hopefully more information will be forthcoming. This is an interesting story and one that might or might not provide further information.

What does seem incredible is that in his request for specimens of the Large Blue, Armitage was sent two that were collected in 1956 by a D. Wilson on the 10th July from Exford and another that was collected just four days later by a certain Mr A. E. Smith on the 14th July at High Ham. These were that only Somerset 20th century records, except those of Ian Heslop at Brockley Combe in 1945 and at Burleigh during 1949 on the Polden Hills. Some claim that Heslop's strange story in the Entomologist of 1945, of taking a single M.arion at Brockley Combe was a hoax, perpetrated with the aid of his friend the Baron de Worms. Others such as Matthew Oates in his 2005 biography of Ian Heslop ' Extreme Butterfly Collecting ' have no doubt of the captures made by Heslop and de Worms at Brockley and by Heslop on the Polden Hills. It worth recounting Heslop's account here.

" I was reclining on a clump of heather in order to rest a lame foot when I was astonished to see a Large Blue come flying towards me. It gave me an excellent view of itself as it fluttered over some flowers at two paces distance while I was struggling to my feet ".  Heslop's did not capture the M. arion that he claimed to have seen, it escaped across the heather clad steep slopes of the combe.



The two Maculinea arion 20th century specimens from Somerset?, ex John Armitage collection, Leeds City Museum.

[nomad]

Well, I was going back to work today but yet another day's unexpected holiday.   So I will have time to add some  more pieces to this thread.

It seems that in little other over a decade from when they were discovered on Aller Hill, M. arion together with the rare moth Siona lineata had become extinct through the destruction of the habitat. Both species were very localized in this locality occurring in herb rich grassland among scrub and both disappeared around the same time in 1843. When J.C. Dale was visiting Aller Hill the butterfly was thriving in this habitat between the longer sward and the scrub. Until recently I thought that scrub had invaded and shaded out the habitat, now through further studying Edward Quekett's letters, I now know that the main habitat M. arion and S. lineata was destroyed by ploughing.

There can be little doubt though, that the localized population of M. arion and S. lineata were very heavily collected on Aller Hill and may have lead to a decline. Until I have read the Dale letters, they was no suggestion that apart from that great entomologist and the Langport collectors, others had visited this locality to collect butterflies. Although John Quekett recorded his and Dale's captures of M. arion in Newman's Entomological Magazine in 1834, the Langport locality for M. arion seems to have been little visited, probably because the butterfly disappeared here in such a short space of time. In a letter dated the 19th June 1835, John Quekett wrote to Dale, he reveals at least one London collector came here to collect M. arion.

" I now write to acquaint you that arion is very plentiful this year, in two days I have taken 24 specimens and Mr Desvignes from London 16 in one day and I think the sooner you come the better. I took one specimen on the 8th of this month but did not take another until the 14th but they are now in the finest condition. We have been expecting you every day but fearing you might have forgotten the time I have taken the opportunity of making you acquainted with it"

The collector with John Quekett was probably the entomologist Thomas Desvignes (1812- 1868) who specialized in Hymenoptera and wrote a number of Scientific papers on that insect order.

The irascible entomologist James Tutt (1858-1911) laid the blame of the disappearance of Maculinea arion at Aller Hill with John Quekett and others. In his article, ' The gradual decadence of Lycaena arion (1896), published in The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation 1896. He wrote " About the same time Mr Quekett and others did their best to exterminate this species in Somerset." He then writes of John Quekett's collecting exploits during 1833-1834 mentioned above, that was published by Newman in 1834 and again in 1869. Tutt included Newman's comment " Mr Quekett visited the same locality on several occasions, and always with the same success" Tutt finishing with " and then of course L. arion became extinct in Somerset". In writing this , Tutt had not considered or had any knowledge of the changes of M. arion's habitat on Aller Hill.

Today much has changed at Aller Hill, only a few small areas of short turf grasslands remain. Much of which is left is a Site of Scientific Interest mainly for its assemblage of rare limestone plant species. In certain areas you have to keep to the footpaths because of trampling or they are privately owned.

[nomad]

Aller Hill. A Summer's visit.

I thought that if I was going to write about the extinct butterflies and moths of Aller Hill, I at least ought to go and experience this part of rural Somerset for myself.

As I walked through the quiet country lanes dotted with cottages towards Aller Hill from Langport, I noticed that the freshness of spring had gone and the trees had changed to their dark green hues, for it was now early July. There is no easy access here and the top of Aller Hill which today is crowned with pine trees is off limits, being barred and private and at the bottom of the rough grassland slope there a vineyard.

I sat down at the top of a grassland bank by the permissible footpath with views towards the adjacent crown of Aller Hill and looked out across the grasslands of the Somerset Levels, once vast area of marshlands. There are still the wetlands here, RSPB Sedgemoor lies on the horizon. Although a few areas of herb rich grassland remain on Aller Hill, it was still hard to imagine the trio of extinct gems flying here together nearly two centuries ago. Marbled Whites Melanargia galathea floated around me just as they would have when Dale and the Langport collectors were on the Aller Hills.

I could visualize many summers ago, James Dale, John Quekett, William and Edward Paul walking up the lanes below to Aller Hill on a nice sunny June day. I expect the local farm workers toiling in the fields much have found those gentleman collectors an amusing sight with their nets and collecting paraphernalia.

My thoughts turned back to the present day. I had a look round to see what I could find. I disturbed and photographed a few quite common but nice moths on the Limestone Grassland. Further along, the hills become heavily wooded with dense scrub and along one part of the top of the hill, a jumble of wooden holiday cabins and caravans with their neat green lawns. The small dogs of the people holidaying here, broke the silence with their barking. I retreated down a steep bridleway and by an old stone farmhouse at the bottom and I set off across the pathways across the low lying fields with their drainage dykes and herds of grazing cattle to return to Langport.



Aller Hill today.


Marbled White Melanargia galathea at Aller Hill.



The primitive White Plume Moth Pterophorus pentadactyla Aller Hill.



Thistle Ermine Myelois circumvoluta. Aller Hill.



The Yellow Shell Camptogramma bilineata. Aller Hill.

[nomad]

I have been back to the Bristol Museum and had another look at the Plebejus argus collection to study variation within some of the extant and extinct populations. in Britain it is certainly a very complex situation and most P. argus populations do show genetic variation . It has been found that one P. argus population in North Wales has been isolated for 10,000 years. This will be a bit of a Plebejus argus fest with several posts.

I had another look at the G.B. Coney drawer of Plebejus argus containing no less than 450 specimens from four different localities. The majority of Coney's P. argus specimens were taken in the New Forest but there was an interesting selection from the following extinct populations of Maiden Down near Culmstock in the acidic Blackdown Hills of Devon. A short series of females from the limestone of the Polden Hills at Ashcott in Somerset but surprisingly no males from that locality. There were also a few males from Wootton. There are several British villages known as Wootton. On account of the light verso of the males, they are probably ssp cretaceus from Wootton near Dover in Kent.

At Ashcott in Somerset, the following G.B Coney females of P. argus specimens, do in fact show a mixed population but the female versos were much lighter than those from the New Forest heaths.

    

[nomad]

Females of P. argus that G.B. Coney collected at Maiden Down in the Blackdown Hills near the village of Culmstock in Devon during 1930. An extinct population. The first image is an unusual specimen.

   

[nomad]

Lastly, a series of G.B. Coney's P. argus specimens from the New Forest. In his collection I could only find one really blue female from the lowland heaths that was collected at Bournemouth, almost certainly that heath would have been built on.

 

[nomad]

Strange tales of the Large Blue. Maculinea arion in Somerset, an update.

Further to the notes complied by me in this thread regarding M. arion in Somerset, interesting information and documents have been provided by a correspondent, a new member to the forum " Beatie " His farther was an enthusiastic M.arion aficionado.

The late Malcolm Sooner, Chairman of the Large Blue committee for many years and a highly regarded scientist, was without doubt the most knowledgeable historical expert on Maculinea arion eutyphron Fruhstorfer, 1915. His unpublished 1976 report of the detailed history of the Large Blue in Britain, is full of interesting facts concerning localities, many not published elsewhere and his further unpublished notes on M. arion in Somerset is full of interest. Spooner recorded that Ian Heslop's Butleigh locality on the Polden Hills, "where he says took says he took a specimen on July 11, 1945 was in clearings in Great Breach Wood" and added that an entomologist named Edwards reported a possible sighting of M. arion in 1969 in the Butleigh area, the butterfly did not settle and he was only 60% sure it was M. arion.

Further information is provided by Roger Smith on Heslop's capture at Butleigh in the article Maculinea arion in Somerset – a History (2012) (see the link below) published by Somerset Butterfly Conservation in their magazine the Arion issue No 90 "The site of this capture was on the woodland fringe just south of Combe Hollow by Wickham’s Cross, shortly before the steep adjacent hillside was to disappear under extensive conifer planting in the 1950’s".

M. arion in the Quantock Hills.

In his article Smith (2012) writes, "In 1969 two Bristol naturalists, John Burton of the BBC Natural History Unit and Robin Prytherch were taken, in the course of a guided tour of Heslop’s favourite collecting haunts, to Triscombe Stone in the Quantock Hills. It was here that Heslop and a celebrated breeder of British Lepidoptera, R. E. Stockley, knew of a colony of arion in the 1950’s and where Heslop reported it as “plentiful” in July 1954 (pers.comm..John Burton). On this visit the party was surprised and dismayed to find the whole site destroyed by large scale quarrying which had evidently taken place in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. This site, unlike Brockley Combe, seems to have been completely unknown to local or other naturalists and no record of it exists in print".

"Certainly no M. arion specimens in the Bristol Museum Heslop Butterfly collection bear labels from this Quantock locality. In contrast, when Roy Stockley’s collection was purchased by a well known collector R.W. Watson, it was reported to have contained some 200 specimens from Triscombe, but this information still awaits verification".

I myself have examined the Heslop collection and there are indeed no specimens from the Quantock Hills and there is no mention that it was a locality for M. arion in his diary entries. If M. arion was common at Triscombe, it was strange that Heslop did not add specimens to his collection from a new locality and a new geographical area. Heslop collected M. arion in a number of different areas, from the Cotswold Hills, various localities in Cornwall and even added a specimen, when he stated that he found a very small colony at Butleigh on the Polden Hills in 1945.

I have also examined the collection of M. arion in the collections at the British Museum of Natural History and there are few old 19th century specimens from Somerset and there are none captured in the 20th century from the Quantock Hills. If the Bob Watson collection contained 200 specimens from Triscombe they would have filled an entire drawer.

Roy Stockley the well known collector, had phenomenal luck in obtaining rare aberrations by breeding and by collecting in the field. He like Heslop were among the last of the old style collectors and both were the authors of the highly regarded monograph, Notes and Views of the Purple Emperor. Heslop was certainly the most knowledgeable expert regarding Apatura iris at this time and his other obsession was collecting M. arion.

My correspondant Beatie, writes " Stockley was always a very canny character and divulged little, but my father felt he knew him better than most and had his trust. So, according to my father Stockley only EVER saw arion ONCE at Hembury Castle Buckfastleigh in the ‘60s. He collected a few females in a vain attempt to breed them; once sufficient eggs had been obtained he passed them on (alive) to Heslop to try the same."

"There is, as far as I’m aware, no truth to the ‘200 Stockley specimens from Triscombe’. My father extensively examined Bob Watson’s collection, when he was alive, on many occasions and there was nothing there. [Watson exchanged/gave-away huge numbers of specimens but, it seems unlikely he wouldn’t have kept a series of Somerset arion. I guess there are none in the BM(NH) where his collection now resides? It may, of course, not have been Watson that bought the “Stockley Collection” as Stockley had a habit of selling ‘his collection’ every year or so, when the price was right! There was a degree of distrust between Stockley and Heslop and Stockley had grave doubts about many of Heslop’s captures/sightings. Jeremy Thomas was very skeptical/dismissive of all 20thC records from Somerset - he surveyed lots of 'rumoured' sites throughout the country in the '70s and the only one he 'rated' was Meldon Reservoir, NW Dartmoor where the habitat was perfect (but no arion)." One must add that changes in grassland habitat of M. arion can happened within a few years leading to an extinction of a colony.

Beatie pers comms adds " Re: Triscombe/Wills Neck on the Quantocks... It was Roger Sutton (coincidentally an obituary for him appears in the same link as I provided you with) who persuaded Heslop to divulge his Quantocks locality and took him on the infamous road-trip to it. Sutton appears to have believed him but, Kennard following things up a few years later doubted it vehemently... Apparently a well known local naturalist (familiar with arion) lived in Crowcombe and had visited the site for decades -- nothing. Also, talking to the quarry manager, Triscombe Quarry had not appreciably expanded on the surface for well over half-a-century (=it just got deeper). Spooner reported that in 1976, Muggleton and Nevin searched the Cotswolds and Somerset hills but found no trace of M. arion.

John Armitage of Leeds and his 20th century records of M. arion.

Smith (2002) in his article writes " More recently and through the good offices of Peter Summers, late of The Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, further information on the history of arion in Somerset has come to light. Mr Summers was able to examine the collection and diaries of a Yorkshire collector (with a particular interest in the butterfly), John Armitage and uncovered the following evidence. In 1956 Armitage was sent a specimen of arion captured by a hunt-servant working just NE of Oxford. Also, during the 1950s a farmer found an adult at High Ham near Pitney, which he gave to Armitage".

During 2015 a correspondant from Leeds, James Dickinson who had read my article on M. arion alerted me to the presence of two 20th century specimens from Somerset in the Armitage collection at the Leeds City Museum (see the previous post in this thread). The Oxford specimen mentioned by Smith was not found. According to Dickinson there was the newspaper advert that the Large Blue aficionado Armitage placed in a National Paper, requesting information on M. arion colonies from unknown localities. In 1956, Armitage apparently received two specimens from Somerset, one from a school boy from Exmoor (where arion has never been recorded) and a specimen from a farmer from High Ham at the northern end of the Aller Hills.

Smith (2012) made no mention that when Summers examined the Armitage diaries he found the record of the specimen of M. aron sent to Armitage from the school boy from Exford on Exmoor. The specimen sent by a hunt-servant working just NE of Oxford mentioned in the Armitage diary was not found by Dickinson when he examined the collection at the Leeds Museum. Oxfordshire has never been regarded as having localities for M. arion and there are no records in the literature for that county. The Oxford region has been collected over by generations of Oxford university graduates and their professors. Armitage seems to have been a very lucky collector, for when M. arion had vanished from most of its British localities and had become very rare in its traditional haunts such as the Cotswolds, he managed to receive by post in 1956 three specimens, two of them in perfect condition from unknown localities. One would have expected that Armitage would have made no delay in examining the Somerset and Oxford localities to access the habitat for more M. arion, but in spite of his interest and their importance, there is no record that he ever did so and no more specimens or information were forthcoming from his localities.

Spooner (1976) was quite aware of the Armitage records but makes no mention of them in his detailed account of M. arion in Somerset. My correspondent Beatie writes of the Armitage records of M. arion, " I recall that Alan Kennard marked these records as highly dubious. He 'investigated' every reported sighting/record, together with Geoff Spooner. I recall that he visited Armitage who couldn't locate the specimens, recall where exactly where they were taken and, neither did he keep any of the correspondence! I.e. there was no way of verifying anything"!

It is strange that Armitage did not keep his valuable correspondence regarding M. arion, which better than labelled specimens, would without question, have verified his records as genuine. Spooner in his M. arion notes and the comprehensive unpublished 1976 report of M. arion's historic localities for the Nature Conservancy Council made no mention of the Armitage records and like others seems to have dismissed them altogether.

The issue of butterfly conservation (2012) available as a pdf online here. Roger Smith's article Maculinea arion in Somerset – a history p. 14.

www.somersetwildlife.org/hres/Arion%2090%20PDF%20SQ%20Final.pdf

Further notes on M. arion on the Aller Ridge in Somerset.

There seems to have been two sites for M. arion on the Aller Hills, Sheep's Slait, a field below the woodland at Pitney and Aller Hill itself. There is a letter that Edward Quekett sent to J.C. Dale on June 24th 1847, mentioning the destruction of the habitat of M. arion at Sheep's Slait.

Spooner (1976) recorded the Aller Hill localities for M. arion were often mentioned as being near Glastonbury. He held the view that Glastonbury was not a reference to the main Polden Hills north of that town but referred to the Dale and Quekett localities on the Aller Hills. This is borne out by Rev. F.O. Morris, (1853) in his A History of British Butterflies who wrote. " Near Glastonbury, Somerset where Mr Quekett has taken it in profusion." Morris a friend of Dale was quite aware that he and John Quekett had taken M. arion plenty on the Aller Hills. There is no mention of John Quekett collecting M. arion from any other locality, soon after the forays in the hills of Aller with J.C. Dale and the Paul brothers, he had left Langport to reside in London. There is then no historical evidence that M. arion once existed on the main ridge of the Polden Hills until it was stated to be found there by Heslop in 1945.
The diaries of J.C. Dale were also examined by Spooner, he gave the following information from Dale's diary for 1842 : June 20th went with Curtis to Langport. June 21st at Sheep's Slait near Pitney no arion. June 22nd Polyommatus arion male. Mr Curtis took 3 arion and Paul one. (Sooner added presumably Sheeps Slait).

Dale's diary entry for June 26, 1843, recorded the last M. arion from the Aller Hills : June 26th near Langport 4 arion. Dale's last visit to the locality was in early July 1845 when he visited Aller Hill and Breach Wood. No M. arion where taken. Breach Wood just north of Aller should not be confused with Great Breach Wood at Butleigh situated along the main ridge of the Polden Hills, where Heslop reported finding the small colony M. arion.

[kikuzuki]

Ref the "Ashcott" Silver-studded Blues in the Coney collection at the Bristol Museum - I would guess that the breeding-grounds were not on limestone, but on the peat moors where the present RSPB Ham Wall reserve now is (the area known as Ashcott Corner) and adjacent to the known colony of the butterfly at Shapwick.  The 1952 Entomologist's Record briefly mentions that the species was in decline on the peat moors owing to peat-cutting, which eventually eliminated it entirely, along with many other invertebrates.

[nomad]

You are probably correct. The locality on the label is Ashcott with no other details. If you look on the explorer map there are limestone hills just to the south of the village of Ashcott named Pedwell Hill-Priest Hill, part of the Polden Hills. It is quite possible the Coney specimens came from the moors to the north because of the Sharpwick population but since there was also a colony on the limestone of Aller Hill to the south, and the females from Ashcott somewhat resembled those, there is a possibility that the specimens shown were taken on the Ashcott hills just to the south of the village. What is quite certain is that this butterfly is extinct in Somerset as you well know.