The Aurelian Legacy: British Butterflies and Their Collectors

Front Cover
University of California Press, 2000 - Biography & Autobiography - 432 pages
This entertaining and informative book traces the history of butterfly collection in Britain from the seventeenth century, when the study of natural history had its beginnings. Our knowledge of butterflies is the result of four hundred years of collection and study. However, butterfly collecting is a controversial subject today, and given the present state of butterfly populations, indiscriminate gathering of specimens can no longer be justified.

In addition to giving a history of butterfly collecting in Britain, this beautifully illustrated volume describes the equipment used and gives brief biographies of 101 deceased lepidopterists. The book is generously laced with anecdotes and quotations, and includes many contemporary monochrome portraits, accounts of selected species of historical interest, and an appraisal of the effects of collecting and of current conservation policies. Appendixes list all the British and Irish butterflies with their earlier, often confusing, and sometimes fanciful vernacular names, and provide a chronological account of entomological societies, publications, and significant events in the canon of British entomology.

The Aurelian Legacy is a fascinating account of the men and women who have made valuable contributions to our knowledge of British butterflies and of their early and often complex history. It is not only a good read but also an excellent reference source for current and future lepidopterists as well as social historians.
 

Contents

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
11
CHAPTER 1
25
Weapons of the Chase
55
A Company of Serious Thoughtful Men
93
Adrian Hardy Haworth 17671833
127
Edward Donovan 17681837
129
Joseph Grimaldi 17791837
131
William Spence 17831859
132
Edward Alfred Cockayne 18801956
214
John William Heslop Harrison 18811967
216
Philip Bertram Murray Allan 18841973
218
Norman Denbigh Riley 18901979
219
Lionel George Higgins 18911985
220
Henry Charles Huggins 18911977
221
Arthur Francis Hemming 18931964
222
Sir Robert Henry Magnus Spencer Saundby 18961971
223

Richard Weaver fl 17901860
133
Lætitia Jermyn 17881848
136
George Samouelle c 17901846
137
John Curtis 17911862
138
James Charles Dale 17921872
139
James Francis Stephens 17921852
141
James Rennie 17871867
142
Abel Ingpen 17961854
143
Frederick William Hope 17971862
144
Edward Newman 18011876
145
James Duncan 18041861
147
John Obadiah Westwood 18051893
148
Henry Doubleday 18081875 and
150
John Arthur Power 18101886
153
Francis Orpen Morris 18101893
154
Frederick Bond 18111889
155
John William Douglas 18141905
156
William Buckler 18141884
157
Charles Stuart Gregson 18171899
159
Emma Sarah Hutchinson 18201906
160
Thomas Vernon Wollaston 18221878
161
Henry Tibbats Stainton 18221892
162
John Jenner Weir 18221894
164
Joseph Greene 18241906
165
George Carter Bignell 18261910
166
Henry Guard Knaggs 18321908
167
Joseph William Dunning 18331897
168
Octavius PickardCambridge 18281917
169
Charles Golding Barrett 18361904
171
William West 18361920
172
James Platt Barrett 18381917
173
William Henry Harwood 18401917
174
Albert Brydges Farn 18411921
175
Thomas Algernon Chapman 18421921
176
Thomas de Grey 6th Baron Walsingham 18431919
177
Francis Buchanan White 18421894
178
William Forsell Kirby 18441912
179
William Holland 18451930
180
Henry John Elwes 18461922
181
Richard South 18461932
184
Robert Adkin 18491935
186
Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton 18561943
187
James William Tutt 18581911
189
Edward Meyrick 18541938
191
Frederick William Frohawk 18611946
193
Heinrich Ernst Karl Jordan 18611959
197
Margaret Elizabeth Fountaine 18621940
199
Percy May Bright 18631941
202
Lionel Walter Rothschild 2nd Baron Rothschild of Tring 18681937
205
Edward Bagwell Purefoy 18681960
207
Leonard Woods Newman 18731949
209
Henry Attfield Leeds 18731958
211
Hon Nathaniel Charles Rothschild 18771923
213
Edmund Brisco Ford 19011988
224
Baron Charles George Maurice de Worms 19041980
226
Russell Frederick Bretherton 19061991
227
Robert Watson 19161984
229
Edward Charles PelhamClinton 10th Duke of Newcastle 19201988
230
Richard Lawrence Edward Ford 19131996
231
Peter William Cribb 19201993
232
John Heath 19221987
233
CHAPTER 4
240
The Chequered Skipper Carterocephalus palaemon
241
The Essex Skipper Thymelicus lineola
244
The Lulworth Skipper Thymelicus acteon
245
The Mallow Skipper Carcharodus alceae
249
The Swallowtail Papilio machaon
252
The Scarce Swallowtail Iphiclides podalirius
254
810 The Clouded Yellows Colias spp
257
The Pale Clouded Yellow Colias hyale
258
Bergers Clouded Yellow Colias alfacariensis
260
The Clouded Yellow Colias croceus
263
The Cleopatra Gonepteryx cleopatra
266
The Bath White Pontia daplidice
271
The Black Hairstreak Satyrium pruni
274
1517 The Coppers Lycaena spp
277
The Large Copper Lycaena dispar
278
The Scarce or Middle Copper Lycaena virgaureae
285
The Purpleedged Copper Lycaena hippothoe
290
The Longtailed Blue Lampides boeticus
291
The Shorttailed or Bloxworth Blue Everes argiades
293
The Northern Brown Argus Aricia artaxerxes
295
The Mazarine Blue Cyaniris semiargus
297
The Large Blue Maculinea arion
300
Albins Hampstead Eye Junonia villida
309
The Painted Lady Cynthia cardui
311
The American Painted Lady Cynthia virginiensis
316
The Large Tortoiseshell Nymphalis polychloros
318
The Camberwell Beauty Nymphalis antiopa
321
The European Map Butterfly Araschnia levana
327
Weavers Fritillary Boloria dia
329
The Queen of Spain Fritillary Argynnis lathonia
331
The Niobe Fritillary Argynnis niobe
335
The Mediterranean Fritillary or Cardinal Argynnis pandora
338
The Glanville Fritillary Melitaea cinxia
339
The Arran Brown Erebia ligea
343
The Monarch or Milkweed Butterfly Danaus plexippus
346
The Blackveined White Aporia crataegi 268
354
CHAPTER 5
364
APPENDIX 1
375
together with their past and present common names
377
APPENDIX 2
385
Entomological societies publications and significant events
397
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FURTHER READING
409
INDEX
425
Copyright

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About the author (2000)

Michael A. Salmon is an amateur lepidopterist who has made a special study of butterfly variation in Britain. He has been responsible for saving a number of historic collections now in danger of destruction from neglect and decay.

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