For various reasons, I have not been able to get out into the field much recently but I have been enjoying reading other people's posts. in particular, I joined in a discussion about Small Blue aberrations, in
Pauline's PD, not that I have any specialist knowledge in the field.
What seems remarkable to me is the constancy of the complex patterns on the wings of most butterfly species. As is so often the case, we learn a little about the mechanisms that control these patterns when things go wrong. So, spots can turn into lines, if the regulating genes fail to 'turn off' at the correct time during the growth of the wing.
- Common Blue aberration
Lough Down Streatley - Sept.1998
Nevertheless, it seems extraordinary to me that evolutionary selection pressures have resulted in the precisely repeated patterns on, say, the wings of the Small Tortoiseshell
I have often noticed the word (Tutt) appearing after many named aberrations, so decided to find out a little about him. James William Tutt (1858–1911) was Headmaster of various schools in East London and a Fellow of the Entomological Society. He appears to have been a 'difficult' character, since he often 'fell out' with his fellow entomologists. Like many schoolmasters, it seems that he was better at dispensing information than in listening to the opinions of others. He had a prodigious memory and poured his knowledge into the multiple volumes of his 'Natural History of the British Lepidoptera' (along with many other books).
Along with a great many 'out-of-copyright' books, these volumes can be downloaded, in various formats, from 'The Internet Archive'
https://archive.org/ When using this invaluable resource, I select 'advanced search' and then type in whatever information I have, in the appropriate boxes, and see what comes out!
'Tutt' and 'Lepidoptera' bring up a long list of titles, which are not easy to sort out, as the filenames do not correspond to the volume numbers, but I eventually downloaded all the published volumes. Vols. 6 and 7 were never produced and vols. 8 - 10, which cover the butterflies, are sometimes referred to as vols.1 - 3 of British Butterflies, with an additional vol.4, produced posthumously by George Wheeler from notes left by Tutt.
One aspect that appealed me, in particular, was his interest in photography. He describes in great detail how he constructed a special camera to photograph butterfly eggs. This used a microscope (without eyepiece) coupled through a series of bellows to a half-plate camera back. I was amused by his description of the difficulty of focussing the microscope "as the distance from the ground glass was too great for my arm". He then describes how he made an arrangement of pulleys and elastic cords, to act as a remote control, so that he could focus while his head was under the black cloth - clearly, a very resourceful character!
I suspect his books must have been among the first to show butterflies in their natural environment. He must have been very frustrated that colour photography was not available! As an example, the following plate of the Green Hairstreak is from 'Lepidoptera' vol.9:
- Green Hairstreak Butterflies
Previously, I have used the Internet Archive to find other 'classic' works. Sadly, although Moses Harris 'Aurelian' is there, it only has the uncoloured engravings. A modern facsimile of this work, with coloured ilulstrations, is however available for around £15, and it is wonderful to browse through and admire the skill of the early illustrators.
Another work that I have downloaded is Edward Donovan's 'Natural History of British Insects'. The cover of the first volume states 'In Ten Volumes' but it was a work that grew in the making and there are 16 volumes in all, with beautiful illustrations, such as this Camberwell Beauty:
- Camberwell Beauty
So, I have found plenty to keep me interested and almost look forward to rainy days, so that I can enjoy looking at more of these remarkable works
Mike