www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

In the Snow

The bird life is still providing the highlights in the garden - I managed to get pretty close to a Fieldfare this morning, who appreciated the apple that we'd put out. He's a real bully though - chasing away every blackbird that comes within 10 feet of his precious piece of apple! It's nice to get the camera out again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxE0x_up ... e=youtu.be[/video]

Cheers,

- Pete

Like you, I have been exercising my camera on Fieldfares in the garden. It seems strange that a bird which is so shy of humans is so aggressive to the regular garden birds! Our Blackbirds were chased with extraordinary vigour, until the Fieldfare had the 'field' to itself.

In previous years, the Redwings have always been first into the garden after a snowfall, while Fieldfares took much longer to appear. This year, Redwings seem to be holding back.

I have just put some photos on my own website.

Mike

Lovely photos Pete.

Looks like a 'posh' thrush and I lament the fact that I've never knowingly seen one.

As others have commented, this bird is unusually aggressive which can perhaps be put down to the kind of austere lifestyle it endures at this time of year.

OUMNH Visit

Today I had a really superb time in the company of Mark Colvin at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History - and my thanks to Mark for introducing me to some very knowledgeable and very friendly experts who look after the Hope Collection - especially Darren Mann and James Hogan. See http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/collect/entom.htm. My reason for visiting was to browse their extensive library and pick up some hard-to-come-by definitions of various subspecies and forms - one of my current "pet projects" - the results of which will appear on UKB on the various species pages. The second reason was to take a look at historic specimens of some of our extinct subspecies and races to "connect" the words in the various papers with something more visual! I was able to look at some classic collections, such as that of J.C.Dale, where some well-known individual specimens can be found. It really does hammer home just how valuable these historic collections are when it comes to research - in my case, retracing our past and getting a first-hand view of races we've lost. It really is a great shame that subspecies aren't afforded the same level of protection as species.

Photos of Mark and I below - Mark poring over various races of Large Blue (Cotswolds and Devon/Cornwall) and I looking at specimens of the extinct English Chequered Skipper. And to top off a perfect day, we had lunch with Jeremy Thomas who is a Professorial Fellow at New College, just around the corner from the museum. Top stuff
Cheers,

- Pete

Alright Pete?
Sounds like a fascinating afterrnoon Also food for thought with regards to protection of subspecies. Is there no way that subspecies or races can get protection? Surely if there is a push to maintain biodiversity then that means covering all subspecies/races and as many genetic variants as possible? Surely endemic forms/races/subspecies are worthy of just as much protection as the nominate form? Perhaps the only way will be to protect the sites and areas where there are distinct populations of them, for example at Great Orme or Prees Heath?

On a lighter note...Did you see any Hedge Brown collections perchance? Actually I don't want to know - I don't think could handle the jealousy

Havea goodun

Wurzel

Wurzel wrote:Is there no way that subspecies or races can get protection? Surely if there is a push to maintain biodiversity then that means covering all subspecies/races and as many genetic variants as possible? Surely endemic forms/races/subspecies are worthy of just as much protection as the nominate form?

I couldn't agree more.

Wurzel wrote:On a lighter note...Did you see any Hedge Brown collections perchance?

I didn't go aberration hunting (that's for a later date!), so didn't look at the Gatekeepers. Too busy looking at Large Coppers and the like The targets were:

Chequered Skipper - From England (e.g. Northants). Allegedly larger than Scottish colonies.
Swallowtail - From Wicken Fen. The original colony is extinct. Allegedly smaller than other colonies.
Large Blue - Devon / Cornwall - Cornwall is the type locality for the extinct ssp. eutyphron
Large Blue - Cotswolds (allegedly, a different shade of blue)
Large Blue - Northants (Barnwell Wold) - this was the northernmost colony
Large Copper - ssp. dispar (British)
Silver-studded Blue - ssp. masseyi (e.g. from Witherslack, Westmorland)
Silver-studded Blue - ssp. cretaceous (e.g. from Kent)
Mountain Ringlet - from Ireland.

Cheers,

- Pete

I've asked this before, but is there really no usable genetic material in all these collections? If so, is that because of the thorough drying? What a shame none of these extinct forms were preserved in any way that would allow us to recreate them now.

Guy

Guy:

I've asked this before, but is there really no usable genetic material in all these collections? If so, is that because of the thorough drying? What a shame none of these extinct forms were preserved in any way that would allow us to recreate them now

Juarassic Park Mark 2?

A great idea and I'm sure could well prove possible in the future. Think of that: SS.Blue masseyi in the Lake District once more!

Jack

Hi Guy,

padfield wrote:I've asked this before, but is there really no usable genetic material in all these collections?

This is a very important point you raise and the simple answer is 'there is usable genetic material in well-curated collections'. I know when I look at old reference specimens, such as those Pete and I recently viewed at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH), I always ask myself “what could we (man) have done to have prevented their demise or decline”. This is of course not always an easy question to answer.

Museum specimens, particularly well-represented taxa such as butterflies and beetles, can provide us with enormous potential data for investigating the effects of climate change, habitat modification and loss and the resulting distributional changes over time, often spanning many decades. This is still an often untapped resource in many research areas. Although many 'historic' specimens housed in museums collections will be unsuitable for molecular research; due to their age, methods of preparation or preservation there are still many that can provide scientists with valuable data. For example, in the case of the adonis blue butterfly, where researchers amplified microsatellite DNA from museum specimens over 100 years old to examine population changes over time. In more recent years, it has also become possible to extract nucleic acids from dry insects without causing external morphological damage; an important consideration with extremely rare or type specimens. Certainly with regards to the OUMNH, specimens are made available to researchers for both traditional (morphological studies, data mining) and molecular research (population genetics, barcoding, molecular systematics), providing their methodologies are scientifically robust.

The following published research tells more:

Thank you for that information, Mark. I remember well how Adonis blue populations had become critical in the late seventies, after decades of unfavourable grazing, the loss of rabbits and then the heatwave of 1976 (though being a Suffolk boy I have never seen an Adonis blue in the UK). It's very interesting - though not surprising - to see that reflected in the genetic make-up of the subsequent, increasing, populations. And interesting to see the slightly different situation with the Scandinavian large blues.

I'm sure Pete didn't mind this brief digression, but I'll decamp to another page if I have any further questions!

Guy

padfield wrote:I'm sure Pete didn't mind this brief digression

Not at all - really enjoying the observations / discussion!

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote:
Mountain Ringlet - from Ireland.

That's not something I've ever heard about before. When was this species present in Ireland?

David M wrote:

Pete Eeles wrote:
Mountain Ringlet - from Ireland.

That's not something I've ever heard about before. When was this species present in Ireland?

There are 3 specimens that have been described - both by E.B.Ford (in "Butterflies" in 1945) and by B.C.S.Warren in "On the Race of Erebia epiphron indigenous in the British Isles." Entomologist,vol. 81: pp.181-186. Aug. 1948. A quick scan for the dates/locations comes up with 1854 (Croagh Patrick, County Mayo), 1901 (Mt. Nephin, County Mayo) and 1895 ( Lake Gill, County Sligo).

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote:

David M wrote:

Pete Eeles wrote:
Mountain Ringlet - from Ireland.

That's not something I've ever heard about before. When was this species present in Ireland?

There are 3 specimens that have been described - both by E.B.Ford (in "Butterflies" in 1945) and by B.C.S.Warren in "On the Race of Erebia epiphron indigenous in the British Isles." Entomologist,vol. 81: pp.181-186. Aug. 1948. A quick scan for the dates/locations comes up with 1854 (Croagh Patrick, County Mayo), 1901 (Mt. Nephin, County Mayo) and 1895 ( Lake Gill, County Sligo).

Cheers,

- Pete

Strange how there are no records from north Wales given that the species seemingly once occurred in Ireland.

A common factor of all past and present localities for Mountain Ringlet is large amounts of rain.

Any bets on where it will be found in Southern England this year after the deluge of 2012?
Mind you, I wouldn't count against it turning up in my garden here on Mull. In the past six weeks I have recorded 250 mmms of rain

Forecast: Spring should arrive on Tuesday with sunshine 13 degrees in the south.

Jack

Jack Harrison wrote: Spring should arrive on Tuesday with sunshine 13 degrees in the south.

The Met Office forecast on my computer agrees with that but, alas, also forecasts heavy rain

Mike

It felt like spring had arrived today. Blue sky, warm sunshine and birds singing. Bliss

OUMNH

Another enjoyable day spent in the company of Mark Colvin at Oxford Uni. Museum of Natural History. I spent most of my time tracking down additional references to support the subspecies (and race) descriptions that I've been refining (thankfully, these references are all in English!). I also took the opportunity to look at specimens of each of these subspecies / races in order to correlate them with the original descriptions.

One "race" that Mark and I failed to locate during our last visit was the most north-easterly colony of Large Blue from Barnwell Wold in (I think!) Northamptonshire, since there aren't any specimens from this locality in the main collection. However, we had a stroke of luck as I was perusing a signed, first edition, copy of "Butterflies" by E.B.Ford (that he donated to the museum) and, lo and behold, it figures 2 specimens of Large Blue from Barnwell Wold - stating that they're from the Dale collection. It just so happens that this collection is housed, intact, in the museum. And so off we went to where it's located, and were rather gobsmacked as the first drawer we looked at contained the very same specimens that Ford had figured. Katherine Child has already photographed these for us (and they'll appear on the website soon) - the photos below are of the relevant drawer (with glass lid, where I've highlighted with a marker pen, on the glass, the 2 specimens figured) with the relevant page from "Butterflies" opened. The second shot highlights these specimens.

At first glance, these specimens appear somewhat different, again, from those found in the Devon/Cornwall and Cotswold colonies, with rather reduced spotting. But I'll await the professional photos before jumping to conclusions. Again - saddened that this race is extinct, and even more appreciative of the value of this historic record (that is maintained so well by the team at the university).
Cheers,

- Pete

Fascinating...are there any specimens from the old Somerset colonies there and if so how do they fit in with the Cotswold and the far south-west specimens? I wonder if DNA analysis would show - whether the local forms had diverged long ago or relatively recently, and whether the genes and the visible diversity match. That would make a fine PhD thesis for someone...

Presumably the Dale collection has some of the Glanville's Wootton Mazarine Blues, but would it have any of the Swallowtails he took in the area 200 years ago? Would these match the British subspecies or the Continental ones?