www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

The books that I have show the scientific name of Adonis Blue to be Lysandra bellargus whereas on this site it is given the name of Polyommatus bellargus. Is this a recent change in scientific name? I'm sorry I know scientific names should be italicised but I couldn't get the italics to work on the title or in the text.

Robin

Yes - this is a relatively-recent change.

On this website, I started off with the taxonomy used on the Butterfly Conservation website, and I notice that there are at least 3 changes that have been made in the last month:

Large Blue is now Glaucopsyche arion (was Maculinea arion).

Brown Argus is Plebeius agestis (was Aricia agestis).

Northern Brown Argus is Plebeius artaxerxes (was Aricia artaxerxes).

I intend to ask Martin Warren about this when I see him on 8th September, because I'm not sure which "authority" BC are using.

Cheers,

- Pete

The genus is not a natural taxon but rather something introduced for the convenience of our classification system. Linnaeus had rather few genera. During the twentieth century it became fashionable to split old genera into as many new ones as possible, producing "numerous 'micro-genera' lacking constant characters of any kind and ignoring the phylogenetical approach" (Kudrna - the Distribution Atlas of European Butterflies - a must-have for anyone who watches butterflies outside Britain). More recently, the trend has been towards 'lumping', rather than 'splitting' and many of the new genera have been engulfed by older ones.

I'm sure it is true that the newer approach ensures greater phylogenetic integrity in the classification system. But I have to say, as an amateur, that I prefer a proliferation of genera. It makes life so much easier. You see a female blue that might be adonis or chalkhill and you think, 'Ah, female Lysandra'. You make a conceptual distinction between Boloria and Clossiana, or Pontia and Pieris (yes, Kudrna has Pieris daplidice) and it helps you in the field. The smaller groupings are part of the mind's natural approach to identification and I am happy for this to be reflected in the nomenclature.

Oh well - it's not up to me.

Guy

Ah ... taxonomy ... the bane of my life

I never replied to my last post, but Martin Warren clarified that Butterfly Conservation are using the Fauna Europea classication, as defined at:

http://www.faunaeur.org/

which the UK Butterflies website also now uses. Fauna Europea appears to be an EU initiative.

Cheers,

- Pete

What an incredibly useful site! Thanks for that, Pete.

Guy