www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Hi all. I've just made a significant update so thought I'd mention it here in case you miss it. The taxonomy page is no longer a simple image, but a table full of hyperlinks to pages for superfamily, family, subfamily, genus, subgenus and species. I've managed to track down all of the original references for these elements (which have been included in the ever-expanding references section) and will be spending some time this winter writing up the descriptions (to keep me sane over the winter months!).

Taxonomy
http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/taxonomy.php

References
http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/references.php

Anyway - do let me know if you find any errors/bugs.

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete,
This is masterly,certainly worthy of a Ph.D,or even a Professorship.What I would like to know is when butterflies first appeared in the evolutionary tree,why they appeared and how they developed into their groups.Also,are there any old fossils or early butterflies in amber etc anywhere.Another subject for this winter!
Tremendous work.
P.J.U.

Thanks Phillip! Not sure about the accolades - the material isn't really original - just synthesised into a single source!

The oldest known Lepidopteran fossil is from the Jurassic - Archaeolepis mane, about 190 million years old from Dorset - taken from "Evolution of the Insects" by Grimaldi and Engel. I'd need to read most of this extensive tome to answer your other questions! I believe there are quite a few specimens in amber.

Cheers,

- Pete

Here's a little something for you to research, Pete!

I feel the correct name for the clouded yellow should be Colias crocea, according to the ICZN, since 'croceus' is an adjective (meaning saffron, or yellow) and Colias is presumably the Greek goddess, Kolias, so the feminine form of the adjective should be used. Linneus called it Papilio croceus, because Papilio is masculine, but on transfer to the genus Colias I would expect it to become feminine (as Tolman and indeed our app suggest!), just as Plebicula amanda became Polyommatus amandus.

But I might be missing something - or just wrong. A lot of authoritative sources on the web call it croceus.

Discuss.

Guy

EDIT: Article 31.2 of the ICZN:

31.2. Agreement in gender. A species-group name, if it is or ends in a Latin or latinized adjective or participle in the nominative singular, must agree in gender with the generic name with which it is at any time combined.

(from http://iczn.org/iczn/index.jsp)

padfield wrote:Here's a little something for you to research, Pete!

And you know I will Looking around, there doesn't seem to be a single, complete and correct listing for the British Rhopalocera, and the decision to stick with Bradley's classification is creaking at the seams, given the ongoing work at a European level. In other words ... I'm sure you're correct! BTW, I've found the following websites extremely helpful for those wanting to know more:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/ ... index.dsml
http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/lif ... index.html
http://www.lepidopterology.com/almanac/ ... s-pieridae

Cheers,

- Pete