Aglais and stuff

Chris Raper triocomp at dial.pipex.com
Fri Jun 11 08:16:31 EDT 1999


On 11 Jun 1999 03:11:02 -0700, viceroy at anu.ie (Anne Kilmer) wrote:

Hi Anne

>I'm going back to calling them all Fred. 

Me too :-)  I must say this name debate is a bit boring to me. Names
change, both common and scientific. The scientific names are more
stable across different languages and cultures but sometimes some of
us mortals just don't have the memory or the books to be able to post
the latin as well as the familiar name and we suppose that the main,
local readership will be able to deduce what we mean. 

Anyway - if I was writing a paper I will be sure to quote the right
scientific names but if I quote common names in Usenet/Email people
are welcome to ask me to clarify if they don't understand and I will
have to go back to my books! :-)

>Small Heath, Coenonympha pamphilus. Whom I have seen, but not this 
>year and not here.

Shame - plenty of them over in South Oxfordshire and they have been
out for a number of weeks now. As have Common Blue (Polyommatus
icarus) and Brown Argus (Aricia agestis) - do you have them over in
Ireland yet?

>If the sun comes out I will go peruse the soggy gorse-filled bog next to
>my house 

It's a tough life you lead out there :-)  You must get some pretty
interesting stuff in the moth line - have you ever done any moth
trapping - do you ID the things that come to your windows?

>for Green Hairstreak, Callophrys rubi, 

They are starting to go over here - they may even have gone :-( Along
with Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvae) and I think I saw the last Dingy
Skipper (Erynnis tages) last weekend. :-(

>I have just received a note from David Nash, Ireland's Millennium Count 
>honcho, saying that my patch of Ireland is unexplored. Or anyway unrecorded. 

Great - get out there and chart new waters, so to speak! :-)

>Holly Blue is also a possibility, I suppose, as we have both holly and
>ivy. Celastrina argiolus. 

We have had plenty over here - it doesn't seem to be a 'boom' year for
them but it certainly isn't a 'bust' year either. We are expecting a
decline any year now - when the parasite kicks in the population will
plummet.

Best wishes,
Chris R.


More information about the Leps-l mailing list