Fw: Cyprus - records please!

[Simon Coombes]

Hi

On behalf of several recorders I am maintaining detailed Distribution Maps
on the 51 species found on the island and, along with Rob Parker, who wrote
what is probably the definitive English language paper on this subject back
in 1983 (Entomologist's Gazette Vol 34), I have a particular interest in
Cyprus.

At the end of last month, Amateur Entomologists' Society members were mailed
a copy of a booklet, Butterflies of Cyprus, which I prepared following a 14
month stay on the island in 1997/8.  (Copies will be obtainable through the
AES and I will provide details shortly).  My reason for preparing the paper
was, in part, to update Rob Parker's sightings, which had been previously
been extended by Dr Luc Manil in a booklet published (in French) by Linneana
Belgica in 1990.

In common with most books on European butterflies, the excellent
'Butterflies of Britain & Europe' by Tom Tolman covers many of the species
found on Cyprus, but this is not by intention, as the text and maps extend
no further east, in terms of Mediterranean islands, than Crete.  Enquiries
to the Natural History Museum by people requesting information on the
species found in Cyprus, have recently yielded copies of Rob Parker's 1983
paper, a paper by Turner (1920) and a very out-of-date paper by Bucknill,
published in 1911.   With two endemics and seven sub-species, additional
help is necessary, as I found during my stay.  Even locating a current
checklist of species found on the island is difficult and I have been unable
to locate any reasonably detailed English language paper since that written
by Rob Parker.  Another reason to provide an update.

Rob Parker and I will be happy to provide future visitors to Cyprus with
further information and would welcome details of sightings, past, present or
future.  I can provide a map of the island to enable a simple recording
system to be followed.

Should anyone be interested in providing records, please contact me.
Recorders will be acknowledged in any future update of the booklet.

Thanks

Eddie John
Eddie at grayling.dircon.co.uk