I decided to do some more research
into the Camberwell Beauty in Great
Britain except I am now extending my investigation into
Ireland.
There was a belief in the early
20th Century that there were two colour morphs (if that is the right
word) of the Camberwell Beauty, the one found in England had white borders on
the edges of its wings and the American or Scandinavian one was more yellowish.
For example, W.S. Coleman in `British Butterflies` (1905) comments: “ it is
strange that nine out of ten English specimens have pure white borders to the wings. This is
looked on by some authorities as certain proof of the specimen being British
caught. This, I think, however, is an error, as some of the specimens best
authenticated as having been home caught, have a yellow border. On the Continent the
yellow-bordered variety is predominant. (1). But in my (Richard`s) opinion this
statement by Coleman doesn`t actually SAY very much. It doesn`t explain anything
behind these two colour variations.
Coleman says prior to the quotation
above :” No spot can be pointed out where one can expect to meet with this fine insect; but
it has appeared singly at intervals in the following localities among others: -
Scotland, Ayrshire; Durham; Scarborough; York; Darlington; Sheffield;
Manchester; Lake District; Appleby;Coventry; Peterborough; Oxford;
Burton-on-Trent; Norfolk; Lincolnshire; Suffolk; Bristol; Ely; Shrewsbury;
Plymouth; Teignmouth; Kent; Ashford; Bromley; Tenterden; Ramsgate; various
places in the neighbourhood of London;Epping; Hampshire; Isle of Wight; Lewes;
Worthing. “(2)
H. Rowland-Brown was more concise a
few years after Coleman in 1912 concerning the white-yellow debate about the
Camberwell Beauty:
“ To the collector who finds himself
in Camberwell nowadays, the district hardly suggests the presence of antiopa. Yet there is no reason to doubt
that the old “ Aurelians” observed and captured this fine butterfly in the then
secluded retreat of city merchants, though
the story that the larvae were one year so destructive to the trees that the
Vestry offered a reward for their destruction (emphasis my own)
must be regarded as apocryphal.
For the “ Camberwell Beauty” is an immigrant – occasionally numerous, but of
late years very seldom seen at the ripe fruit on the peach wall or in the
orchard, where it loves to suck the sweet juices in September. The butterfly is
uniformly deep chocolate on all four wings, with broad creamy borders,
interiorly studded with bright blue spots, the under side, save the border,
uniform black-brown; the little fiction of British “ Camberwells” having white
borders to assist the collector to determine the origin of his capture, and
incidentally to inflate prices in the sale-rooms, being based probably on the
fact that the so-called “ Britishers” have hibernated, and lost their colour in
the process. “ (3)
“There is some truth in the old
belief, for Dr E.A. Cockayne has found that this scale abnormality is present in
the great majority of the specimens caught in this country. He is inclined to
think that it is particularly common in Scandanavia, which would account for its
frequency here and for the tradition that a genuine British Camberwell Beauty
may be recognized by the white borders of its wings.”
(4)
Edward Newman, writing in An
Illustrated Natural History of British Butterflies and Moths ( c. 1870) said ;”
To suppose they come from the Continent is an idle conjecture; because the
English specimens are easily distinguished from the others by the superior
whiteness of their borders…From Ireland I have a report of one taken at
Killarney in July, 1865 by W.G. Battersby. In Scotland also
one was taken by the late Charles Turner, in the Ramoch district. I saw this
specimen, and have no doubt of its genuineness…Mr Thomas Chapman has information
of others at Paisley and Edinburgh…From the way in which Moses Harris writes of
this butterfly in England we are led to suppose that in his time it was regarded
as no great rarity. In his “Aurelian” he merely says that it goes through its
changes and appears on the wing at the same time as the Peacock. Lewin is more
explicit:- “ One of my sons found an old decoy pond of large extent, surrounded
with willow and sallow trees, and a great number of these butterflies flying
about and at rest on the trees; many Of Them appearing to be just out of the
chrysalis, left no doubt that this was the place where they bred. In March,
1790, a number of these insects were flying and soaring about for a space of
twelve or fourteen days; and then, as if with one consent, they migrated from
us, and were no more seen. (5)
A much more recent account of Irish
butterflies ( The Butterflies of Ireland by Dr Norman Hicken, 1992) states
regarding the Camberwell Beauty, :” Only five records of this large, handsome
migrant butterfly have been recorded from Ireland, mainly along the east and
south coast.” (6)
E.Newman also said, quoting a Mr
Wailes, “ Our fellow member, Mr William Backhouse, informed me that about the
year 1820 he saw vast numbers of this species strewing the seashore at
Seaton-Carew, both in a dead and living state. Now,” continues Mr Wailes, “it
is surely more reasonable to suppose that these specimens had been blown from
the land than that they had crossed a sea at least three hundred miles; and a
specimen in Mr. Backhouse`s collection confirms this opinion, as it has the pale
whitish margin to the upper side of the wings so characteristic of our British
specimens, which is replaced by yellow in nearly all the continental and
American specimens.” (7)
REFERENCES
1. W.S. Coleman British
Butterflies (1905) p. 111
2. Ibid p.
111
3.
H. Rowland-Brown Butterflies and
Moths at Home and Abroad. (1912) p. 99.
4 E.B.Ford Butterflies (1990) p.
154.
5. E. Newman An Illustrated
Natural History of British Butterflies (c. 1870)
p.59
6. N.Hicken The Butterflies of
Ireland ( 1992) p.
190.
7. E. Newman op cit.
60.
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