UK Butterflies
Building a Community of Responsible Butterfly Enthusiasts in Britain & Ireland
Building a Community of Responsible Butterfly Enthusiasts in Britain & Ireland
This page provides access to all named aberrations of a given species and Goodson & Read (1969) is a key resource in this regard.
Description to be completed.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk
This section contains those aberrations that are considered new, and have yet to be formally defined.
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
= niveola Stichel.Berl.Ent.Z.1908.53.p.80.pl.3.f.4.
Spuler gives the German word for “White One” as the description. This, coupled with the fact that in selene [Boloria selene, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary] his pallida was white, makes it safe to assume that this is also white. Stichel’s figure of niveola is dull whitish.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
= xanthos Frohawk.Vars.Brit.Butts.1938.p.59.
Pale yellow-ochre, somewhat whitish. Frohawk’s description says almost pure white so it cannot be included in the truly white forms, it would appear to be intermediate between the white ab. pallida Spuler and ab. stramineus Frohawk which is pale ochreous, straw, or golden.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
= pallida Oberthür.(nom.preoc.Spuler).Lep.Comp.1923.20.p.299.pl.DLXIII.f.4851.
Pale ochreous ground colour. Oberthür’s pallida was straw or golden, his name however is preoccupied by Spuler. This form is therefore not whitish as ab. pallida Spuler and ab. albinea Lambillion.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Wings pale orange-yellow, more yellow at the margins, which on the hindwings are almost white. The markings are present but weak in colour, hardly darker than the ground colour except on the hindwings where some spots near the anal angle are grey and more defined. Probably not a genetic form.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
All the black patterning completely faded, hardly darker than the ground colour and similar to ab. exstincta Rebel in A. niobe [Argynnis niobe, Niobe Fritillary].
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Albino. All black patterning replaced by pale silvery-grey on normal ground colour. It is similar in appearance to ab. albomaculata Goodson of adippe [Argynnis adippe, High Brown Fritillary], coloured figures of which can be seen in Frohawk’s Hist.Brit.Butts.pl.13.f.17.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the forewings in the lower cells of the median area are two patches of whitish-yellow.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The true reference to this form seems to be wrapped in mystery, even Verity in his Farf.Ital. gives Hummel in Tutt. Tutt says, “a very dark blackish-brown form with a marginal row of paler blotches on the outer margins of all wings”.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The two lowest black spots above the inner margin of the forewings are united to form a black streak, parallel with the inner margin in the median area.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
= transversa Nordstrom.(nom.coll.).Ent.Tidskr.1933.54.p.173.
The black spots of all wings forming a zigzag line in the median area. Vorbrodt is crediting Tutt with the authorship but Tutt described the form only in selene [Boloria selene, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary]. Tutt’s description was a little different - the black transverse marks larger, broader, more distinctly united into a band. Nordstrom gives the name as a collective one for various species of Argynnis, the description would therefore be the same as Tutt’s. The form has no wide band through the union of spots of the median band with those of the basal or postmedian lines of spots, the median spots are merely larger and thus connect with each other transversely.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
= vittata Nordstrom.Ent.Tidskr.1933.54.p.175.pl.5.f.11.
Upperside of the forewings with a well-developed black band in the median area stretching from the costa to inner margin. The hindwings black from the base to the median line of spots. Nordstrom named the same form in subspecies septentrionalis.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
= basiovalis Verity.Farf.It.1950.4.p.236.
The figure, which is of Hackray’s type, shows the lowest basal spot of the forewings just above the inner margin, forming an elongated oval mark, its centre being of normal ground colour. Hackray’s description is wrong if compared with the photograph, he says the lowest median black spot is the one affected as in ab. ovalis Cabeau of A. aglaia [Argynnis aglaja, Dark Green Fritillary], Lamb.30.p.179. In aglaia it certainly is the median spot above the inner margin which is affected but in euphrosyne it is the one nearer the base as shown in the photograph of the type in Hackray’s own collection. Verity takes the opposite view, accepting Hackray’s description and renaming the figure, even though it is of the type. To clinch matters, the figure is named before the description so ab. basiovalis Verity is a synonym.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Forewings with the median spots extended into a broad black band and in the basal area a rather large black blotch, composed of three large black spots in the cell and a further one just beneath them. Hindwings with the basal half black as far as the median row of zigzag spots, except for a few small spots of ground colour.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the hindwings the basal half is filled in with black except for a small yellowish point in the cell.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The description is merely the name in German for “The Radiated One”, quite useless and should be treated as nomen nudum. Apparently given as a name for all forms showing radiation of united spots.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The forewings more or less normal, the postmedian spots perhaps a little elongated. The hindwings with the postmedian row of spots well elongated, some of them uniting with the submarginal ones to form rays.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The forewings more or less normal. On the hindwings the submarginal and marginal spots are united to form black rays each of which is enclosed in an oval frame of ground colour, the upper three rays near the costa are much longer than the lower ones. The basal half of the wings is black in the lower half, the upper half being without markings and of normal ground colour. The hindwings underside shows the red basal band absent, replaced to some extent by silver, the chain of yellow squares, normally next to the red band, are not defined, there being a diffused median area of yellow with an elongated silver stripe running from the discocellular almost to the margin, not quite reaching its opposite silver spot. The marginal silver spots are all elongated pointing towards the base.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
= thalia Hübner.(prim.homon.Linnaeus).Beitr.1790.2.(2).p.36.
Placed as a form of selene [Boloria selene, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary] by many authors but to me [Goodson & Read] it is obviously a euphrosyne [Boloria euphrosyne, Pearl-bordered Fritillary]. Verity in his Farf.It.4.p.232 also takes this view, saying that it is much more likely that both thalia and rinaldus belong to euphrosyne and that they are most probably figured from the same insect. There is an almost identical specimen figured in South’s Butts.Brit.Isles.pl.56.f.3. The figures show the upperside with the marginal lunules filled in with black and well developed especially on the hindwings. The forewings show rather thin marginal rays and the hindwings have the basal half black, with an orange discoidal mark. From this black area in the upper part of the wings there are two or three black rays or streaks stretching out towards and reaching the marginal black lunules, in the lower half the submarginal black spots are wedge-shaped. On the underside the forewings have most of the spots thin and small except the marginal ones, which are in the form of rays. The hindwings have the basal half yellow, the outer half reddish-brown with striking thich rays of silver, the central one linking up with the central silver spot.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Named from the figure in Ent.Tidskr.36.p.20. This shows the marginal spots of the forewings uniting with the submedian spots to form rather irregular rays or streaks, the rest of the spotting somewhat irregular and at the base of the wing the three costal spots are united into one large black blotch. The hindwings all black except for oval spots of ground colour along the margins, each containing an elongated black stripe, those nearest the costa linking up with the blackened basal part and therefore less definitely contained in the ovals. There is much confusion over the reference to this form. Strand was evidently under the impression that it had been published in Zool.Zentralblaat in 1916 as stated by Nordstrom in Ent.Tidskr.48.p.56 on Strand’s authority. The manuscript however was never published so the name dates from 1927.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Forewings with the median line of spots almost absent and with only two black spots on the costa. The submarginal spots are elongated inwards, wedge-shaped, almost reaching the position of the median [?] absent median spots, and the usual marginal lunules are only slightly indicated the black spots being joined into a transverse black border. Hindwings almost entirely black, only traces of fulvous in the interneural spaces along the margins with a black spot in each of the fulvous patches.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
= lecharlesi Varin.Amat.Pap.1933.6.p.233.pl.4.f.2.
Upperside of the forewings from base to median line black with some irregular traces of ground colour, the margins with neural black rays and a submarginal row of spots. Hindwings completely black except for spots of fulvous at the margins.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The description is merely “The Blackened One” in German, and may be considered almost nomen nudum. It presumably was meant to cover all extreme melanic forms.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Forewings black from the base to the median row of spots, the spots being contained in the black. A small fulvous mark in the discoidal cell, the submarginal spots very indistinct and the margins showing short rays. Hindwings entirely black except for a series of pale orange wedge-shaped rays, most uniform in shape, along the entire margins.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the upperside the markings are reduced to a minimum, often more or less obsolete at the margins.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Forewings upperside with all the basal spots absent, only two black stripes on the costa remaining in this area. The submarginal row of spots is present with the normal row of marginal lunules, the median row is completely absent. Hindwings similar. The name is somewhat misleading, parvipunctata being usually given to specimens with the spots merely small, not absent.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
= euphrosynella Cabeau.Rev.Mens.Soc.Ent.Nam.1924.24.p.34.
Very small specimens below 34mm.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
No description.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the underside the silver spots are absent. Presumably the upperside is of normal pattern.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the underside the silver spots are replaced by dull leaden.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the underside the silver spots are replaced by black.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the underside in the rufous basal area there is a yellow spot in place of the normal black one. Nordstrom gives this as a collective name based on ab. flavopunctata Strand in A. selene [Boloria selene, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary].
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the underside of the hindwings the reddish colour is practically over the whole surface, the submarginal silver spots however remain normal. The silver spot at the end of the cell is slightly reddish, its shape at the base so invaded that its pearly tint is slightly tarnished. The median series of yellow cells is almost obliterated and appears to be pushed inwards towards the base of the wing so that the submarginal area appears [s]lightly enlarged. The yellow cell between Sc and R is still quite light though still well defined by two black accents, and the light submarginal area between Sc and MI is hardly marked.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
