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)
= pallida Spuler.Schmett.Eur.1901.p.26.
= flava-pallidus Frohawk.Vars.Brit.Butts.1938.p.55.pl.12.f.1.
The ground colour silvery-white.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The ground colour of all wings white with a brownish tinge. On the upperside of both wings, the band, as well as the inner marginal row of lunules and the inner marginal band, are dark brown instead of black. The rest of the spots are extended and deep black. On the underside the wings are similarly paled but on the hindwings the normally pearly spots are pure white. The description is long and rambling and does not maker sense. The main characters would seem to be the pale coloration and extended spots, and the pure white spots on the underside.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Ground colour of the upperside yellow-brown, therefore strikingly paler than normal.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The ground colour pale straw, hindwings slightly richer. Forewings with median spots absent and only two black bars on costa and a row of antemarginal and marginal spots remaining. The hindwings also lack the median row of black spots.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The upperside completely brown, the underside with a violet shimmer.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The ground colour of the forewings very pale but the hindwings are darker than normal since the pattern is more extensive.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Almost certainly the albino form found in most British Argynnis [the former genus, now Boloria, of Boloria selene]. The figure shows the ground colour normal, all the black spots replaced by dull greyish.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Female form with dark reddish-violet ground colour, further darkened by black dusting, the pattern being normal but heavier.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The pigment is black instead of yellow, especially on the forewings, it is not like ab. marphisa Herbst or ab. intermedia Spangberg. The figure shows the forewings darkened but not black, they appear to be black-dusted.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Almost entirely black on the upperside. On the underside, in place of the normal silver markings, there are longitudinal bands of blackish green.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Upperside of all wings black with yellow marginal spots. Underside black to beyond middle, the forewings with yellow-spotted border, the hindwings black, with a median oblong spot and marginal triangular spots of silver, the median fasciae either rudimentary or obsolete. Before the margin the colour is pale fuscous-brown. This is the original description from the Latin. The upperside is similar to ab. veta Motschulsky but on the underside very different.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The two specimens mentioned and figured, are both black-brown on the upperside of all wings with the exception of an orange-brown marginal band, which is cut by black-brown streaks, or rays, which extend along the veins. The second figure is different from the first, the rays being much longer and more striking. On the underside of the first figure, which must be taken as ab. nigricans, the appearance is very different from the second figure. The markings are normal but all the light yellow and silver markings, with the exception of the middle silver spot and silver marginal chevrons, are dulled over with a leaden colour. The forewings are blackened except at the margins. In the second figure the markings are drawn out into long rays, especially the marginal chevrons which form a series of wedge-shaped, rather long, silver rays. The forewings are not nearly so extensively darkened as in the first picture. Ab. nigricans Oberthür is therefore blackish on the upperside of both wings except at the margins, which are normal orange-brown cut by dark neural rays. The underside is normal in the arrangement of the markings but dulled over with leaden colour except the middle silver spot and the normally shaped marginal silver chevrons. In view of this I cannot agree with Lempke that nigricans is a synonym of ab. veta Motschulsky which had on the underside in place of the silver markings longitudinal bands of blackish-green [Goodson & Read].
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the upperside of the forewings the two lowest spots of the median area join together in a streak just above, and parallel with, the inner margin.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The original description merely says the black markings on the upperside more or less strongly fused together. Lempke says the figure in Tijd.Ent.48.pl.2.f.10 is ter Haar’s holotype. This shows the black spots of the median area larger and more elongated on both fore and hindwings but hardly fused together. This figured specimen however came from Appledoorn [Netherlands] whereas Lempke says the holotype came from Kollum [Netherlands], so I rather doubt that it is the holotype. Lempke also makes ab. medionigrans Cabeau a synonym but this has a wide well filled in black band in the median area of the forewings and the hindwings quite normal. I am therefore keeping it separate as a more extreme form as regards banding [Goodson & Read].
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
A broad median black fascia or band on the upperside of the forewings reaching from the costa to the inner margin. The hindwings are normal. The figure shows a clear, sharply defined black band with no ground colour appearing in it, the area between the median row of spots and the basal spots being completely filled in with black.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The black transverse markings of the upperside are larger, broader, more distinctly united into band form. Presumably the median spots form a thin band transversely across the wings giving a zig-zag appearance.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Upperside of the forewings with the pattern of a large letter E, which faces the base of the wings. The median black band is broadly developed and runs along the inner margin, wedge-shaped, towards the base. It is united with the outer margin by an angular spot. In the middle of the band is a broad spot. The rest of the coloration is as in the typical form.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the upperside of all wings the black markings are very strong and partly flowing together. Underside normal. The description is too vague to be of great use.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The marginal border of the upperside black and broad, with very little festooned on its inner side and ornamented with little round dots of a yellowish-fulvous, not lunules as in the type [typical form]. The spots and lines feeble.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The forewings on the upperside show the three central black costal stripes joined together into one blotch along the costa.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Upperside of the forewings with the antemarginal black spots uniting with the black pattern of the outer margin in the form of streaks or rays. Hindwings similar. Since the underside is not mentioned it is presumably normal as regards the silver.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The submarginal spots on the upperside of the hindwings are connected by black lines with the marginal chevrons. Similar to ab. gerda Schultz but on hindwings only. Since the underside is not mentioned it is presumably normal as regards the silver.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The original description says merely, “Long ray-shaped marks or lines in place of the normal spots”. Lempke later states that the description is not clear and gives a further and better one which says, “On the upperside of the hindwings the submarginal spots are lengthened towards the base in the shape of thick black lines and connected with the spots of the discal row”.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
= thalia europaea Esper.Eur.Schmett.1793.Suppl.1.p.20.pl.XCVII.Cont.LII.f.2.
The figure in Esper’s Eur.Schmett is very good and shows the upperside with the submarginal spots of both wings connected in streaks with the black of the marginal chevrons; the hindwings with further streaking in the upper or costal area. The main character of the aberration would appear to be the underside, which has the hindwings heavily streaked with silver, one of the streaks reaching from the extreme base right through to the outer margin of the median area. The margins are broadly red-brown, almost half the width of the wing, and intersected by broad silver rays, the basal half of the wing being yellow with the veins red. The forewings are more normal but there is a series of marginal yellow rays. Verity in his Farf.Diurn.It. credits Esper with the name europaea but Esper used thalia europaea, to distinguish it from the foreign Heliconius which had already received the name thalia [Papilio (Heliconius) thalia, Linnaeus 1758]. Since the latter name, being a primary homonym cannot stand, Verity says that the europaea part of the name must stand as the name for the form and erects it and in my opinion becomes the author [Goodson & Read]. Esper’s actually giving it the name thalia with europaea as an adjective, in German he called it the “European Thalia”. I known of no other author who has called it europaea but it certainly requires a new name so Verity is right in supplying one. This form has nothing to do with thalia Hübner which, together with rinaldus Herbst, belong to euphrosyne [Boloria euphrosyne, Pearl-bordered Fritillary].
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
= margostriata Frohawk.Vars.Brit.Butts.1938.p.54.pl.12.f.2.,not 4 as stated.
On the upperside the submarginal spots are united with the marginal chevrons in streaks or rays but apart from the two black costal stripes the rest of the usual spots are absent, or practically so. Both fore and hindwings are affected. Forhawk has numbered his plate wrongly; fig.2 represents this form, not fig.4.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Upperside of the forewings with two rather large black marks at the base, cuneate in shape, one along the costa and the other, somewhat smaller, along the inner margin. The rest of the spotting is normal except that the two lowest ones of the median row are larger and elongated. The hindwings are entirely black except for a small spot of normal orange in the centre and a row of very small orange spots along the margins. The underside of the forewings shows a black median fascia, rather broad, and the two black basal spots seen on the upperside. Hindwings underside with two black transverse bands, one near the base and broad, the other in the median area and not so broad, the space between the two bands yellow. The outer part of the wings normal with the ordinary silver chevrons. It is possible that this belongs to euphrosyne [Boloria euphrosyne, Pearl-bordered Fritillary] but most authors include it in selene.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Upperside of the forewings with only two costal stripes, and a black spot near the inner margin, the only one remaining of the median row. The two outer rows of marginal spots are united to form short marginal rays. Hindwings all black except for two small spots of normal orange in the middle and a row of marginal yellow-brown ones.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the upperside of the forewings there are only two black costal stripes remaining on the median and basal pattern of the wings, but the margins show a very broad black-brown border, a quarter of an inch wide [6.35mm] and uniform. Hindwings all black-brown except for a central fulvous patch and a slight area of fulvous at the anal angle.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
Forewings with the spots in the median area reduced or almost absent.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
= lucimacula Meves.Ent.Tidskr.1914.35.p.5.
The two lower spaces, or interneural cells, in the median area of the forewings are filled with whitish. The original description says hindwings but it is corrected to forewings on p.122 of the same volume. The figure shows the character on the forewings.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
The figures show the underside of the forewings with the pattern of the hindwings reproduced on them to an extraordinary degree, perfectly symmetrical, and stretching from the inner margin up to the costa is a median chain of silver spots and a yellowish wedge-shaped mark normally seen in the centre of the hindwings margin. This would appear to be the most extreme case of homeosis [replacement of part of one segment of an insect or other segmented creature by a structure characteristic of a different segment especially via mutation].
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the underside of the hindwings in the middle of the red-brown basal area, instead of a black spot there is a yellow spot.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the underside of the hindwings the brown colour posterior of the pale central band, has completely, or almost completely, disappeared.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the underside of the hindwings all basal spots, the whole central band, and the triangular spots before the hind-margin silvery-white. Moreover this colour is present in several cells outwards of the central band. On the underside of the forewings all marginal lunules pale yellow and the same colour is also present in the pale spots at the costa near the apex. The whole underside gives a very pale impression. Upperside markings and colour normal.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On the underside of the hindwings the yellow central band with its three silver spots is almost completely suppressed by the ground colour.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
On upperside of forewings the discal cell is unmarked except for the second spot distad [directed towards the tip], very small, and the discocellular, which is indeterminate, the basal spot in cell 1 feeble. The postmedian row of spots is absent and the costal spots between the normal position of these and the marginal series, very feeble. The marginal spots reduced and the marginal lunules small. Hindwings upperside with basal suffusion slight, the discal spots small, the discocellular pronounced. The postmedian row of spots absent, the marginal lunules small as on forewings. Underside of hindwings with the normal sub-basal brown band ill defined and the median silver band almost completely obsolete, the silver marks having lost their dark outline leaving the disc with an almost clear area of Mars yellow, growing more suffused with burnt-sienna as it approaches the base. The postmedian silver spots are well developed, the marginal lunules small but silvery. The description is long and rambling, the main character is the absence of the postmedian row of spots on the upperside of fore and hindwings and weakening of other spots, and on the underside the almost absence of the median band of silver spots.
Natural History Museum
britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk (all aberrations)
