Notes from the Editor

Butterfly Action Weekend

Four members, James Mann, Tony Prichard, Paul Gilson and Phil Smith (Secretary, Martlesham Conservation Group) joined eleven others from the group on Sunday 26th November for this Gorse bashing event.

The weather, which had been quite pleasant up until this event, took a turn for the worse and the group had to work in overcast and rainy conditions. Nevertheless a sizeable area which had been covered in • Gorse was cleared, revealing unde~neath, the Heather which we all hope the Silverstudded Blue will re-occupy this year.

All who took part agreed it had been wonhwhile and we will be joining forces .. again on July 14th this year to help with the annual Silver-studded Blue count. Hopefully we will be able to notice the effect of our clearance work.

Thanks again to Phil Smith for arranging this event. •

1996 Events List

We are sorry that we could not let you have this with our November Newsletter but we hope there is still plenty of room in your new diaries. Write in as many of these events as you can now, we are sure you will not be disappointed.

Scientific Names

I would like to thank our member John Stevens for his encouraging and helpful remarks on this subject. John makes a good point in that as a regional newsletter, scientific names may nor be so impottant since there is not an international readership. However, he feels that the explanations of scientific names was an excellent idea. I would like to receive a few more opinions on this subject. In the meantime, I will continue to include scientific names and two more of their explanations are included here.

Illustrations

As Newsletter Editor, I was absolutely delighted to receive two surprise packages before Christmas. Whilst I have written to the rwo artists personally I would like to use these pages to say thank you again to Angie Steele and Douglas Hammersley for their splendid line drawings. Some of these appear in this issue and will continue to do so in future editions. For those of you who read the small prim, rou will already be aware that our front page symbol the Silver-studded Blue (Plebejus argus), was drawn by Douglas.

Nectar Plants

As with Question Time, I added a postscript asking whether members might wish to tell us more about the nectar sources in their gardens which both they and butterflies enjoy above all others. So far I have received one response. Thankyou again to Angie Steele for her interesting Strawberry Tree observations which can be found on page 18.

Small Skipper (Thymelic sylvestris)

Thymelicus alludes to the dancers of Greek drama and their active movement and applies to both Small and Essex Skipper. Sylvestris means 'pertaining to wood' which reflects their liking of woodland rides and the edges of hedgerows as well as rough grassland.

The term Skipper was applied to the whole family following Harris who, when speaking of the Large Skipper (Ochlodes venata) in 1766 said, 'when on the wing, they have a kind of skipping motion'.

Essex Skipper (Thymelicus lineola)

'lineola' is Latin for a 'small line' which relates to the male scent scale line of this species. It is a useful identification feature being perceptibly shorter and less distinct than its cousin the Small Skipper. Essex Skipper was first described in 18th Germany. It was not recognised in Britain until when a Mr 1888 .,-~4J:f /'"' Hawes, a butterflf; collector from St. , Osyth, Essex, noted that 01 it was slightly different • in appearance from the Small Skipper. Richard South named it Essex Skipper in 1906.

Question Time

Sadly, with the absence of any response to our request for further questions for this new feature, it will have to be held over for a future issue. Please let us have your questions so that we may continue this promising series.

Branch Contacts

If you compare the back cover of this magazine with the last one you will notice one or two changes.

Steven Goss has volunteered to develop the new position of Publicity Officer.

Our Chairman fames Mann, has taken over the job of Conservation Officer from Richard Stewart to allow Richard to focus on the Millennium Project. Note also that Richard has a new address and telephone number.

The job of Branch Organiser generally falls to the Chairman in our branch so this title has disappeared from our Branch Contacts list and James's name will appear in the Summer issue of Butterfly Conservation News as our national contact.

Branch Conservation Officer (Moths)

In our last Newsletter we advertised this post as understudy to Roger Kendrick who will be leaving us in July.

We are pleased to announce that Tony Prichard has accepted this position with a view to taking over completely in the summer. Butterfly Conservation is not just butterflies so we are delighted to be able to maintain this continuity.