the moths he noticed attracted to electric lights. By 1960 while using an m/v lamp, he was fortunate in 

 capturing two species of interest, Dysgonia algira and Eupithecia phoeniciata (1961: 96). R. Long has 

 continually written notes and papers dealing with recorded Lepidoptera. In addition he has compiled most of 

 the Entomological Reports for the Societe Jersiaise ever since taking over from R. Dobson. The reports were 

 written either by himself, or jointly with his wife M.L. Long. The report on 1961 for Jersey was 

 exceptionally lengthy, due to the successful usage of m/v lamps in various parts of the island and from 

 collecting at the arc-lamps kept lit during the summer months illuminating the castle on Mont Orgueil. This 

 latter feature sited in Gorey is a great boon to the Jersey recorders and is a particular type of light source that 

 is absent from any of the other islands. The Author, accompanied by R. Long, collected at these arc-lamps 

 for a brief few minutes in 1962. On that occasion, thousands of insects were seen streaming into these lights, 

 for clearly they provided the richest light source for moth collecting. Mysteriously however, the Orgueil 

 lights appear to have been little used for moth collecting until at least the late 1980's, although, as it proved 

 in 1962, the lights were palpably suitable for easy and highly profitable selective collecting, especially for 

 large migrant species. This was later to become explicit from the collecting records built up by R.V.M. 

 Burrow in 1991 and in other years. 



The work of the author and an early collaboration with R. Long in Jersey 



During the summer of 1958, the author, having recently joined the staff of the Department of 

 Entomology at the British Museum [Natural History], made a first visit to the Channel Islands in company 

 with the Field Observer's Club from London. The Island visited was Alderney and a sizeable collection of 

 various insect groups was formed after a relatively short stay. Alderney was again visited for insect 

 collecting in the following year. Though other members of staff had in earlier years brought back collections 

 of Channel Islands insects, mainly of Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera, Lepidoptera from the islands 

 had only scant representation in the museum collections. This biogeographical deficiency acted as an 

 impetus for further collecting by the author to improve the museum's holdings from this apparently little 

 known corner of Western Europe. Enquiries between the staff and investigations within the collections, 

 revealed not only what little material we had from the islands, but also how relatively unknown the fauna 

 was to us. A literature search for Channel Islands insects soon unearthed scattered papers existing in various 

 English entomological journals, also the lists that were available in Ansted & Latham's book of 1862, a few 

 other books, plus of course the annual reports on Entomology published by the Guernsey and Jersey 

 Societies. It swiftly became apparent that extensive research would be required to document the Lepidoptera 

 fauna of the islands. The author proceeded to undertake these studies. Further collecting trips occurred in 

 successive years to Alderney, Guernsey, Sark and Jersey. Collating information on the Lepidoptera from the 

 literature, plus these subsequent collecting trips, helped reveal to a fuller extent the fauna and more 

 precisely, just how much was known and importantly, unknown. It soon became obvious that by far the best 

 known parts of the fauna involved the butterflies and the larger moths. The microlepidoptera was scantily 

 investigated and their published identifications, rarely based on genitalia examinations, could often be 

 regarded as dubious. Many names were based on a very outdated classification. 



Roger Long wrote to the author in 1961 concerning Lepidoptera species from Jersey. This contact 

 initiated a period of regular correspondence lasting for many years. A meeting was soon arranged between 

 us in Jersey to discuss our mutual interests in the Channel Islands insect fauna, and to outline our individual 

 approach to collecting and recording the species, particularly the Lepidoptera. Our enthusiasm quickly 

 broached the idea of building up information for a Channel Islands checklist on the Insecta as a whole, to 

 which end we decided our individual participation. The concept of trying to embrace the entire Insect fauna 

 lasted only a few years, particularly with the author. The problems involved in obtaining identifications over 

 the entire range of insects, apart from the enormous amount of name checking that would need to be done 

 from the lists already published, proved to be too large a commitment for the author to take on. Primary 

 work at the museum and personal commitments needed to take precedence. The collation of information was 

 therefore restricted to the Lepidoptera. Several visits to Jersey throughout the 1960's for collecting trips with 

 the Long's, also provided the opportunity for a brief examination of the Lepidoptera collection based at the 

 Museum in St. Helier. During this period many determinations of Channel Islands microlepidoptera, 

 particularly from the superfamily Pyraloidea, were undertaken for R. Long at the museum in London by the 

 author and other staff specialists. This named material helped to straighten out a considerable amount of 

 their unworked accessions and aided R.Long and other associates at the Societe Jersiaise Museum to plan 

 and extend the curation of their Lepidoptera holdings. The increasing collections and subsequent expansions 

 of cabinet space were soon to be tasks that would have to take precedence over fieldwork for the major 

 recorders in Jersey. In addition, apart from the Lepidoptera, consideration for devoting time to other insect 

 groups also had to be undertaken. 



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