insects and particularly was ever ready to attempt to rear species from immature stages, (unaccountably, an 

 activity rarely recorded even in later years to come). 



Genus Luffia is described by J. W. Tutt 



In 1899 W.A. Luff received a notable accolade, very well deserved, from the pen of the prolific 

 English entomologist J.W. Tutt, who described the new genus Luffia in the Psychidae (1899: 191). The 

 following year, Tutt (1900: 232) in his extensive survey of the British Lepidoptera, revised the British fauna 

 of Psychidae in which he included a more detailed description of Luffia. 



Luff himself was very proud of having a genus named in his honour. Inadvertently however, he 

 came close to a systematic upset over the authorship of this genus. He mentioned the name Luffia in what 

 could have been a taxonomically valid usage, in the published minutes of a monthly meeting held on July 

 19th 1899 at the Guernsey Society. Luff was aware that Tutt's volume containing the generic description 

 was still in preparation, but was unaware of the systematic consequences his possible presumptive usage of 

 the name would cause. Fortunately this unintended muddle was averted by the fact that Tutt had first 

 published the generic name earlier in 1899; it was also only by a matter of months that Tutt's 1900 volume 

 was issued before the 1900 volume of the Guernsey Society appeared which contained the minutes of the 

 monthly meetings of 1899. 



Summing up the 19th Centuiy 



The period from 1830 to 1900 was in the main fairly productive, both in the output of varied 

 literature, including Ansted & Latham's monumental book, small numbers of papers containing major island 

 listings and many short articles and small notes, in all amounting to over 100 items of literature. Importantly 

 the period saw established in Guernsey the regular production of Entomological Annual Reports by the 

 Guernsey Society, due to the activities of their hard working and enthusiastic members. Another portentous 

 factor was that the Channel Islands attracted the attention of a handful of English entomologists, from whom 

 additional published accounts helped to increase information on distribution and faunal speciation. Contact 

 with some leading mainland entomologist's of the day like Stainton, Doubleday, Newman and Tutt, also 

 ensured that moths normally difficult to identify would reach the attention of the specialists of the period, an 

 extremely important factor considering the short supply of reliable entomological reference literature. Of 

 paramount importance was also the fact that material was being continually collected, reference collections 

 were being maintained and that voucher material had been made available for posterity. A large percentage 

 of species listed in Ansted & Latham were now being verified, both for their identities and for their island 

 distribution. From the 516 species of Lepidoptera listed in the 1862 volume, the total had risen to 771 

 species by the year 1900. 



Some Victorian ladies 



Before entering on a survey of the 20th century recording activities, there is one feature of the 

 earlier period that deserves further investigation and explanation, namely, the identities of Miss Wilkinson 

 and Mrs Boley. 



During the 19th Century, there were, within the elite corps of Victorian entomologists', two ladies 

 present who were also involved in the Entomology of the Channel Islands. In their own way they contributed 

 much to the study of butterflies and moths in these islands, but have received little acknowledgement. 

 History has passed down to us only their surnames and little else. Miss Wilkinson had been credited in 

 Ansted & Latham of 1862, as having compiled the Guernsey list of moths, and along with Dr F.C. Lukis, the 

 list of butterflies. It was stated within the list of contributors that Miss Wilkinson came from Guernsey, but 

 apparently, has never been mentioned again in entomological literature. It has proved to be impossible to 

 even establish what her full name may have been. M"s Boley, in turn, was a keen amateur entomologist 

 living in St. Martin, Guernsey. Apart from often being mentioned in Annual Reports on Lepidoptera by her 

 famous contemporary W.A. Luff, Mrs Boley was in 1890 an early member of the newly formed Guernsey 

 Society. By 1893 the list of membership also included R.S. Boley. Though often cited for her efforts in 

 recording Lepidoptera and for rearing interesting species, the lady was referred to only as Mrs Boley and 

 never credited with either her Christian name or even her full initials. Mrs Boley died early in the 20th 

 century, at the same period when the deaths occurred of W.A. Luff, F.E. Lowe and E.D Marquand. 



In 1998 the Chief Librarian, Dr H. Tomlinson, of the Priaulx Library in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, 

 was consulted in an attempt to try to establish the identities of Miss Wilkinson and Mrs Boley. Unfortunately 

 no information was available on Miss Wilkinson, other than that her surname was little know in the 

 Guernsey Register of that time, suggesting that she be English and apparently was residing in Guernsey, at 

 least around the 1860s. For Mrs Boley however, there are two possibilities. Dr Tomlinson discovered that 

 there were two families of that name living in Guernsey in the second half of the nineteenth century, two 

 men named Dr. Boley. They were brothers, both medical doctors and both living in the parish of St. Martin. 



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