many cases, not only new records for individual islands, (particularly Alderney, Herm and Sark), but even 

 new species records for the islands as a whole. A considerable increase of records for many species, 

 common or otherwise, that had previously been under recorded in published literature, helps to establish 

 more strongly not only the species status in the islands, but also their distributions between the islands. 



A close examination of all available literature revealed several important aspects apart from the 

 records themselves. On occasion, references to numbers of papers and articles appear in authors' writings 

 that might become listed in a bibliography. It is noticeable however that often these references are incorrect, 

 in one way or another. Mistakes seem to have occurred while copying from another source, or from 

 references quoted inaccurately by others. Either way, it suggests that an author preparing such a listing had 

 not personally checked the references. Common mistakes are often in the year listed and more often than 

 not, refer to dates from published annual reports. The mistake is in quoting the date for the year the report 

 covers, rather than, as it should be, the publication date of the report. Consequently the date given for a 

 publication may refer to date of record, and conversely, the date of capture may refer to date of publication. 

 A second common mistake is in quoting the pagination of a paper. On occasion reprints from a journal 

 contain their own pagination, which will differ from the pagination within the original journal. Further subtle 

 errors will concern a few important papers published more than once, even in different journals. Another 

 example were, papers that were read at a society meeting, but published in the journal at a much later date. 

 Subsequent reference to these papers has caused a muddle of dates and pagination. Other errors noted were 

 either through the carelessness of the writers, or through slack reading of galley-proofs, and editing. 

 Fortunately, as near to 100% of the literature published does not include new scientific descriptions, these 

 bibliographical errors are relatively unimportant as far as taxonomic literature is concerned. However, it is 

 noticeable that many Channel Islands literature references quoted in current books contain the errors 

 mentioned above. Errors in nomenclature are inevitably found, especially in the incorrect spelling of 

 scientific names and these are unfortunately rampant. Inevitably also, the older the literature, then the more 

 likely it might be that the taxonomic names used, will be incorrect. Either misspellings are present, or the 

 names since then, have become synonyms. Other types of corrections have also been isolated and 

 commented upon in subsequent parts of this book. These concern muddles with identifications, or errors 

 caused by inadequate data of one sort or another. In general, this state of affairs has never abated. A 

 motivation within this present work is to correct as many of these errors as possible. 



In the composition of this survey of Channel Islands Lepidoptera, the provision of a literature 

 analysis (see: 38) gives a clearer insight into its composition, apart from the actual listing of the records for 

 the individual species. 



This present work not only supplies much additional information required by the Channel Islands 

 recorders, but will importantly, supply valuable information to British lepidopterists' in general and useful 

 distribution records to all European students of Lepidoptera. Included is a bibliography of the known 

 Channel Islands literature, covering well over 470 publications, along with a general bibliography of 

 required literature. 



The following sources were put to use for the compilation of records listed in this work: 



1 - The authors voucher material and recorded observations, and collection of voucher specimens presently 



deposited in the collections of The Natural History Museum, London (British Museum [Natural 

 History]). 



2 - Channel Islands material located in other museum collections. 



3 - All available literature, including books, annual reports published by the Channel Islands societies, 



articles and small notes published in English entomological journals, privately published papers and 

 catalogues, and manuscript lists circulated for general information. 



4 - Original notes on subsequently published lists, also manuscript notes contained in the files of the 



Entomology Section of the Societe Sercquiaise, kindly loaned by Pam De Carteret in Sark. 



5 - Lists generously provided by several entomologists of their collected material and observations in the 



Channel Islands. 



6 - Information supplied in correspondence. 



9 



