enthusiastic regular documentation. However, survey of the English entomological journals reveals very 

 little information accept from relatively recent years, either in the way of quality or quantity concerning the 

 Channel Islands fauna. For a deeper insight, a lepidopterist has to refer to three journals published by local 

 societies in the islands, a journal published by the Alderney Society, but more important, the comprehensive 

 journals published by the two major societies based in Guernsey and Jersey. As a foundation for providing 

 information on the Lepidoptera, reference has to be made to an extraordinary book published in 1862, 'The 

 Channel Islands' by D.T Ansted and R.G. Latham. This was the first and only book ever published that 

 attempted to provide a comprehensive listing of the entire Lepidoptera fauna of the islands. Naturally, this 

 listing used scientific names and a classification that are now hopelessly outdated. 



Because of the lack of a modern comprehensive publication, students of Lepidoptera today are 

 largely unaware of the more precise nature of the Channel Islands fauna. It has to be acknowledged, 

 entomologists living within the mainland of the British Isles, have sorely neglected studies of the islands' 

 insects, with their preferences for collecting trips and study areas set a good deal further afield. Most 

 lepidopterists from earlier years and even today, probably had little or no experience of the Channel Islands 

 fauna, and at best if challenged, could only assume what was likely to occur within the islands. This 

 assumption would largely be founded upon knowledge of the British fauna, with perhaps a working 

 knowledge of Western European continental fauna to act as a guide. Through various small notes published 

 in English journals by island entomologists, there will also be an awareness of two other features regarding 

 these insects. Firstly, that many species regarded as rare in mainland Britain are quite frequent in the 

 Channel Islands; secondly, on occasion, continental species may be found in the islands that are not recorded 

 in Britain. For those interested in the distribution of either British or continental species, there will be an 

 awareness that the islands are interestingly situated for monitoring the northwesterly routes of species that 

 are gradually expanding their territories, and of course the routes used by migratory species, all of which 

 might ultimately lead to additional species for the British fauna. 



During the many years that the author has been researching the Channel Islands Lepidoptera, 

 several factors have become increasingly evident. One fact is, relatively few lepidopterists from Britain, over 

 the last 200 years, have had prolonged firsthand experience of recording the fauna of the islands, which is 

 only partly due to the geographical position of the islands. Secondly, the bulk of the information on Channel 

 Islands Lepidoptera is widely scattered in the available literature and is probably unknown to mainlanders. 

 Apart from the current main recorders residing in Guernsey and Jersey who maintain databases on the fauna, 

 the only other major sources of information on the insects reside in the records filed at the Biological 

 Records Centre at Monks Wood and the records compiled by the Rothamsted Insect Survey in the islands. 



Biogeographical affiliations of the fauna 



In recent English literature it has become customary to include the presence of species in the 

 Channel Islands when reviewing species distributions for the British Isles as a whole. Though this extra 

 distribution as an inclusion is useful, it has simultaneously caused some confusion. Ambiguity has arisen 

 about whether the fauna of these geographically and therefore biogeographically continental islands should 

 form part of the recognisable British fauna. The British distributional maps of species first formulated by the 

 late John Heath, now includes the Channel Islands as county 113 in the current series of books 'The moths 

 and butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland'. They are not always up to date with Channel Islands records 

 and therefore misleading. Though this inclusion onto the distribution maps is very useful for the increased 

 range it provides, it has also produced misleading ideas as to the exact relationship of the Channel Islands 

 fauna, with that of the biogeographical region we define as the British Isles. Some writers from the Channel 

 Islands and mainland Britain have in the past assumed that continental inclusions discovered in the islands 

 will automatically be part of the British fauna. This assumption is incorrect. The reality of the Channel 

 Islands fauna is that it forms part of the faunal area of France. The work therefore undertaken concerning the 

 fauna and flora of these islands is towards an understanding of offshore islands that are part of 

 biogeographical continental Europe. This aspect has not been always fully appreciated, though from time to 

 time a few have commented upon the subject. The French biologists have not studied the fauna, as politically 

 the islands form part of the British Isles. It has therefore become the responsibility of island and British 

 mainland biologists to carry out these studies. All participants are part of the British community and have 

 naturally, in the main, referred to British sources for information and their writings foim a part of the 

 English entomological literature. Primarily though, the biological work being undertaken in the islands is 

 towards an appreciation of the fauna within this definable area. This in turn is filling in a gap in our 

 knowledge of the fauna of France and Western Europe. Constructively therefore, the information gathered, is 

 going towards defining a comprehensive realisation of the biogeographical boundary fauna of France. 

 Because the area is a geographical part of France, the fauna and flora of the islands require exclusion from 

 that of the British Isles. 



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