The extinct British Plebejus argus masseyi & cretaceus ssp.

[nomad]

This very interesting form of Plebejus argus [ Silver Studded Blue] inhabited the wet Witherslack mosses of Westmoreland [ now Cumbria ] where it became extinct in the middle of the last century. The subspecies masseyi females were large and were exceptionally blue. Some of its habitat was drained but some remains, because of its beauty it was much sought. Today this extinct butterfly would comand a high price. From the same collection as the L. dispar dispar.

Peter

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[nomad]

Here is a normal female of the lowland heathland, Plebejus argus that I took at Silchester Common, Berks U. K. in June. Notice the lack of any blue, quite unlike the gorgeous extinct female masseyi shown above [ top two and from the top, second left]

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[nomad]

A photograph I took of a male Plebejus argus at Silchester, a much less intense blue than the extinct masseyi, [ see the bottom right two masseyi specimens]

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[daveuk]

There is a colony of this species at Prees Heath in Shropshire which some authors say is masseyi.
These are specimens I took at Prees in the early 1990's. As you can see some of the females are very blue like masseyi.
The bottom two specimens are two male aberrations from the same colony.
This colony is now run by butterfly conservation so collecting there is now prohibited.

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[nomad]

I have heard about the interesting colony at Prees Heath and it certainly looks a bit like masseyi. One of your females certainly seem to agree with one of the Witherslack specimens shown but the others from the extinct locality seem to have a more extensise blue on the forewings. Masseyi or not, the Prees Heath population looks most interesting and is certainly different to the normal lowland heathland races. Hopefully I will visit this site in the near furture [with my camera], and get some good images.

Peter.

[saturniidave]

The Prees Heath colony are normal argus. I had 8 pairs of masseyi and compared them with Prees Heath specimens. They were different, but very similar to normal argus from elsewhere. The Portland ones are NOT cretaceus no matter what some people say! I also had 8 pairs of cretaceus from Kent, totally different.
Masseyi were dealt the death knell when the habitat was destroyed by fire, not by over-collecting.

[nomad]

Mar 29, 2013 8:54:35 GMT -8 saturniidave said:

The Prees Heath colony are normal argus. I had 8 pairs of masseyi and compared them with Prees Heath specimens. They were different, but very similar to normal argus from elsewhere. The Portland ones are NOT cretaceus no matter what some people say! I also had 8 pairs of cretaceus from Kent, totally different.
Masseyi were dealt the death knell when the habitat was destroyed by fire, not by over-collecting.

Interesting, I thought masseyi was extinct. Do you know which heath at Witherslack masseyi occurred on and the exact year that it became extinct.

Peter

[saturniidave]

Sorry Pete, I don't know the exact heath but I believe the fire was in 1947. All my specimens just said 'Witherslack' and the date on the labels.

[nomad]

Dave, thank you for the date when Plebejus argus masseyi [ Tutt 1909] disappeared, I have found that most other sources mention that this lovely subspecies became extinct in around the same period c1942. It does appear that many of the masseyi specimens that are found in collections are from around 1918 to the late 1920's and that it was becoming rare from then up to the time that it disappeared. Witherslack sits on limestone just above a coastal plain where there was a large area of interconnecting wet mosses and the best masseyi locality occurred it seems about one mile from the village. Much of the masseyi habitat was ruined through drainage for intensive agriculture, peat cutting and from commercial forestry where large areas of pines were planted. Today only fragmented mosses remain including Meathrop Moss nature reserve which has a good population of Coenonympha tullia subspecies davus [ Large Heath]. I visited there last year to photograph that species. Meathrop Moss was saved early in 1919 by that pioneer of conservation Charles Rothschild but unfortunately this did not save masseyi.

It is noteworthy that many people including noted lepidopterists believe that the population at Prees Heath in Shropshire is in fact masseyi but although this population shows some of the same morphological features, I believe this is not masseyi because of its different habitat and geographical isolation from that northern population. The last wet mossland habitat for Plebejus argus is in North Wales at Llyn Hafod below Snowdonia at the Hatfod Garregog NNR and many believe this population is also referable to masseyi but it is almost certainly not that extinct subspecies. However the populations of Plebejus Argus at both Prees Heath and the Hatfod Garregog may be distinct forms different from P. argus argus. See this very interesting paper on the populations of the Plebejus argus occurring in Northern Britain at
users.ox.ac.uk/~zool0376/PargusAnimalConserv.pdf

This paper mentions two other P. argus races, the well known subspecies caernensis which occurs on limestone at the Great Ormes Head, Wales which is a very distinct with its dwarf size and very blue female and another similar dwarf population that occurs on the sandhills of Holy Island which lies of Anglesey also in Wales. In Southern England many people do indeed refer to the population on Portland as cretaceus the extinct race from the chalk downs of Kent.

Peter

[nomad]

A Witherslack Moss, Once the habitat of plebejus argus subspecies masseyi .

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[nomad]

Plebejus argus subspecies caernensis feeding on wild Thyme [Thymus serpyllum ] on the limestone of North Wales. Excuse the quality, taken a long time ago with a poor camera.

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[nomad]

It seems the photograph I posted in this thread contains both of the two British extinct subspecies of Plebejus Argus,  masseyi and cretaceus.



The three females [ top left and right] are of subspecies masseyi and the bottom two males are ssp cretaceus. The males in subspecies cretaceus were especially bright and large. I will post some better images of the extinct cretaceus  subspecies later in this thread.



Here is a recent image of ssp masseyi specimens. All have Witherslack, Cumbria on the data labels.

[o0osteve]

There has been lots of Plebejus argus for sale on ebay lately from Prees Heath selling for £20-£30 nearly placed a bid.
Very nice thread and really interesting.

Thanks
Steve

[nomad]

Hi Steve, I am pleased that you enjoyed the thread. I do find these extinct endemic subspecies fascinating and I am always looking to know more about them. I have seen specimens of this species from Prees Heath on ebay. Recently an all brown female? that was supposed to have come from that locality went for under a tenner. You would have to pay a lot more for a genuine specimen of subspecies masseyi, but these rarely come up for sale because they are absent in most collections. The females of Subspecies masseyi were usually fairly large and are often quite distinctive with the blue scaling extending right across the forewings. In the females from the population at Prees Heath, the forewing blue scaling in most specimens is confined to the inner areas. As can be seen from the images in this thread there are exceptions in any population and you have to look at the morphological characters as a whole.
Another special factor that set masseyi apart from the other Plebejus argus populations was its special isolation and occurrence on the wet mosses lying to the south of Witherslack. I have been on some of the remaining parts of the moss near Witherslack and I can confirm they are very boggy by getting two wet feet. The habitat at Prees Heath seems to be the usual rather dry Heathland.

Below are some more images of typical female masseyi and specimens from Prees Heath.





Two typical females of Plebejus argus masseyi


Old specimens of Plebejus argus from Prees Heath, Shropshire.

[smallcopper]

I really am going to have to get around to taking photos of specimens in my collection and putting them online! I've a few P.argus from Prees, but alas no ssp.masseyi. (Something I'd dearly like to rectify one of these days).

New Year's resolution. Take some photos... If nothing else, for insurance purposes. (Speaking of which, I've never thought of this rather cold, calculating aspect. I shudder to think what my collection's worth, collectively, these days. I've no intention of selling it, but I wonder where I'd stand from an insurance perspective in the case of, say, a house fire? Hypothetically speaking, say my collection had a retail (and hence, replacement) value of over £10,000 - comprised of many specimens worth anything from a few pounds to several hundred. What if the cabinets went up in flames with the rest of the house? As a whole collection, it's worth more than my household policy would cover as a named item. But individually, each specimen would qualify for cover. The same probably applies to my books - several thousand strong nowadays - and my cypraea collection. I wonder if I need to sort out specialist insurance?)

Apologies for the thread sidetracking, but it's a though maybe worth pursuing.