THE LEPIDOPTERA - A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
by A. M. EMMET
Labrey Cottage, Victoria Gardens, Saffron Walden, Essex.
INTRODUCTION
Let me start with an apology. I am writing this at rather short notice only
because I have been asked to do so. I do not live in Epping Forest and I have
seldom collected or recorded there: I make no claim to be an authority on its
Lepidoptera. Since I am engaged in compiling a list of the Microlepidoptera of
Essex, I have done some research within that field; however, my personal
knowledge of the Macrolepidoptera is slight.
The bounds of the Forest for the purpose of this paper are based partly on
what seems sensible and partly on the availability of records; for these come
mainly from the fringes and to exclude them would leave little material to work
on. Starting from the northern corner of Wintry Wood, I have taken the eastern
boundary to be the new M11 motorway south to the Loughton access and
thereafter the course of the River Roding. To the south I have included
Wanstead, Leytonstone and Leyton because this area contains pockets of an-
cient Forest and provides important records. The western boundary is the River
Lea although purely riparian species are excluded. Records from most of the
woodland area extending east of Epping towards Chipping Ongar are omitted,
though it was considered to be part of the Epping area by recorders in the
nineteenth century.
My principal sources from the literature are listed below under References;
I wish, however, to draw special attention to the paper by Edward Doubleday
(1836). As is well known, the Doubleday brothers kept a grocery shop in
Epping, but anyone who supposes that their credibility as naturalists was
impaired by lack of education would revise his opinions on reading this fluent
and authoritative article, well larded with quotations from the English, Latin
and Spanish poets. His list is confined to the Macrolepidoptera, omitting the
Hypeninae, and includes 373 species as currently understood. It is the main
basis for my comparison between past and present. A valuable source for the
Tortricoidea and Pyraloidea is A. Thurnall; besides his paper listed in the
References, his fine collection is available for study in the Passmore Edwards
Museum.
Most of the modern records were provided by the Biological Records
Centre, Monks Wood. Others have been received from the Epping Forest
Conservation Centre (E.F.C.C). This organisation, because of its role, very
properly records but does not collect, and its information is limited to species
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