Emmet is a firm believer in systematic
field work, the study of life-histories, of
getting to know the subject intimately. There
are few like him, willing to sacrifice the time
and energy required to operate at this level. At
the Annual Exhibition of the British
Entomological and Natural History Society at
Imperial College, London in 1990, he amazed
the gathering of Britain's finest by walking in
the car park, searching the ground, and
suddenly exclaiming "New to Britain!" He had
found mines of Phyllonorycter platani on the
leaves of plane, as though by magic. Almost
embarrassingly, further searches revealed the
moths present in the grounds of the British
Museum (Natural History)!
Recently he has been honoured by the
French author Leraut. who split the genus
Tischeria into two and bestowed the name
'Emmetia' on the new group.
Literary output is considerable, for as well
as MBGBI and the usual papers for journals,
Emmet worked on The smaller moths of
Essex, published by the Essex Field Club in
1981. This guide has Emmet's personality
stamped all over it: meticulously researched,
succinct yet containing a wealth of data
presented in a logical, readable style. It was
very much a trail-blazer, containing as it does
distribution maps for each species, and it set
the pattern for other local guides to come.
With Katie he visited every ten kilometre
square in Essex at least once to give probably
the best distribution coverage for leaf-miners
of any county. Almost twenty years later this
book is still an essential tool for Essex
recorders. On page sixty-seven is an entry for
Coleophora fuscicornis, which he discovered
at Fingringhoe Wick Nature Reserve - one of
twenty species he has added to the British list.
As well as gathering and collating Essex
reports, he is Microlepidoptera Recorder for
Britain and is constantly used as a resource by
other workers for checking records past and
present, and manuscripts for accuracy and
'correctness' (especially the rules of
nomenclature!).
The smaller moths of Essex was followed
in 1985 by The larger moths and butterflies of
Essex, co-written with Geoff Pyman and
David Corke, presented in similar style, and
17
wliich also contained updated information on
the microlepidoptera, for interest in them had
been ignited by the earlier book. Papers
continue to flow from his pen and whichever
book on British Lepidoptera you care to read,
his name will figure prominently in the
bibliography section.
With the sad loss of John Heath, the bulk
of the MBGBI editing duties of fell on
Emmet's shoulders, a task not helped by some
section authors failing to meet deadlines. Were
it not for his perseverance and commitment,
characters displayed during earlier escapades,
this internationally important scries would
surely have floundered.
Other works of special note include editor
and main contributor of A field guide to the
smaller British Lepidoptera, published by The
British Entomological and Natural History
Society in 1979 (and revised in 1988), and The
scientific names of the British Lepidoptera,
their history and meaning (published by
Harley Books in 1991), perhaps his magnum
opus. This meticulously crafted volume has
rightly received widespread acclaim both here
and abroad, being hailed a 'giant work' in a
Finland review , for example. Unusually for an
entomological work, it is a deceptive book
which can be picked up and penised when the
whim strikes you, it brings alive the names of
our fauna and the people who named them,
and helps to dispel some the awkwardness
many of us feel when dealing with scientific
names.
But his most valuable contribution to the
Lepidoptera literature is surely The moths and
butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland. When
it is finished, it will provide us with an all-
encompassing reference work which will be of
constant value to all of us, and will serve
generations of lepidopterists to come.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 16 (1999)