Llanelli Naturalists Newsletter - Summer 1988
Ian Morgan
In an earlier Llanelli Naturalists Newsletter (Summer 1987), I wrote a short article summarizing some of the more interesting observations of the Llanegwad naturalist John Brunker (who died in 1972), mostly based on material held in the archives of the Carmarthen Record Office and some letters between Brunker and the entomologist Terence Parsons who hailed from Ogmore Vale in Glamorgan.
This note will examine the correspondence between Parsons and Brunker with regard to the interesting Carmarthenshire lepidoptera records or observations that they contain; the highly informative letters between Parsons and F.C. Best will also be commented upon. These latter letters which cover the two years 1949 and 1950 are an invaluable source of Welsh lepidoptera records, both historical and pertaining to the end of the 1940's.
The full set of letters, which were given to the author by the late Frank Best shortly before his death in 1987, have been copied to the National Museum of Wales and the Biological Records Centre at Monks Wood. Only the Carmarthenshire records - but with some limited references to neighbouring counties of south Wales - will be discussed.
The letters to John Brunker from Terence Parsons are dealt with first, followed by those to F.C. Best.
April 18th, 1949
...Parsons comments on Brunker's record of the pale clouded yellow Colias hyale in Carmarthenshire (undated, without locality details), stating that 1947, (when presumably it was seen), was a "noted season for the species in Britain", co-inciding with a massive immigration of clouded yellows Colias crocea, the likes of which we have not seen since, even in the good season of 1983.
In the same letter to Brunker he states, "I have not heard of Leptidea sinapis (wood white) in Carmarthenshire previously, though it used to occur in Glamorgan and Montgomery, while it still inhabits east Monmouthshire."
Later, in reference to the marbled white Melanargia galathea, Parsons writes..."This is one of my favourites. It occurs all over the southern half of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, while it has been recorded from Pembrokeshire. I have only received one previous record from Carmarthenshire however, Er. C. Tait of Swansea recorded the species in 1922 in a railway cutting near Llanarthney." (SN 522207 or 533205).
Lastly, in this same letter, Parsons observes..."I was very interested in the records of Nymphalis polychloros (large tortoishell) and Euphydryas aurinia (marsh fritillary) in Carmarthenshire, as well as Plebejus argus (silver-studded blue) and "A. astrache" ( ) . Alas, we have no copies of Brunker's replies or original letters to Parsons in which he gives details of these now rare and scarce species.
What is known however, is that much of John Brunker's notes were destroyed - as sadly too-often happens - after his death in 1972. What a valuable source of old records would we now have if the few early naturalists who worked the county had ensured the deposition of their data in a safe institution such as the National Museum of Wales.
In the next letter - of 27th April 1949 - it is the turn of the alder moth Acronycta alni to be mentioned. Apparently Brunker recorded this local but widespread species in his garden at Llanegwad (SN519214).
Next, Parsons asks Brunker if he knew the actual dates when the pioneer Carmarthenshire naturalist, T.W. Barker (author of the 'Handbook to the Natural History of Carmarthenshire; Carmarthen 19C6) took the wood white at Cwmffrwd (SN42-16-), just south of Carmarthen town. He also asks for details of the locality where Brunker himself took this species, which is now extinct in Carmarthenshire. Brunker's locality is considered by the author to be the carboniferous limestone ashwoods between Porthyrhyd and Drefach at approximately SN51-14-.
Again Parsons - tantalisingly asks for details of Brunkers (and others?) large tortoishell records and for information regarding. occurrences of the brown hairstreak Thesis- betulae and silver-studded blue. Parsons mapped the Welsh distribution of the silver-studded blue, together wit: habitat details.
The last letter between Parsons and Brunker in my possession is dated 14th June 1949. Here, Parsons thanks John Brunker for the wood white specimen from Carmarthenshire, adding that it must be "one of the fed Welsh specimens in collections".
He also states that he will be passing on Brunker's records of clouded yellows and hummingbird hawk-moths Macroglossum stellatarum to Capt. T. Dannreuther who was then nationally responsible for collating records of immigrant lepidoptera.
Much of the detailed correspondence between Parsons and F.C. Best concerns the whole of Wales (and therefore with less emphasis on Carmarthenshire) and on the accumulation of records by Terence Parsons in preparation for his proposed 'Welsh Rhopalocera', which unfortunately in spite of the obvious long hours of research and meticulous collection of data, never came to fruition. Best too - as evidenced by his article in the then infant journal 'Nature in Wales' of spring 1956.1 - was also deeply interested in butterfly distribution. His profession, as an officer in the Forestry Commission, allowed him to visit little-known districts of the Principality and record the butterflies and moths of these parts.
The first reference of relevance to Carmarthenshire, is that in the letter of 6th January 1949, when Parsons mentioned that the purple emperor Apatura iris had been recorded in Carmarthenshire - at Kidwelly (SN40). No date is given but it is believed to be an early 19th century record. Parsons must have unearthed this record - the only known VC44 occurrence of the purple emperor - during his researches into the early entomological literature.
Similarly, there is an 1856 record of the black-veined white Aporia crataegi from Kidwelly, a species now extinct in Britain; - who was the recorder of this butterfly - a resident or holiday-maker? and when?; once again, such information is lacking The Atlas of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland, 1984 shows a wide scatter of pre-1940 remoras in southern England extending westwards as far as Penarth in Glamorgan; though there is a record (unmarked on the map) in 1833 by Capt. Charles Blomer near Bridgend. The Kidwelly record quoted by Parsons extends the range of Aporia crataegi even farther west.
Another fascinating early record discovered by Parsons is that of the swallow tail Papilio machaeon at Loughor (SS 56-98-) and Penclawdd (SS 54-95-), both unfortunately in Glamorgan, but only just so! They were made by the Glamorgan naturalist J.D. Llewellyn of Penllergaer Estate early in the 19th century.
Finally, for his favourite, the marbled white, Parsons observes that, "in Carms. the species seems to have a liking for railway cuttings and embankments, where most of the colonies occur. It also occurs on coastal sand dunes." Nowadays, its strongholds are indeed on the dune grasslands of the coast but with some inland colonies on the limestone outcrop and on the diminishing unimproved Coalfield meadows.
After the flurry of letter-writing in 1949-50, the correspondence between Parsons and Frank Best ends in the latter part of 1950. The next we hear of Terence Parsons is in a letter to Best, dated May 17th 1955, on University College Cardiff headed paper, apologizing "for not replying earlier to your letters." Parsons goes on to say that he had just submitted a PhD thesis on tipulids (craneflies), though that there were problems as another student at Bristol University had just completed very similar research.
He then says that his work on his book on the butterflies of Wales has been suspended. This is the last we hear of him, all attempts made in 1957 to trace Terence Parsons failed.
1 Nature in Wales Vol 2, No 1 Spring 1956 pp 205-212
2 Insects captured at Bridgend, Glamorganshire. The Entomolotgists Magazine 1 (1833) pp316-317
For an interesting account of Blomer (who apparently fought in the Peninsula War with Wellington!) refer to H.M. Ballet's Introduction to the Insects of Glamorgan in The Glamorgan County History Vol. 1 Cardiff 1936; p.312