C COPPER BUTTERFLIES Rarities, Historic Specimens
Captain Edward Bagwell Purefoy. A number of the Lycaena dispar rutilus in this list, are from colonies that were established in Ireland by Capt. E B Bagwell Purefoy. Purefoy has the distinction of being the person who discovered the life history of the Large Blue Butterfly Maculinea arion, which depends upon symbiosis with the red ant Myrmica sabuleti. He was working with FW Frohawk who was working on the two volume work on the Butterflies of the British Isles. Frohawk was a superb artist as well as entomologist, and he could not disover how the Large Blue larvae completed their life history, because they kept being taken by an ant! In 1915 Purefoy, not only cracked the life history of the Large Blue, but he established most successfully the only colony of the Large Copper Lycaena dispar rutilus, in the British Isles, at his family home Greenfields, in Tipperary. Captain Purefoy is the Grandfather of Rosemary Goodden. His colony in Ireland thrived from 1918 spanning the entire period between the two world wars.
PLEASE NOTE: This collection of Coppers is offered now and orders from it can be dispatched immediately.
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A lot of three bred males. No data. Excellent condition and very fresh.
A large and very well preserved female from Lord Rothschild. Woodwalton Bred 12.VII.1928. A hairline split in RFW, barely visible.
Ex Coll Cruttwell. No data.
Underside. Some grease stain. Medium to poor condition. Ex Cruttewell Coll. No data.
A very early Purefoy female batavus from Woodwalton, in superb conditio, dating from 1918.
Female in nearly mint condition. From Purefoy's colony which he established at Greenfields Co. Tipperary. Bred 29.VII.1930 Col Labouchi
An extremely RARE UNDERSIDE ABERRATION, with sagitate spotting. A printed data label: Greenfields (Tipperary) Bred German stock, 8.vii.1919 E.Bagwell-Purefoy
Female ex Cruttwell Collection. No further data. Good but not perfect.
Female ex Cruttwell Collection. No further data. Good but not perfect.
Data quite hard to decipher, probably Ventnor 1921 and a collector's name that takes a bit of reading! A very extreme and dark aberration.Excellent condition.
A nicely kept specimen and extreme aberration. Mitcham 1942.
A female aberration the like of which has surely never been seen! An extraordinary var of great age: 1880. This is not mint, indeed a bit rubbed and there is a not too skillful wing repair. It has been through the collections of venerated collectors: A.S. Meek, Standish Webb and PM Bright. Lot 161 7.V.1942 at Stevens Auction Rooms. That's quite a history!
