PORRITT'S LISTS

PUBLISHED JOINTLY IN 2011 by BC Yorkshire & the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union to CELEBRATE the YNU'S 150TH BIRTHDAY

George Porritt (1848-1927) was Yorkshire's first YNU County Lepidoptera Recorder and the first-ever person to collect the county's butterfly and moth records together systematically. Through a journal called Entomological Transactions of the YNU he published his first Lists in parts between 1883 and 1886. Then in 1904 he produced a Supplement followed by a slightly updated summary in the Victoria County History in 1907. Finally we have recently discovered a little known Hull Area List published in 1922. His Lists cover records from the late 1700s to the early1900s.

Not only are copies of his Lists rare today, but they are also very difficult to understand. Nomenclature of genera and species uses the scientific names only, and often names we are no longer familiar with. The order of names is quite different to the one we use today. Family groupings are different and some species treated as one may be two or more today and sometimes vice versa!

To make sense of Porritt's work we are reproducing his Lists in modern systematic order, with the contents of the 4 Lists one under the other for each species, which in itself makes interesting reading! Each species will be headed by the British Checklist number and the current English and Scientific names. We have also added in comments where relevant. Porritt's words will be in black with annotations in colour. The book will be in full colour throughout with illustrations taken from his collections and other sources. It will be an A5 paperback, 320pp, designed and edited by Howard Frost, with Lists re-arranged and annotated by Harry Beaumont, Terry Crawford and Howard Frost, and including a biography of Porritt by Geoffrey Fryer. Chris Yeates (keeper of the Porritt Collections) is providing the photographs courtesy of Kirklees Museums & Galleries.

Special Price £5 plus p&p £4 email: anngeluk@gmail.com