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UK Lepidoptera Checklist Synonyms

This page provides an alphabetical index to the scientific species and subspecies names and synonyms in the main section of Checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles, D J L Agassiz, S D Beavan and R J Heckford, 2024 second edition, and subsequent amendments (ABH list). Names previously used incorrectly are typically listed as synonyms. Species in the checklist appendices are omitted. The checklist was updated from a spreadsheet version downloaded from the Natural History Museum Data Portal. Natural History Museum (2022). Data Portal Query on "Agassiz Lepidoptera 20220628a.xslx" created at 2022-07-01 07:24:22. 187770 PID https://doi.org/10.5519/qd.zg8ojon9. Subject of "Checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles - Data" (dataset) PID https://doi.org/10.5519/0093915. This is under the CC-BY-SA-4.0 License, which also applies to this web page. Disclaimer: the Museum cannot warrant the quality or accuracy of the data.

Following publication in 2024 of the second edition of the ABH list, a check through that for any synonym changes resulted in finding some previously unrecognised synonym row placement errors in the spreadsheet version of the first edition, which had caused those synonyms to be attributed to the wrong species on previous versions of this web page. The corrections are listed below.

pomella is a synonym of 4.053 Stigmella incognitella, not 4.054 S. perpygmaeella
betulinella is a synonym of 35.012 Anacampsis blattariella, not 35.011 A. populella

Numerous additional synonyms have been added from older sources, and some additional name usage taken from the checklist Notes section. This is intended to assist recognition of species from lists published in historical books and articles, and to draw attention to the number of species possibly corresponding to past use of some names. Most of these additions were obtained from:

A Check List of British Insects Second Edition (Revised) Part 2: Lepidoptera, Kloet & Hincks, 1972.
"The Entomologist" Synonymic List of British Lepidoptera, R. South, 1884. This list and a number of other historical items on British lepidoptera are available for view and download on the Biodiversity Heritage Library website.

To avoid confusion with checklist entries such additions have an underscore "_" appended to the name, and some more doubtful old names have "_?" appended. Where names that were considered to be synonyms are treated as separate species in the ABH list, they may not be listed as synonyms here (e.g. Elachista collitella was listed as a synonym of Elachista subocellea in Kloet & Hincks, but these are separate species in the ABH list). Disclaimer: there is no guarantee of the accuracy of the assignment to species of any of these additions, and not all of the total possible additions have been found, assigned to a current species name and added to this index. Only names used for species and subspecies have been included here; some of these have also been used for forms/varieties of the same species, but other named varieties are excluded. The different genus names used for some species have not been listed. There are probably some typographical errors, mistakes and accidental omissions/inclusions.

Some identification problems when using old species lists:

multiple use of a name by different authors for different species
two or more species formerly grouped as a single species
two or more forms/subspecies of a species formerly treated as different species
uncertainty over the species corresponding to some old names
more than one of the above problems can apply to the same species!
some lists could include adventives, imports, or misidentifications as foreign species

Each row of the index contains the ABH number, the Bradley list number (if any) in brackets, the ABH list taxon followed in alphabetical order by the ABH list synonyms and subspecies (if any) and the synonyms from other sources. Ss after a name indicates a subspecies from the checklist. A name used for one species as both a subspecies and as a synonym is only listed once here, and a nominate subspecies name is not listed as a subspecies. The scientific names are followed by the common name(s) (in brackets if not taken from the ABH checklist), and for most species the typical UK larval food [in square brackets] derived from various sources. Disclaimer: the larval food information may not be complete or entirely correct. It is there to assist determining the species in an old report if the name used has multiple index entries, when the report mentions the foodplant.

The fastest way to use this page is to set the display position without using the scrollbar. To do this, type a [Space] to clear the previous search text, followed by the first few letters of the species name (not the genus). As each letter is typed, the list should be repositioned at the first entry matching the letters so far typed if there is one, otherwise the display position remains unchanged. If the repositioning is incorrect, try adjusting the text area font height and/or line spacing using the selection boxes below. The positioning has only been tested using the Chrome browser.
NB If the index text area is not surrounded by a thin white line within a thick border, positioning by keyboard input will not work until you click on the text area or anywhere else on the page (except selection boxes and hypertext links). Most of the thick border turns from black to dark red when characters are entered, and back to black when the search string is cleared.

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Page last revised January 2025
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