The Extinct British Lycaena dispar dispar

You're right Claude, must be the reason.

Radusho, my friend, I wouldn't say a price is "ridiculous". If some people are ready to pay such price for an historic specimen from a famous collection, then it is the fair price. It's all about demand and offer.

you know when some people talk about specimens being too over priced, how do you determin this? if a collector finds a specimen which is "over priced" but he hasn't seen any other on sale for a while and really wants it, does he wait and ponder what to do, or does he buy it there and then incase he misses it by someone else jumping in before him?

Very true, Duncan.

I would say the same for collecting trips. Very often cost, distance, risk deter us to go collecting... but you never regret it.

"Reintroduced or not I believe L. dispar batavus is also endangered and protected, and so specimens rarely come up for sale and many would like to own this very rare subspecies"

I am a member of the ELG and sometimes livestock does come up of batavus, I was lucky enough to breed out 2 males and 3 females in 2009 and also picked up a stunning ex pupae pair at Newark a few years back, beautiful to see alive.

Then you have been at the wrong places Olivier. Lycaena dispar is a local species. Not rare but local in its distribution. In France it exists in the North Eastern regions that border Luxembourg. There is a second population around Bordeaux. Some sources claim these two populations to be connected, others don't so I cannot say what is true. The North Eastern population also ranges into South Western Germany where I have stumbled into them without even searching for them. From texts that I have read it can be abundant in southern Luxembourg although I didn't have the time yet to drive there and observe them.

The distribution in western Europe is very scattered as it is at the border of its range, which rather concentrates on Russia.

The nominotypic subspecies has been special as they had adapted well to the live in the marshlands and fens of the UK, there is several papers why the subspecies batavus introduced into the UK has high mortality and isn't stable either (as far as I know).

It is a stunning view when seen alive as it is the largest Lycaeninae we have in Europe.

The Woodwalton Fen population of batavus was only maintained by active management and on at least one occasion it died out and was reestablished from captive reared stock. When they stopped managing the fen a few years ago it soon died out. It's still maintained in captivity by many people - I've reared it on a number of occasions - and doesn't seem to suffer at all from inbreeding. In fact, whilst all Lycaena (including dispar rutilus) seem to be very difficult to pair in captivity, these captive bred batavus are very easy to pair.

Bob

Lycaeninae I have not seen Iolana iolas but hope so one day.