Treasures of the Dalean Collection. Lepidoptera & Coleoptera

Two species of Hawk moths of the Sphingidae ( Macroglossinae), that are common in parts of Africa and the Far East, are very rare immigrants to the British Isles. These are The Silver-striped Hawkmoth - Hippotion celerio (Linn 1758) and the Oleander Hawkmoth - Daphnis nerii (Linn 1758). The Dale collection has some very historic specimens of both species including the first that were ever taken in Britain.
Daphnis nerii is a very beautiful moth when fresh, but after many years in collections the glorious marbled green colours fade to brownish.This species is not recorded every year in our islands and when it does occur it is seen in very small numbers. The record for the U.K was 13 in 1953. John James Walker RN (1851-1939) reviewed the new bequest of the Dale collection to the Oxford Natural History Museum in the Entomologist Magazine 1907-1909. He studied the lepidoptera in the Dale collection in some detail after he retired and lived in Oxford. Walker was a fine Entomologist who collected widely in the Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and in the Mediterranean when he was a commander in the Royal Navy. He was also a brilliant lepidoptera historian, here is an example of his detective work relating to the capture of the first ever adult British Daphnis nerii ( Chaerocampa nerii ).

" the most interesting is a male, a little faded in colour, but otherwise in good condition with the exception of a small piece out of each apex of each fore-wing, and the top of the head is rubbed bare. It is labelled " Dover by Mr Le Plaistrier Sept, 1828. ". The latter date is almost certainly erroneous as regards the year,as the first record of the capture of the imago of C. nerii, in our islands appears in the Entomological Magazine for 1833 ( Vo1 p525 ) as follows - Discovery of Sphinx nerii in England " Sir, another addition has been made to our visiting Sphingidae by the capture of the splended Deilephila ( may I call it ) nerii at Dover about ten days since. From the state of the specimen, which I have this day examined, it must have been very recently disclosed, the tips of the wings and the top of its head,alone being injured by its captor, a lady residing in the above town *** J. F. Stephens Sept 16th 1833.

" The specimen now under consideration is slightly damaged in precisely the manner as above described. It seems reasonable to suppose that it was from this example that the beautiful figure in Curtis' " British Entomology "plate 626 was drawn. Curtis at this time the plate was published ( June 1837 ) apparently knew of only two British taken C. nerii one of which was in the cabinet of his fellow worker J. C Dale, and was presumably lent to him for the purpose of this figure, although more fully and richly coloured than the moth is now after a lapse of nearly three-quarters of a century, agrees with it in a remarkable and convincing manner in all the minute details of the markings ; and though Curtis states " This fine specimen of the moth Mr Le Plastrier informed me was taken by a poor man the latter end of September 1834 near the pier at Dover, and bought to him alive ; It therefore appears to me that these two disrepent records refer to the capture at Dover of a single specimen of C. nerii, which came into the hands of the well known collector Mr Le Plaistrier and from him passed to J.C Dale and that this, the first example of this beautiful moth known to have been taken in Britain has thus been handed down to our time. "

Very much later it seems Stephens version of the capture had been accepted. Writing in the moths of the British Isles in 1907 ; Richard South, one of Britain's most distinguished and best loved lepidopterists, wrote that the first specimen of Daphnis nerii was taken by a lady at Dover in her drawing room during 1833. How much better for those gentlemen entomologists to have the first known specimen of this beautiful moth to have been taken by a noble Lady than by a ' poor man' at the Dover pier. It seems that a caterpillar of D. nerii was found in a garden at Charmouth in Devon a year earlier in 1832. Unfortunately the caterpillar died when it was given and handled by a Mrs Taylor who wanted to make a drawing of the larvae. Mrs Taylor then sent the drawing to J.C. Dale who passed it on to John Curtis and the larvae is figured on the same plate as the first adult to be taken in our islands.

Among the other five early specimens of D. nerii in the Dale collection, there is one that was taken in London at Poplar, Sept 20 - 1888; another that was captured by a small boy at Eastbourne in Sussex circling around a street light on Sept 27 1884 and one collected as far north as Hartlepool on the north-east coast of England in July 1885.


This first ever specimen of Daphnis nerii to be captured in Britain at Dover.


D. nerii Eastbourne 1884.


D. nerii Hartlepool 1885.


D. nerii Poplar London 1888.




The John Curtis ( 1791-1862) plate from his British Entomology  1837, showing the Le Plasterier Dover adult and the Charmouth larva found in 1832.




The Silver-striped Hawk-moth - Hippotion celerio is also a very beautiful and rare immigrant to the U.K, but is more frequent than D. nerii. In the Dale collection there is a very old specimen that was the first to be captured in Britain. This specimen was taken in July 1779 in Bunhill Fields burying ground in North London.. It was purchased by A.H. Haworth from a Mr Francillion and was later acquired by C.W. Dale at the auction rooms. Among the other six specimens in the Dale collection are a very old male, Brighton J.G. Children; A worn male from St Leonards Sussex 1866; A female taken by a boy in Teignmouth, Devon 1880 ; a female at Bognor Regis in Sussex by P.C. Lloyd in August 1885 and a female picked up by a lady at Glanville's Wootton in 1885 and given to C.W. Dale. 1885 was a very notable year for this species in the U.K when 41 were recorded.


The first British specimen of Hippotion celerio that was captured in Britain during 1779. This was the year of the American War of Independence  and George III was on the throne.



H. celerio Teignmouth, Devon 1880.



H. celerio Bognor Regis, Sussex 1885.