Turner's Lepidoptera of Somerset was published in 1955 by the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society (SANHS) [1].  This is the last published account for the County and his record is an important baseline for comparison today.  The following is an account of Turner and his list, together with details of how this information was prepared for re-use with modern names on the website.

A. H. Turner (1895-1962)

Arthur Henry Turner was born in Repton, Derbyshire in 1895 and died at North Curry, Somerset in 1962.  A keen naturalist since childhood, his main interest was in the Lepidoptera but his wide knowledge enabled him to be described as "one of the best all round naturalists in the County" [2].  On retirement he moved to Somerset, initially to Bickenhall and later to North Curry and quickly became involved in the revival of the entomological section of the SANHS.  In 1949 he became Recorder for the County and set to work with the aim of producing a county list.

Turner's List

In a review of his book it was stated: "[this] is a work which commends itself to us as a result of the painstaking research, and also, in no small measure, because it is a list of the Lepidoptera of Somerset, not the Macro-Lepidoptera only" [3].

The list is widely quoted (presumably from the preface) as containing about 1440 species – it actually lists 1434 species.

Turner's cited reference for nomenclature was Kloet & Hinck's A Checklist of British Insects 1945 [4].  His interest and accuracy here is reflected in the facts that he is listed as an Original Subscriber to this book (where very few other County Recorders are listed) and only 8 typos were detected in the species names he used.

Turner has been 'criticised' for understating where information was simply lacking, particularly with the Microlepidoptera.  Emmet notes [5], in an account of records from Somerset in 1967: "My experience leads me to hope that the majority of Turner's list species will turn up, if looked for in the right way.  The notes that follow will show that many species have a wider range and higher density than was known when Turner compiled his list."

Turner didn't use the Vice County system and opted for Parishes and named localities but the area of coverage is largely VC5 and 6.  Consequently, the list as presented here makes no distinction between the two VC's and represents Somerset as both VC5 and 6.  In a few cases we have species that are found in one VC but not the other and this will be subject to later treatment.

It is likely that much information was taken from the records collated by Arthur R. Hayward (1877-1939) [6].  Hayward lived in the County all his life and compiled records into a card index, which Turner cites in his introduction.  There seems to be no firm evidence that Hayward intended to publish a list from his card index.

Interpretation of the list

In order to analyse the list, the entire book was first digitised using Abbyy Fine Reader 8 Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.  After checking and proof reading the captured text, a script was used parse the content into a tabular form, which was saved as a database table.  Species names used were then resolved using the following process:

• Names were first checked against the reference Lepidoptera list from MapMate.
• Any non-matching names and synonyms were double checked for errors against the original text.  Any reading errors from the OCR process were corrected and these names verified against the reference list.
• The residual non-matching names were checked manually against Turner's cited reference (Kloet & Hincks 1945) and any errors (or typos) from the original text identified and resolved.
• The remaining names were all treated to close inspection and resolved individually.

The resolved list can be viewed at Turner's 1955 list.

From the 1434 species listed, we can resolve 1422 to recognised taxa today.

References

1. Turner, A. H., 1955, Lepidoptera of Somerset, Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Taunton.

2. Wilson, W. A., 1962, Obituary Notices: Author Henry Turner FRES, Proc. Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, 106, pp118-120.

3. Anon. (editor), 1956, Books Reviews, The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation, 68, p50.

4. Kloet, G. S., Hincks, W. D., 1945, A Checklist of British Insects, Stockport.  Including half page Errata, etc undated.

5. Emmet, A. M., 1967, Records of Lepidoptera in Somerset, Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation, 79, p104.

6. Rippon, C., 1939, Obituary of A. R. Hayward, The Entomologist, 72, p296.

Acknowledgement

Many thanks to Dr John Langmaid for his invaluable assistance.

M. A. Yeates.  Issue of 6 May 2006.