The Half Mourner

This morning I came across a stretch of hedgerow that was absolutely alive with Marbled Whites. I would guess that there were more than 300 in a 100 metres of hedge. I'd heard of the 'Half Mourner' before I started looking into the old butterfly names. I assumed it was Victorian, reflecting the morbid fascination with death at that time. In fact, like many butterfly names, it is neither Victorian nor Georgian, but comes from the Stuarts. Petiver called it 'Our Half Mourner' in 1695. Other names included Marmoris (1742), Marble Butterfly (1749), Marmoress (1766), Marbled Argus (1795). The name we now use came from Moses Harris in 1766, so that at least is Georgian and better than the garbled Victorian name 'Marbled White Half Mourner' (Westwood, 1841). In France it is Le Demi-Devil.