Extinct in Ireland, September 17th, Pheasant’s Eye (Adonis annua)
Another pretty flower with a pretty name – pretty names, indeed, as Adonis annua has a pleasingly alliterative ring. And extinct in Ireland. I came across this elegy for Adonis…
Category: extinct in ireland
Extinct in Ireland, September 16th, the wild boar
This is one of those entries in this month of Irish extinctions since the coming of humanity which can provoke a double-take. For the wild boar, as I have blogged…
Extinct in Ireland, September 15th, The Beautiful Moss Beetle, Hydraena pulchella
Another day, another extinct species. And another evocative common name (and again a translation of the formal name), this beetle is, according to the RedList No 1: Hydraena pulchella The…
Extinct in Ireland, September 14th, The Diminutive Diver (Bidessus minutissimus)
Continuing my September postings on species extinct in Ireland since human habitation, consider the beetle. Many insects often have wonderfully evocative names – both formal and common – that deserve…
Extinct in Ireland, September 13th – Lapidary snail, Heligonica lapicida
Included in Red List No. 2, Non Marine Molluscs as extinct, albeit perhaps in this case its presence in Ireland in the first is debated: Known in Ireland only from limestone…
“The Forgotten Beasts in Medieval Britain: a study of extinct fauna in medieval sources” Ph.D thesis by Lee Raye
Over the course of my September posts on extinct species in Ireland, the importance of archaeology and literary scholarship in determining which species have been extant in Ireland is striking.…
Extinct in Ireland September 12th – Spiral Chalk Moss (Pterygoneurum lamellatum)
Moving from yesterday’s flower, the meadow saxifrage, to a moss species no longer found in Ireland. The demise of “mud capped stone walls”, as outlined below, is another example of…
Extinct in Ireland, September 11th. Meadow Saxifrage
I began this exploration of species extinct in Ireland with a fish, the sturgeon., have moved through mammals and insects, but only now am moving to plants. And predictably enough…
Séamus Sweeney 