Blair’s Shoulder-knot, Lithophane leautieri, was originally indigenous to the Mediterranean Sea area and has gradually moved north - its larvae feeding on the flower buds and leaf shoots of Cypress trees. The first recorded specimen in the UK was collected on the Isle of Wight, Hampshire in October 1951 by Dr K.G.Blair – hence its common name acknowledgement.
Kenneth Gloyne Blair joined the Natural History Museum, London, as an assistant in the Entomology department in 1910, and by 1932 was the Deputy keeper of Entomology. A lifelong entomologist, he wrote many scientific papers on Coleoptera (beetles) and Lepidoptera (moths) and was elected President of the Royal Entomological Society in 1940 and 1941.
In 1943, Blair retired to Freshwater, Isle of Wight where he recorded two other species of moth new to the UK: Blair’s Mocha (Cyclophora puppillaria) and Blair’s Wainscot (Sedina buettneri).
Following his death in 1952, his wife donated his extensive collection of insects to the Hampshire County Museum Service, where it now forms part of the Natural History collection managed by the Hampshire Cultural Trust.
