My copy arrived today. What a lovely start to the day! - Fab 'companion' to "LIFE CYCLES..." - Scholarly - as the author puts it, 'an archaeological dig' - Really appreciate the sections (Primary, Adventive, Questionable, and Future) - Beautiful (largely thanks to our six-legged friends th...

Only just caught this thread. Sorry in advance - a couple of really basic things: If you're using the viewfinder (I rarely use the LCD screen) - You're absolutely certain you've adjusted the FZ330 dioptre (viewfinder sharpness) knob to suit your eyesight? I thought Panny 'iAuto' mode defaults to usi...

Getting excited now! It's in NHBS mailshots

https://www.nhbs.com/british-irish-butt ... ities-book

Jon

Thanks David & Guy. As it turned-out, we had a mild afternoon yesterday, so I took it out & placed it on a daffodil head. Seemed happy there. Checked an hour later, and it had gone. (There wasn't much in the way of bird activity in the garden, so hopefully it will have a few days of [somewha...

Got a Pieris Rapae imago (male, I think - closed wings) in our utility room. Been there at least 24 hours, immobile, on a window pane. No idea how it got there - there's a door to the outside, but it's rarely & briefly opened over winter... Guess the caterpillar must have come in at the end of a...

That's a +1 for me, regarding the Brooke Bond cards/album. IIRC I worked very hard on persuading my mum to buy way more tea than we needed, and that's when I first developed a caffeine habit. (For an impoverished 'nipper', back in the 60's, it was that album and the Observer's Book of Butterflies, t...

Re Wurzel mentioning the Bluestar bus - it's the 1 (easy to remember!) & will drop you off at the Old Forge, travelling from Southampton or Winchester. See https://www.bluestarbus.co.uk/services/BLUS/1?date=2022-11-26&direction=outbound&all=on - Oakwood Avenue is the nearest stop; White ...

And that's a thumbs-up from me, too! Ben's reports have brightened-up many a gloomy evening for me. Real dedication & enlightening analysis for those like myself who are mere amateurs

Your retirement has bonuses for us all!

Jon

Quite a bit of variety in colouration of https://butterfly-conservation.org/moth ... dered-gold

Found in your area, too. Although, May is a bit early.

Jon

Purely anecdotally, I'd claim the exact opposite!

Jon

Seb certainly is a tenacious survivor - see p.20 "COE DEPENDANTS" in the current (Iss. 1570) Private Eye.

Jon
P.S. Forgot to say - fantastic work! The ST parasitoid stuff is fascinating.

There was the 'freak' sighting, on the 12th Jan - https://butterfly-conservation.org/butt ... tings-2022

Jon

Fascinating stuff, Ben. Good to see scientific rigour, along with your hypotheses.

Jon

I would hazard a guess at 4:1 in favour of the brown form, down here in Southampton (Hampshire coast), this year. (Pretty sure it's mostly CB, and not Brown Argus, I'm counting.)

BR, Jon

Met Office press release - New analysis of the latest climate science shows that future extreme rainfall could be more extreme than previously thought.

BR, Jon

God, that (the Collectors forum) is so sad. To think that there are still people who think it's cool to take butterfly-collecting trips around the world. Dinosaurs.

BR, Jon

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ct-decline - sad. And, still, this government is investing in new / expanded road schemes. Criminal, IMHO.

Jon

Hi Roger - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4040413/ is worth a read...

BR, Jon

Some fantastic confocal laser scanning microscopy images in the centrefold of the 7th August New Scientist. The research describes proboscis variations in butterflies (essentially 'normal' & 'deep' probing differences), from an evolutionary perspective. See https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wile...