Hi Roger - For what it’s worth (not much) I’d go athalia here. I wasn’t sure with the topside only but the underside features you mention that make you uneasy about your suggested ID move me strongly in the athalia direction. But clearly you are aware of all this so your judgement, having seen far m...

Very much enjoying this Roger - your butterfly knowledge in this part of the Alps must be up there with the very best! Looking forward to reading more…..

Oh no Trevor - not Herstmonceux - not yet! I look forward to these annual reports from your trips but it always means the season is once again drawing to a close……. On this occasion I’ll put it down as an early recce and convince myself that with some good weather later in the summer we’re really on...

Great PE updates Trevor - so glad you caught up with your target!

Wow what a beauty Paul! Always glad when you get rewarded for all those long trips.

Time to return to the WLH All my captive WLH have now emerged. They’re a few days ahead of the wild population but I did see my first wild one on the last day of May. I thought I might as well photograph them and record some data as they emerged. Clearly lighting conditions varied and I’m not fussy ...

That’s a lovely photo on the dropwort Trevor

Great stuff Dave! I think this is very useful as memories are indeed very short - often only extending as far back as the previous week if the conversations I have with people are anything to go by! This does seem especially true when this amnesia gives us Brits an opportunity to grumble - we do lov...

Thanks both. I certainly don’t need high numbers for breeding - females can quite easily manage 500 eggs or more. It is important to rear good numbers though, in order to experiment with different conditions. Most of them live out their lives in a couple of large flight cages that take over the gard...

Black-veined white in southern Britain. IMG_9568.jpeg With BVW popping up at sites around the UK, and headlines appearing that suggest climate change together with habitat restoration/improvements are rendering much of southern Britain suitable for the re-establishment of this species, I’ve been mo...

Hi Trevor. Yes - purple hairstreaks will do much the same thing - although I have never observed this out in the field. I suspect that they descend at night so a UV search of the trunks of some well used oaks may well be fruitful. I suspect it is the case with big old gnarly oaks that a significant ...

It’s been a busy time for hairstreaks. The majority of black hairstreak have now pupated and the white letters are not far behind - in fact I would say that the w-album frontrunners were ahead of the pruni this year. As mentioned before in my diary it’s very easy to monitor large numbers of w-album ...

A key factor in wing-rolling behaviour appears to be the reluctance to do it when close to others of the same species. Even in lek situations my observations suggest the butterfly appears to do it when it is not relating to a neighbour in any way (probably because it is unaware of its neighbour’s p...

Great read Pete - what a trip! If it were me then I’m sure that when the bizarre evening hotel activities kicked off, and having had a quite incredible and dream-like day in the field, I would have been seriously questioning my reality! Or if I managed to convince myself it wasn’t a dream then I’m s...

Excellent! They seem to be a very interesting group! Thanks for posting.

Hi Paul

Nomada goodeniana?

Not something I know much about but it looks to be there or thereabouts.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/63075200@ ... 574350736/

Those male holly blues are a gorgeous colour Trevor - I must spend some more time trying to get photos like that.

Quick update from the woods…. It was April 24th yesterday and I couldn’t resist. What does it tell us? Not much - it’s spring. IMG_0825.jpeg IMG_5446.jpeg The ongoing woodland management around my woods is more dramatic however. This has been one of my most productive iris rides over the 5 year peri...

Hi Trevor - unfortunately that’s probably fairly representative of the wider Sussex countryside right now. Most of these areas just don’t have lush summer nettle beds to support a big second or third brood. Faced with poor quality nettles I guess any summer brood STs emerging in these areas leave in...

I should just update my diary regarding small tortoiseshell and Sturmia bella . Having looked into their relationship closely a couple of summers ago I was amazed and excited to discover recently that the crucial missing piece of the puzzle (the overwintering habits of S.bella ) was not missing at a...