Hi CC, I'm so sorry your effort has been lost. But thanks for trying, and if there's a one-word answer, rather than a long post, I'd still like to know what it is! Guy Hi Guy, At last I am able to reply ~ apparently some of my cookies had gone to pot denying me access and I've just discovered this ...

Go to the "User Control Panel" Select "Manage Drafts" Select "Load draft" Then edit and ... Submit! Cheers, - Pete Thanks Pete ~ I did try that last night but, got a No drafts saved showing ~ does that mean it's gorn forever? I definitely clicked the Save button instea...

... and indeed one of the Marsh Blues in a lower Swiss locality... I'd love to know which. It wouldn't be alcon , would it? There are scant records of this species for Switzerland, apart from in the low-lying areas around Zürich and Luzern. In SW Switzerland it is scarce, declining and seriously th...

About thirty years ago, the late Jack Newton or Tetbury, Glos., showed me his mainly moth collections. His passion was the UK's Microlepidoptera of which he had an extensive knowledge and experience. No small feat ~ forgive the near pun. He also had a short series of Large Blues from the Whiteshill ...

Glad to hear my observations are appreciated. HABITAT CHANGES :~ During the late 1960s, early 1970s, I spent many happy times in a favourite West Sussex wood. I am sometimes at my most content when in the solitude of those southern and central English broad-leaved woodlands. It then had a strong thr...

Why is the purple emperor caterpillar tying the leaves to the twig with silk? It would make sense as a hibernaculum but I thought the larvae hibernated in clefts between twigs. Every time the prehibernation iris larva leaves its normal resting leaf tip to feed on nearby leaves, it places a silk thr...

During the fabulously hot long summer of 1976, which followed a nearly equally warm summer of 1975, the Marsh Fritillary I personally found in many parts of Gloucestershire. It was present in most of my favourite Cotswold Blue Butterfly sites, even in areas where it's preferred larval foodplant, Dev...

Not by me personally but, reading reports on the Gloster Birder website, a Clouded Yellow was observed in the Berkeley Area of Gloucestershire in the past couple of days ~ down river from the Power station there. This afternoon ( Tuesday 17th November) , we had a nice spell of sunny weather so I too...

Yesterday afternoon, at 1 p.m., a Humming Bird Hawk Moth spent about ten minutes nectaring on flowers in my garden. I was able to get quite close to it and felt it was a tad undersized by about a few millimeters in wingspan. My son cut back the Red Valerian severely in the summer as the poor plants ...

Garden Butterflies. It's twenty years since a Wall was observed in my garden. I have never bred a Small Copper and never seen one in my garden until one day, a newly emerged female was on my garage wall still expanding its wings... Woodland butterflies I do not see very often in the garden as the su...

Bramble blossom has always been a favourite with White Admirals and Silver Washed in local wood as well as the woodland browns. Bugle is a favourite with the smaller fritillaries.... Broad Bordered Bee Hawks love Bugle too. I've seen Marsh Frits feeding on Dandelion at the edge of woodlands ... A fl...

Your 'bedroom' butterflies were probably only sleeping and not quite ready for hibernation. It's been a good summer for most garden butterflies and Peacocks in my area have been in better numbers than usual. After feeding for most of the day on the Buddleia spikes, which are begining to go over on m...

The weather today was one of the finest this summer locally. Plenty of butterfly activity in the garden all day but, there has been a change in numbers. Painted Ladies far fewer and still a good number but, outnumbered today by Peacocks.... up to twenty today. Plenty of whites and with the exception...

Commas having a good year locally ~ Richly coloured and of good size too. Well above average sighting totals last month especially. Saw three Red Admirals in my Gloucester garden today ~ all small and showing signs of wear. I think this is the poorest year for Red Admiral sightings in my garden for ...

As I posted earlier, those freshly emerged Painted Ladies in my garden during the past week or so are noticeably larger than those that emerged say a month ago. Considering the variety of larval plants they use, and micro conditions with any individual plant, there will always be a variance with siz...

More than ever in my garden today including several very fresh females and males noticeably a little larger than those fresh ones which appeared over a week or so ago. In all my years observing butterflies, this is the best Painted Lady year by far I can ever remember and there have been good ones i...

Well done eccles, that takes the cake ...
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Numerous Painted Ladies sunbathing on my patio slabs again today and my own and the neighbours' Buddleias well populated too. A single Red Admiral, several Peacocks and the three species of commoner whites more numerous in the garden today too. The Painted Ladies started settling on the lawn to bask...

Certainly looks like it to me. Interesting views. Darker forms of the females sometimes show up near me on the Cotswold Hills where I'm delighted to report it is a common and widespread butterfly. On the Cotswold grasslands, they race about faster than I've ever seen any other butterfly move as fast...

Hi, Almost certainly a Southern Hawker ~ I sold my Dragonfly ID book some years ago. It appears identical to the one I photographed in my garden a few weeks ago: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/MGJohn/Natural%20History/RestingDragonflyingardenSaturday-1.jpg Which Will kindly identified for me...