Whilst watching numerous butterflies in and around my garden this morning and afternoon, one of the Ant's nests in the house wall decided to arrange for a mass emergence. Observed this small worker Lasius niger ( ? ) loyally dragging her majesty to what fate ~ Ants are generally not wasteful so .......

Not as many through my garden this spring and summer but still more common than in an average Holly Blue year. This butterfly does indeed use a wide variety of larval foodplants. Visiting another butterfly enthusiast who lives on the other side of Gloucester back in the early 1980s, whilst chatting ...

Are you certain because if so, you're very fortunate to have the very local species, the Jersey Tiger in your garden. It flies frequently during the day and to my eyes, resembles a Painted Lady in flight. The real Garden Tiger is a more substantial and even more colourful moth. It too can fly during...

http://www.searchnbn.net , then just type in a species name in the search. Misha Many thanks for that Misha. Oh yes, I get them in my garden on the outskirts of Bristol, and did last year too. Denise Hmmm ... interesting .... about 30 miles from Gloucester as the fly flies ...:).... a doddle for th...

I've just looked at the distribution map on the nbn gateway. It seems to be well established in the Bristol area. Misha Thank you ~ my humble pocket Digital Camera struggles with close ups and does not do this magnificent Fly justice. Totally new to me in over 60 years of observations. It's of a si...

A few fresh Painted Ladies in the garden today ~ larger than those immigrants seen a couple of months ago. Whilst watching those, feeding avidly on the same B.davidii flowers was a large fly of a kind I have never seen in over sixty years of observing things natural. Impossible to get a picture on t...

Yes, I've used a similar technique in the past with a x6 hand lens, a x10 is even better. I had a small illustrated article published on the technique in the Amateur Entomologists' Bulletin about thirty years ago. If you look at the terminal four ventral abdominal segments on the pupa, in the male t...

I have occasionally come across fully grown Hawk Moth Larvae wandering away from their foodplant looking for a suitable pupation sight. I've seen Lime Hawks crawling down the main trunk of mature ornamental Cherry Trees near Cheltenham Town centre, Eyed and Poplar Hawks walking along pavements in Ci...

Shot in the dark going on location, season and your description... A female Dark Green Fritillary ~ where's the Green you may ask ~ part of the complex underside colouring pattern. The females can be very variable in upperside colouration whereas the males appear very similar from most UK locations....

Glad to be of help. I did have a look through for some pictures of my very early stages of L.populi for you but they will be up in my loft and in the heat of the past few days, that will be like an oven. I did find some other 6 x 4 old prints which show that some of the Neotropical larvae which depl...

Hi CC. I moved house last November and one of my missions this summer has been to try and find poplar admiral in my new local patch. The butterfly flies at low density in the region as a whole and I see typically one or two a year, generally by chance. The first stage of the mission was obviously t...

Sorry to hear about your job :( , but nice to see your photos. Never knew sticking pupae on corkboard actually could stick them and they would be fine, thanks for sharing! I have to post my pupae soon, got a lot in breeding at moment. Glad the pictures are appreciated. With suspended pupae like tho...

Hi Dave, Nope, that's not it either I'm afraid - I've tried to do a quick sketch (see attached) of the colouring and patternation on my critter to see if that helps any in its identification. Please don't laugh at my pathetic artistic effort - it's meant to be "representative" :? Cheers H...

Thanks for the comments. I didn't think it was a horsefly as the antennae looked wrong, but chrysops caecutiens looks a possible match. Just don't allow one to settle on you ~ you may be sorry ~ I swatted two in my own little nature reserve two days ago which tried their luck on me. There is a Stud...

Your picture is of a Greyling ....

Had official written confirmation that my current employers for the past eighteen years can no longer support my continuing part time employment.... hard times and all that. Cannot complain, I'm well past my sell by date..... :) So lots of time on my hands for all sorts of things. Clearing out my de...

Habitat changes. As a schoolboy in the 1950s, along with two other school friends, I frequently visited a wooded area west of the River Severn in Gloucestershire. It was by pure chance that when chatting about Butterflies and Moths, another classmate piped up saying he had White Admirals in his gard...

just for your benefit. They are the key words here Dave. :wink: If it's really that important to see some foreign butterfly species, then surly a trip abroad would be a little less selfish. Gruditch If you wish to see foreign butterfly species, no need to go abroad. You can observe Large Blues in t...

To day at Chobhom Heath lots of Silver studded blues and small skippers. few large skippers also around. Sezar http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB2/download/file.php?id=3432&t=1 Watch out SSB ~ a spider lurks .... your days could be numbered.... :( In my favourite local wood a few years back, ...

I know of a perfect site for Duke Of Burgundy's Just because a site looks perfect for Dukes, it doesn't always follow that they will thrive there, ask the Head Warden at Bentley Wood. Regards Gruditch It was certainly thriving in parts of that complex in the 1960s, along with both Pearl Bordered Fr...