Nice one Dave ~ how about a few Teasels? They are usually late flowering in August time and on the mainland, always attract large numbers of Brimstones in my local woodland clearings ~ does rhamni occur in the land of a thousand bogs ?..;) Cannot remember on account of grey matter depletion ...:D Al...

There's a thriving colony in my suburban garden ~ see my post on Sites.... about 50 miles from the localities you mention.

The butterfly is common and widespread in Gloucestershire, a county with varied habitat types which suit the butterfly.

For the past twenty years plus, Speckled Woods have set up residence and been breeding every year in my small suburban garden, both front and back. They can be observed every month most seasons from late March, more usually April until November. Males take up 'territories' and chase off intruders. I...

All power to their efforts. Trouble is, those in a position to actually do something about it have rather more important concerns on their agenda ~ at present and for a long time into the future. Trouble is also ~ some of the several other enthusiast web sites I visit ~ not Natural History related ~...

Overwintering butterfly ova ... Interesting stuff...;) Like the Silver Washed Fritillary which overwinters as a tiny newly hatched larva away from it's eggshell, not feeding until the spring, the High Brown also does this but, remains inside its egg shell until the spring. The ova of the Dark Green ...

Alder Buckthorn can be grown from mature cuttings. Lasts well in pots. It is common in Glos woodlands unlike Purging Buckthorn which is very local. Both can be grown from the berry seeds ~ but take a long time to become large plants suitable for raising Brimstones. I believe you can buy the Alder-B ...

Nice sighting, I would love to see a peacock (or any butterfly!) at the moment. CC: What kind of netting did you use to enclose your brown hairstreaks and blackthorn? Black cotton netting, the fine kind used in better quality butterfly nets. I used black to better see the BH ova ~ their white colou...

Back in the 1970s-early 80s, I bred L. d. batavus in large numbers on growing Great Water Dock ~ a lot of work I can tell you. Even breeding only 100 is hard work preparing and maintaining suitable conditions in captivity. I have prints of these efforts and will dig them out for digital copying. Ver...

Jack, I don't think these variations can be relied upon. Back in the 1950s when I had more time to spend looking for things ~ in Gloucestershire I saw both Orange Tips and Duke of Bs in late April 1954; White Admiral females already slightly worn on 21st June, 1957 and Pearl Bordered Fritillaries in...

Hi Susie, Much Snipped .... Purple Hairstreaks are (at least within large parts of their range) very common butterflies and in Sussex almost every decent oak will support plenty. They're hugely under-recorded, but on sunny evenings after 6 or 7 pm the sunlit crowns become alive with dancing Hairstr...

A far greater danger to fragile colonies of rare species is if too few people know about it and accidental destruction of the habitat occurs through ignorance. We all love to see and photograph rare butterflies; that is the modern form of collecting. As for trampling, again the damage is surely ove...

Good efforts folks. If you enclose a potted Blackthorn with netting and put a few resulting larvae in it from the ova they will happily feed up and should produce fine healthy examples. When the butterflies emerge, feed them on weak honey solution soaked pads daily ~ rest the pads on the netting at ...

... we might still have the Large Blue in the West Country and the Swallowtail at Wicken as original populations rather than precarious re-establishments. . I think that the draining of the Fens put paid to Swallowtails at Wicken, not collecting You could well be on the right lines there. Correctio...

Met again and spent a pleasant evening with an old Moth and Butterfly friend who I had not seen for over twenty years last month. He's now fifty and last time we were 'in the field' together, he was in his twenties. Mainly a moth man, he has done much recording with his trap and sugar preparation ov...

Surely the net would hurt it? Netting with a professional net is probably less harmful overall than chasing a butterfly over fragile habitat. It does the butterfly no harm and allows close examination. Here is a large blue quite happy to sit around on my thumb after being netted and examined: http:...

I have been searching through sightings on the Herts/Middx BC website and came across a rather disturbing report of a couple of foreign looking gentlemen armed with nets, baco foil and rotten fruit, any thoughts on what could be going on?, are people trying to make money from our butterflies?, are ...

Here's an obvious Rogue ..... apprehend at first sight ~ BEWARE! ### He's heavily armed with a butterfly net and is prone to adding female specimens to his collection... ;) Here is the 'ace' butterfly hunter ( me ... all nine stone of me ... :) ) aged fifteen ( 1957) in my favourite Gloucestershire ...

Good point Shirley! The larva I reared through has a definite "girdle" - implying that they do secure themselves when required. For me - that would suggest a location in a crevice somewhere, rather than being buried. But perhaps those that are buried (potentially) still secure themselves ...

By and amazing sequence of coincidences, sometime ago I met up with my one time best school friends who I had lost contact with for over forty years. Since Setember 1960 in fact when we last saw each other as our jobs took us different ways. We had much in common, particularly our love of things Nat...

Caterpillars, even small ones like Holly Blues and Brown Hairstreaks can and do travel relatively long distances when fully fed and settling down for pupation. Invariably leaving the bushes when doing so # this based on captive breeding stocks. Back in the 1970s when I bred numbers of both species (...