Pauline

[Maximus]

Looks like a very likely candidate, Pauline, what's that it's on? Lovely shots of the Wood Whites by the way they still look so fresh, thought I'd missed them

Mike

[Pauline]

Thank you Mike. I think the Wood Whites were a little late this year. I believe that plant is Dogwood. The GH clearly had a very good year as the larva seem to be in abundance at the moment, in a variety of sizes and colours:

[millerd]

Great shots of that larva, Pauline. I don't think I have the patience (or the eyes!) to spot the tiny ones like that. It did occur to me that this might be a Holly Blue, rather than a Green Hairstreak. They also lay on Dogwood (and all kinds of other things at this time of year), and are very similar to yours in the photos I've seen. Is there any easy distinguishing feature to tell one from t'other?

By the way, I also haven't had a telly since 2002, and haven't regretted it once - it seems I'm in good company!

Dave

[Pauline]

Thank you Dave. I confess that I often carry a hand lens with me if I am checking out tiny insects . I had assumed that the different sizes and colours of the cats were a result of the different instars given that GH have been egg-laying for quite a while now. I am not sure about distinguishing features but I am sure someone out there will know

Today, the weather has been dreadful - heavy downpours with a great deal of thunder. Days like this always remind me of Summer 2012 when I frequently ventured out in the rain with my camera and learned a lot by doing so. Nothing ventured ....... so I briefly popped over to Bramshott where the SSB were flying, along with some newly emerged Large Skippers. I disturbed a couple of Meadow Brown hunkered down in the grass along with a lot of moths but apart from all the biting insects not much else.

I'd like to say that the thunder was a distant rumble but as it moved in and the heavens opened again, for the sake of my camera, if not myself, I decided to call it a day.

[Pauline]

Yesterday was largely dominated by my wild rabbit Lucky, found injured on a butterfly outing 2 years ago. She has retained her natural tendency to dig which has to be curbed by sinking in mesh about 1 foot down where possible over her large run (for her own safety). Roots of several large trees prohibit the use of mesh in a few areas including under an up-turned plastic dog bed which she uses as a den when not in her kennel. Yesterday she disappeared and when I checked under the bed I discovered that she had dug down about 3 foot between the tree roots before tunnelling underground for who knows how far Lying on the ground with my face pressed into the soil and using a long stick I couldn't reach the end. Panicking by now I used my bare hands to scrape away the earth and stones, sawing carefully through tree roots where I could. I was concerned that at any time the tunnel could collapse, effectively burying her. To cut a long story short I eventually found her but today my hands are raw with blisters, bleeding and weeping, and are now bandaged. No need to say there were no butterfly outings yesterday so just a quick update on a few of the little'uns. The Ringlet looks like it is settling down to pupate:

The Orange Tips are now quite large and can't be far away from pupating:

[Pauline]

Yesterday I was delighted to see that my Bright-line Brown-eye moth had emerged. I didn't see it and there was no sign that it was about to happen - apart from the fact that we are in the middle of the flight period. To my mind it is an unremarkable little moth but somehow a bit special as it was reared - the caterpillar I removed from my tomatoes last year. I took a couple of shots before release:

This close-up reminds me of a little bull with large horns, head down, stomping his foot before charging Just needs a little ring thru his nose!

[Pauline]

I decided to nip over to Broxhead yesterday between the showers to see how the SSB are faring there. This is a very late site; much later than the other local SSB sites and a more typical habitat. I thought it would be nice to get some shots of this butterfly on heather for a change as opposed to the bracken and bird's foot trefoil, which dominates the site at Bramshott. Initially I struggled to find any butterflies although there were plenty of a variety of moths, looking white in flight although attractively marked close up:

Spiders and grasshoppers were numerous - I avoided getting too close to this large spider in case it could jump but it led me to my first butterfly, to which it was perilously close.

In total I only saw 2 fresh males so clearly emergence is just starting on this site. This butterfly seemed to want to thwart my intentions of a background of heather. It was very active but landed frequently - on anything but heather:

Patience paid off and eventually I got what I wanted:

[jenks]

Lovely photos, Pauline (apart from one !) I don`t blame you for not getting too close to that spider, if that had been me I`d be the one jumping !

Jenks.

[Pauline]

Hi Jenks, how you doing? Lovely to hear from you and thanks for the comment. As you probably know I am not a fan of spiders or slugs A busy weekend which included the washing machine flooding the floor and breaking my tooth on some crackling on the roast pork didn't leave a lot of time, except to check round on the immatures. The Orange Tips did indeed attempt to pupate:

Given that these were rescued from the verge at the end of the lane and the fact I have reared Orange Tips before, I didn't give them any protection - just put them on plants in the garden. I know losses occur in nature but sadly a slug got one of them. The other now has added security measures

The WA pupa have not changed a great deal (thankfully, else they would probably be classed as early):

The Ringlet too has now pupated but I am not prepared to disturb any further for a better shot:

[Pauline]

I am soooooo frustrated!!!! I just wasn't prepared for it! Well, I never expected it! Moreover, I hadn't even planned on watching it! I had brought the remaining OT indoors (only briefly whilst I tried to work out a safe place for it tonight) and as I was paying some bills online I noticed it was moving - sort of thrashing about. Intrigued, I moved closer, wondering if the slug from last night had somehow done this one harm also. As I watched, it sort of shrugged its head off and jerked back and forth and up and down, and as it did these gyrations, its skin slid down the body to reveal the start of the pupa. I watched, fascinated, and tried to grab the camera at the same time - the light was poor, the cat was moving quite rapidly really and the camera settings were not what I would have chosen, but I wanted to capture what I could. A few of these images are OK, some not so, but I hope they give an impression of the minor miracle I have just witnessed. One can only guess at the internal changes that were taking place to effect the change of shape and form in such a short space of time. Just amazing!!!!!

Better than most things you'd see on the TV I bet Dave? Once rid of the external skin the focus seemed to be to bend into the typical boomerang shape which took some considerable effort and time. Bending and twitching back and forth, stretching the form into the recognisable shape took the best part of an hour, with much bending back and forth like an athlete stretching before an event:

I am so glad I was able to witness this. I can't begin to imagine the massive changes which must have been occurring in this short timescale when the insect shrugged off its skin and manipulated itself into the beginnings of a new form. Utterly fascinating!

[Pauline]

Yesterday I needed to go to Noar Hill but with largely overcast skies and a fair old breeze I wasn't expecting to see many butterflies. In the event I saw 10 species during my brief visit, both old and new. The first butterflies I stumbled upon were Green Hairstreaks, 4 in total, in varies states of wear:

There were still a few Dukes about but these too were showing some serious wear and tear:

Many of the male Common Blues I saw also seemed to have taken their fair share of bird strikes and bad weather looking both ragged and faded.......... and then I saw a brand new Dark Green Fritillary. Like the Painted Lady a few weeks ago it was low down and I spooked it. I didn't think it would go far given the weather but it went over a hedge and by the time I got round I couldn't find it. I don't often see them here and certainly not this early but it was good to see. I also saw another Small Blue - in a different spot to the last one - but failed again to get a photo. I spent a little time searching nearby kidney vetch for eggs/larva but without my reading glasses I was always on to a loser.

There were loads of moths, in better shape than many of the butterflies it has to be said, and interesting bugs including these:

A rather impressive male Scorpion fly which was off as soon as he realised I'd seen him and this strange looking colourful creature which seemed quite predatory:

There were quite a few lovely fresh Large Skippers about (all male, no females seen yet), most of which were incredibly active despite the cloud and a single, solitary Marbled White which I couldn't get anywhere close to for love nor money! In the end I decided on a record, long distant shot just as he was the first I've seen this season but it quite possibly qualifies as one of my worst images

Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown and Small Tortoiseshell completed the line up.

[Katrina]

Beautiful colours and light in your last photo.

[Pauline]

Thank you Katrina - the landscape looks splendid up there right now; just a carpet of colour with orchids being the most striking and plentiful. If I could take shots of scenery like yourself (the sunset?) and Mark and David and a few others, then I would have included a picture, but for some reason I never seem able to compose them in a pleasing fashion.

Having reared all of the British Hairstreaks with the exception of the Green Hairstreak, I decided it was time to put that right. As usual, I went through the correct procedure and obtained permission to remove a few eggs from a local site having explained my intentions and objectives. I spent a considerable amount of time watching the Green Hairstreak this year, including many females egg-laying, so it wasn’t too difficult to locate one egg on Dogwood and one egg on Bird’s Foot Trefoil by way of comparison. I was surprised to see the egg laid on the leaf of the Dogwood as I had thought they were usually laid within the buds where they are difficult to locate. However, I know that Green Hairsteak will lay on a variety of plants including Gorse and Broom which I witnessed a few years ago. Despite the diversity of potential larval food plants I had always assumed (for some unknown reason) that any one female would select a single plant type and deposit her eggs on them. However, I watched the same individual egg-laying on 3 different types of plant – Dogwood, BFT and unknown – so perhaps she was hedging her bets, not putting all her eggs in one basket, so to speak!

Back to the rearing. I felt that 2 eggs was plenty – my heir and spare, meaning that if something unfortunate were to happen to one then I still have a second chance to monitor, learn from, and yes, photograph the other, without the responsibilities associated with rearing large numbers of larva (e.g. space, food etc).
8 days after the first egg was laid, I was delighted to watch it hatch, and recorded it with the camera as usual.

The next morning I thought I was seeing double as there were 2 tiny larva, side by side on the leaf!! I can only assume that another egg had been laid, unbeknown to me and undetected, in the flower buds. Having read that these larva have cannibalistic tendencies after the first instar I was in a bit of a dilemma. The leaf where the original egg had been laid was quite some distance from the buds meaning that the second tiny larva had travelled some considerable way to be there – and for what purpose? Was it purely co-incidence or was there some significance to that I wondered? Perhaps they weren’t cannibalistic after all? Perhaps the butterfly laid more than one egg in close proximity to ensure that at least one of them had access to a good meal ? Perhaps laying several eggs together (either by the same or different egg-laying females) was a strategy to compensate for the significant losses due to other predators which undoubtedly occurs (in collecting food plants at a later date I was to see several examples where several larva shared a flower head). All of these questions and more were going through my head but in the event I decided to leave the 2 tiny larva where they were. Unfortunately, the next morning one of them was missing!

I scrutinised the branch without success so naturally I feared the worst and resigned myself that their cannibalistic tendencies did indeed start from an early age. However, later that day he re-appeared next to the other larva leading me to conclude that he had made the long trek back to his bud and hidden inside it so that he was unable to be detected, before making the long trek back again. This time I decided ‘safe’ was better than ‘sorry’ and separated the 2, thereby depriving myself of the opportunity of testing out for myself at what point, if any, they become a threat to each other. One thing I found particularly interesting was their eating habits. I had read that the flower buds and small, tender leaves were consumed in preference to the larger, tough leaves but initially I did not find that to be the case. Even the larva who presumably hatched out in the buds and had returned there at least once, spent time on the larger leaves, eating from their surface without actually going right through the leaf, in a wiggly sort of pattern reminiscent of a leaf mining insect or similar.

After 2 days of inactivity, and at 7 days old, I was lucky enough to see them shed their skins for the first time, which they subsequently ate:

However, after the first moult this eating pattern changed, immediately and significantly – the larva started eating huge chunks of these tough leaves, biting right through them and leaving fair sized holes. The leaf below shows both of these feeding patterns:

[Goldie M]

Hi! Pauline, Noar Hill seems to have a load of species, I've not seen a Small Blue for a few years, also the Dark GF, I think I'm going to head up to GB see if I can see the DGF up there.
You were right about the lack of them at this time of year, I went to HLB this afternoon, all the BF's I saw were Large Skippers no Whites at all. Goldie

[Pauline]

Noar Hill's a great place Goldie and I'm lucky to be so close.

Given the number of moths coming into my bedroom each night I was a little disappointed with the results from last nights moth trap. Sure, there were dozens of little ones but only a handful of larger ones, most of which I have seen before including the lovely Buff-tip moth which I find so attractive:

Little and Large here, otherwise known as Heart and Dart, and Large Yellow Underwing I believe, were among several similar moths which I find more attractive in flight than in this shot:

I WAS pleased to see another Bright-line Brown-eye meaning that my chap is not out there on his own and has some company , and a lovely Common White Wave which I think may be the moth Goldie saw on her window.

I have made my feelings clear about the micros BUT one of the last ones to fly off really caught my eye as it glinted gold in the weak morning sun (which has rapidly turned to more rain ). Although it was tiny - I mean proper tiny - I decided to try for a shot (could this be the start of something new ) but I am struggling to identify it. My first attempt came up with Horse Chestnut leaf-miner which concerned me as it is clearly a pest. The only other one I can find is Argyresthia Goedartella. If anyone could put my mind at rest ......

[MikeOxon]

You seem to be finding many good things at Noar Hill. I must try to get there myself for the Orchids as well as the Butterflies. Your first GH shot is on a Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis) while your last Large Skipper is on a Common Fragrant Orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea).

Mike

[andy brown]

Hi Pauline,

I would go with 20.005 [B&F: 0409a] Argyresthia trifasciata for your gold and white micro.

Cheers

Andy

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Pauline,

I am catching up on your diary again, some great reports and photos recently

I love that Buff-tip, that is one I have not had in my trap yet.

I was not going to get into micros myself but the trouble is that once one catches your eye you try to identify it and before you know it...well, suffice to say that I have managed to identify 20 different micro species so far in my garden and there are plenty that I have not been able to ID yet.

All the best,

Neil

[David M]

You're certainly making the most of the clear spells in the weather, Pauline.

Nice early stage sequences again.

[Pauline]

Thank you for the ID's Mike. Perhaps one day I'll see you at Noar Hill

Don't know how I missed that A. It just doesn't look the same in the book but as usual you're right

The Buff-tips are smashing aren't they Neil, but then I could say the same about your gorgeous Buff Arches. I know what you mean about the time thing tho'; there's just never enough of it so at the moment it is the micros that tend to get somewhat disregarded - tho I am sure there are many spectacular ones (at least that's what I'm told ). Thank you for taking the time to comment

I'm trying to David but a tick infestation has been causing me quite a bit of misery (over 2 dozen on me!). I'm glad you like the early stages - don't want to bore folk to tears but there's more to come, mostly because I am fascinated by it. I am also grateful to Mike who has again taken the time and trouble to produce an animation of the first Green Hairstreak to emerge:

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