ernie f

[ernie f]

Kev - I know what its like to be stuck in an office all day - I had a few decades of it until I retired.
Thanks for your comments on my efforts with the Adonis Blues and the Orchids. All I need to do now is get a picture of an Adonis Blue sitting on an orchid!

[Pauline]

Hi Ernie

I believe SSB's were reported from Iping and Broxhead a couple of days ago - I know you were interested in going there.

[ernie f]

Thanks for the info Pauline. I went to Broxhead and found five fresh males so I am well happy.
Now waiting for the females to make things interesting.

[ernie f]

Magdalen Hill - 6th June 2018

After visiting Farley Mount Country Park as I reported yesterday, I then went on to Magdalen Hill as it is on the way home from there but I also wanted to check out the Small Blue population in “The Scrape” at the top of the hill plus I wanted to see if I could get my first Large Skipper of the year.

The "Scrape" at Madgalen Hill

The first butterfly I saw at Magdalen Hill was indeed a Large Skipper. There were at least two in the grassy-flowery verge alongside the top path.

I saw one land beside another butterfly. On closer inspection this turned out to be a very faded Green Hairstreak.

For a short while they both nectared from the same plant but the skipper skipped off before I could get their picture together.

The usual Common Blues were very much in evidence as well as the odd Small White or two.

Next I entered “The Scrape”. This is an area at the top of the hill which was gouged out back to the chalk bedrock some years ago and has now rejuvinated. See picture above. It is here where most of Mag Hill’s Small Blues congregate. It is almost a lek situation with feuding males, mating couples, egg-laying females, etc.

I met Pete Eeles while there and he showed me some Small Blue eggs on the Kidney Vetch.

Small Blue eggs - how many are there in this pic?

Then he spotted a couple of Small Blues courting so we set up shop next to them to see what might happen - if anything. They spent a long while together. The male following the female around, sporadically nestling up to her side. They did not fly. She was obviously interested but kept walking away from him. She was playing hard-to-get!

Small Blue pair courting

From time to time he would extend his abdomen toward her but even though she did not reject him, she did not connect to him either. What a tease! You may need to expand this picture to see it better.

After about 10 minutes of this she flew down and hid inside a clump of plants and grasses. He flew about for awhile – first going off a short way, then returning and perching near to where she was but eventually he gave up and flew off.

I also witnessed a number of females egg-laying. Again click to expand.

Egg-laying

At this point Pete departed. I stayed and I am glad I did because I saw my first Painted Lady of the year and she posed for a number of pics of which this I think is the best.

Next a male Small Blue was trying to woo a female who did not want to know. She rejected him by fluttering her wings rapidly and walking away from him. At one point she also vibrated her body up and down. I managed to capture this in a short video. He moved away but still within pestering distance. She nonchalantly started to lay an egg next to him. The final brush-off as it were!

I got a pic of this but its a bit fuzzy as the male was always in motion.

Male trying to woo a female who is egg-laying

Then a female Black-tailed Skimmer, flitted past and then back and forth – I presume hunting the butterflies.

Now, as usual, its time to post some past pictures I have taken of the butterflies I have seen today for the first time this year. On this occasion its two species. Firstly the Large Skipper and secondly the Painted Lady.

Large Skipper

Non-butterfly snapshot of the day

The female Black-tailed Skimmer. This Dragonfly had wandered some way from water. The Scrape is a dry chalk gully at the top of the hill. Looking at my map of the area, the nearest large pond appears to be 1000 metres away and the nearest river is about 2500 metres away.

Black-tailed Skimmer

[Pete Eeles]

I met Pete Eeles while there and he showed me some Small Blue eggs on the Kidney Vetch. Then he spotted a couple of Small Blues courting so we set up shop next to them to see what might happen - if anything. They spent a long while together. The male following the female around, sporadically nestling up to her side. They did not fly. She was obviously interested but kept walking away from him. She was playing hard-to-get! From time to time he would extend his abdomen toward her but even though she did not reject him, she did not connect to him either. What a tease! You may need to expand this picture to see it better. After about 10 minutes of this she flew down and hid inside a clump of plants and grasses. He flew about for awhile – first going off a short way, then returning and perching near to where she was but eventually he gave up and flew off. I also witnessed a number of females egg-laying.

Great to meet you Ernie; it's always a delight to meet fellow UKBers in the field! I'm afraid I can't improve on your shots, especially since I had completely the wrong setup (since I was taking habitat shots!). My best is attached, which does show the male making a valiant attempt to "do the business"!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pauline]

Some lovely shots of the Painted Lady Ernie, especially the first one. I always look forward to seeing this butterfly so hope I don't have to wait too long.

[ernie f]

Pete - It was great to meet you too. I think you got a better shot than me of the male attempting to mate with the female. Thanks for showing me those eggs. The pics I got of them weren't as bad as I thought in the end.

Pauline - Mag Hill always seems a good spot for the Painted Lady. There is a buddleia at the top of the hill beside the notice-board they seem to like every year. Of course the best year was 2009 when they were everywhere across Britain in large numbers and I went to Mag Hill then and got this picture...

Painted Lady invasion of 2009 at Mag Hill

I count about 50 in this picture. If I had taken another three pictures covering all four points of the compass still standing in this spot, there would have been another 50 in each shot.

[ernie f]

Broxhead Common - 6th and 8th June 2018

The SSB lek at Broxhead

The third of the three sites I visited on the 6th. I came here specifically to find the Silver-studded Blues and found four on the left bank and one in the lek – all male. They were only to be found where the heather had just started to bloom of course. One or two looked freshly emerged. One was reluctant to fly and the other had a slightly concertina-shaped wing as if it was not yet fully pumped-up.

Two were well-endowed enough to have a prolonged sparring match with each other, flying first this way and then that until they parted company and landed each to their own patch.

I repeated my visit on the 8th June and now there were 6 males in the lek and an additional two females on the bank. My first female SSB of the year was mating!

The Silver-studded Blue is one of my study butterflies because in a week or so this area of the Broxhead Heath will be thronging with them. Three years ago I walked the entire reserve counting them and came to 550 in total – but most of these were males as they were easier to see from a distance. My assumption is there were probably as many females lurking around. Last year I did not count them but there just seemed to be more than before. My guess is this reserve regularly harbours over a thousand Silver-studded Blues. These are todays pics (8th June).

Silver-studded Blue male

Silver-studded Blue female

Silver-studded Blue pair mating

I studied the behaviours of this species quite closely last year so I have a couple of posts on them in the near future which I shall save for a rainy day or two. It was for example the first species I witnessed performing the wing-roll. Indeed all the males I saw on both days were doing it immediately when they landed after flight and the lone female also had a go.

Also there were a number of moths including Cinnabar, Common Heath (m & f), Brown Silver-line and a Grass Wave.

Grass Wave moth

Non-butterfly snapshots of the day

In the lek a Birch tree had fallen and growing from it were three patches of Dogs Vomit Slime Mould (Fuligo septica). Lovely. All of them were in their ageing crusted brown stage, but scratch the surface and they were still bright yellow underneath.

Here are two pics of one as seen on the 6th. As it was, and with its surface scratched.

Dogs Vomit slime mould aged tan

And showing its still yellow inside

And here is a pic of a patch in its early yellow stage seen elsewhere on a previous occasion.

Yellow when fresh

[Wurzel]

Cracking Silver-studs and Painted Lady shots Ernie As for the 'Dogs vomit ou could have warned me, I've just eaten my tea

Have a goodun

Wurzel'

[ernie f]

Wurzel, sorry if I spoiled your tea. I promise - no more dogs vomit slime mould. It's also called Scrambled Eggs Slime Mould - that would have been more apt for tea!

Glad you like the SSB shots. As I am doing a study of them - you can expect to get a few more in the near future!

[Goldie M]

Some lovely shots there ernie, so many Painted Ladies and I was thrilled to see just one Goldie

[ernie f]

Goldie - like you I am thrilled to see just one. Some years that is all I manage to see. It's just luck of the draw.

[ernie f]

Broxhead Common - 9th June 2016

Broxhead is my study area for the Silver-studded Blue. It can be anywhere on this reserve but certain to be found on the short grass and heather beside the main road lay-by. Step around the metal barrier and you are there. Here there can be many hundreds across the whole reserve and perhaps over 50 in the lek beside the lay-by with as many as another 100 immediately around it on the heather-clad banks. In 2017 on June 20th, of the 151 individuals I counted in one hour in and immediately around the lek, 17 were females and there were three mated pairs. Within about 40 paces of the lek down a side path there is another smaller community and on June 21st 2017 there were three mating pairs which could all be seen at the same moment and while standing on the same spot. In one recent year I scoured the entire reserve counting 550 in all but these were mostly males that could be seen at a distance. It may be possible to assume double this if factoring-in the females that must also have been there. The 2017 numbers appeared to be more than this but the effort to count them is exhausting so I haven't ever done it again. It is sufficient to know this is one of the best locations for them in North Hampshire. I have read that other locations in Britain have more, sometimes in the tens of thousands but they are very few and far between.

An alternative location near me is Longmoor Common where there are many small “pocket” colonies dotted across the heath.

Today we saw the start of the ramp-up of the brood at Broxhead. There were 13 males in the lek whereas there were only 6 yesterday. There were 5 males and 2 females along the bank facing the lek giving an extra male more than yesterday. There was an additional one on the bramble patch down a side track and two around the pond which normally has a good-size satellite community. A total of 23 individuals in all today.

The pond at Broxhead

Male - wings open

Male - wings closed

Female - wings open

Female - wings closed

Also today there was Meadow Brown, Green Hairstreak, Small White, Large Skipper and White Wave moth.

The Large Skipper was freshly emerged and with very fine markings, particularly the extra-large sex brands.

Large Skipper - freshly emerged

Remarkably fine markings

Non-butterfly snapshots of the day

Because of the pond, Broxhead is home to a number of dragonflies. Today I saw Four-spotted Chaser, Emperor, Broad-bodied Chaser and Beautiful Demoiselle. I was very pleased with the perching Broad-bodied chasers because both the male and female stayed put long enough for me to get in close.

Beautiful Demoiselle

Broad-bodied Chaser - male

Broad-bodied Chaser - female

[Wurzel]

Cheers for thinking of my digestive processes Ernie Lovely set of Silver-studs , I really need to see if they're out at Slop Bog

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Janet Turnbull]

Lovely photos of the Silver Studded, Ernie. Broxhead is a lot further south - our nearest is Prees Heath. I'll have to get down there sharpish to see if they have emerged!

[ernie f]

Wurzel and Janet - hope you have luck in your SSB searches.

Wurzel - I am sure "Slop Bog" is a lot nicer than it sounds.

[ernie f]

Broxhead - 10th June 2016

Silver-studded Blue numbers continue to increase gradually. This afternoon there were 16 males in the lek and for the first time there were females with them, I counted 4. There were 11 males on the bank facing the lek and I know there are two females there too. Also three others dotted around the reserve but I could not find the two I found the other day near the pond. In any case the total is now 38. I met a guy who was doing a transect and he had counted 45 but he had ranged a bit further than I did.

Today I thought I would start my report on observations I have made about this species at Broxhead to date. I have only been studying them properly from last year even though I have seen them here for a few consecutive years. As for the Small Coppers I shall break it down into parts but unlike them, my starting point is the variation in the brood.

Variation of the Silver-studded Blue at Broxhead

There is a slightly aberrant subspecies known as “ab caernensis”, the female of which has a blue sheen. The books I have read suggest it only exists on the Great Orme in North Wales, but this example I found at Broxhead may be a female.

One of my books shows the male of this subspecies. It typically has much thinner black wing bands and the bands on the hind-wing are interrupted so they appear more like discrete blobs. My study of the colony at Broxhead shows there may be a few like this. They are also noticeably smaller than the standard species. I wonder if someone at sometime has introduced them from the other known locations without telling anyone but it is very hard to tell because there is a fair deal of natural variation in the main species and this is a fact at Broxhead.

I followed one male which appeared to be of this subspecies for about 20 minutes and unlike the main species it seemed to reach much further. It travelled in a wide arc from the lek and around it - I estimate at least 40 metres, twice the normal range.

I once saw a standard male giving this smaller male the attention it might give a female. The smaller size and reduction in black markings is not just confusing to humans it would seem; and the blue flush on a female won't help matters for them either.

I must say though that I am not entirely convinced. These differences in size, colour and habit may all just be natural variation or other aberrations of the main species or in some cases even due to the age of the butterfly. Given that ab caernensis inhabits a limestone grassland environment on the Great Orme and Broxhead is a sandy heath also adds suspicion that natural variation is really the cause.

Here are some of the variations I have seen at Broxhead. Starting with the darkest. The borders are thick white and black. The blobs on the rear-wings are almost unnoticeable as they join up so much. The butterfly when fresh is quite a deep blue.

Next a variation has thinner black forewing bands and the rear band is starting to break up so you can see blobs of black. It is not quite as deep blue overall.

The variation shows even thinner forewing bands and now the hind-wing bands are completely broken up. This is the one that look most like the ab caernensis male I think.

Finally this variation has the thinnest forewing bands, almost no white edge and has brownish patina, although this might be an aged specimen.

Another aberrant can also be found at Broxhead. This is a micro-sized version of the standard species type (ab minor). Its wings are half the normal size while the body is normal. Here is a picture of a female. The wing size makes the body look very cumbersome and club-like but the fact that the body is normal sized means it is capable of mating.

There are 33 recorded aberrants for this species of butterfly nationally so I have read.

Well that's it for my short sojourn into the variation of this species at Broxhead. I shall keep looking this season to see if I can find any more.

Does anyone else have any odd-looking SSB’s? I would love to see them. If you have already posted any in the past could you give me a reference? Thanks.



Non-butterfly snapshot of the day

A Beautiful Yellow Underwing caterpillar being taken by a Sand Wasp – Ammophila sabulosa for his dinner.

[ernie f]

... or I should say HER offspring's dinner!

[ernie f]

Broxhead - 11th June 2018

So now there are 46 SSBs in the lek and on the bank nearby of which 5 were female, three of which were mating and one was rejecting a male by "buzzing" her wings in his face.

The same Large Skipper, Green Hairstreak, Broad-bodied Chaser and Beautiful Demoiselle were still hanging around the bramble patch but today they were joined by an Emperor Dragonfly and a female Common Blue.

Elsewhere on the reserve, moths were Clouded Buff, Yellow Shell and Grass Wave.

Today I witnessed two newly emerged males still being attended by ants. One had finished with them. He grew agitated, turned around a couple of times to brush them off and then part hopped, part flew about 6 inches away from the ant nest to the top of a low heather and immediately did a wing-roll a couple of times.

This gives me a reason to continue the report of my studies to date about the SSBs of Broxhead.

Relationship with Black Ants

Last year I saw one female laying eggs onto a food-plant within a black ant nesting area. These were fairly small ants. I only realised their presence because one crawled over the female Silver-studded Blue as she was actually laying her eggs. This species of butterfly is in a near-symbiotic relationship with these ants. They protect her caterpillars by deterring predatory wasps, spiders and carnivorous bugs while harvesting the caterpillar's honeydew-like secretions which they get from a gland on the caterpillar's back. They even have the chrysalis underground in their nest as it too provides secretions for them. I guess the lekking area is here because the ants nest here. I do not know what species of ant this is for certain although all the references I have read suggest it has to be either Lasius niger, Lasius alienus or Lasius psammophilus, all reasonably common black ants in the UK. Lasius alienus can be discounted at Broxhead because it prefers chalky soils. It could be the very common Lasius niger (aka The Common Black Ant) which inhabits many kinds of soil but my money is on Lasius psammophilus which prefers sandy soils and of course Broxhead is a very sandy heath. The workers are only around 2mm to 4mm long so they fit the bill in size too. Lasius niger workers are 3mm to 5mm - not a lot of difference I suppose but perhaps enough to make the ones at Broxhead seem smaller than usual.

The relationship between the Silver-studded Blue butterfly and the Lasius psammophilus ant is not symbiosis in the true sense though. An experiment was performed rearing larvae in an area protected from ants and all the larvae died, whereas the ants thrive with or without a larva's secretions.

When the butterfly first emerges from the nest it takes about an hour to dry out and expand its wings and even during this time it is attended by ants so it still has the honeydew available in its adult form before it dries out. My book suggests it is the only butterfly species in the UK that has such a relationship with an ant species in all its stages of development.

Pic of newly emerged male being attended by ants.

Pics of male still "pumping up" but able to fly.

... and the moths

Clouded Buff

Yellow Shell

Grass Wave

Non-butterfly snapshot of the day

I was resting against a five bar gate at Broxhead one day looking out over the adjacent sheep's sorrel-covered grassy field when a fox ambled by.

Red Fox

[ernie f]

Noar Hill - 12th June 2018

I’m giving the lovely Silver-studded Blues of Broxhead a bit of a rest today. Noar Hill gave me 3 Red Admirals, 2 Dingies still in remarkably good nick, 8 Small Blue, 4 Speckled Wood and 4 Large Skipper plus the usual numbers of Small Heath, Common Blue and Meadow Brown. None of them were doing anything unusual or striking any special poses but one of the Large Skippers had lost an antenna.

Large Skip missing an antenna

Non-butterfly Snapshots of the day

But I had really come here for a different reason. Today was an orchid day for me. I came to Noar Hill to see if the Musk Orchids were out yet and was completely floored because there must have been hundreds in bloom already. People I met were remarking about them being early this year – and this after the bad weather of early spring making things late!

So let me recap the orchids of Noar Hill so far:

1. Early Purple
2. Common Twayblade
3. Common Spotted
4. Fragrant
5. Fly
6. White Helleborine (which I hadn’t seen this year but have been reliably informed has been by others)

So my Noar Hill Orchid number 7 is the Musk Orchid.

Musk Orchid

But its time for the Pyramidal Orchids too. Many were just budding, many others were about 50/50 but one was in full bloom. So Noar Hill orchid number 8 is the Pyramidal.

Pyramidal Orchid

But totally unexpectedly I also saw one Frog Orchid in bud and one with a single open bloom on it. I shall wait until they bloom more before posting pictures. Nevertheless this is Noar Hill’s Orchid number 9.

Noar Hill used to have Greater Butterfly Orchid so I am told. I have searched but never found one here. There wasn’t one today either. I am beginning to wonder if they are extinct here now.

But I guess the real humdingers of the day came once again from the Fly Orchid Department.

First a strange mutant that had two conjoined lips on a single bloom curled upside-down.

And second, another one that was in the process of being pollinated by a Digger Wasp.

Digger Wasp mating with a Fly Orchid

My Orchid book tells me that the Fly Orchid gives off a scent like that of the female Digger Wasp. The male Digger Wasps come out before the females and so they are attracted by what they think is a female but is actually the sneaky Fly Orchid. They then try to mate with the Orchid and it dabs pollen on their heads just to add insult to injury. This picture shows the wasp on the bloom. He was there for some minutes having no clue it was not a female Digger Wasp.