Padfield

[Padfield]

Today's featured creature is sloe hairstreak, Satyrium acaciae. Tolman says of this species:

"Immediately after ovipositing, the female uses the dark abdominal tuft to brush hair-like scales onto the whitish egg, rendering it less visible: as these scales are easily removed (hibernated ova are devoid of scales), the purpose of this practice is obscure."

I set off this morning specifically to try and witness this, and photograph a freshly brushed egg. It turns out I chose the right day. Sloe hairstreaks were abounding at my chosen site and females in particular were easy to find (spot the black abdominal brush):





It didn't take long to spot one ovipositing:



She spent several minutes on that one egg, not merely depositing it but caressing it with the tip of her abdomen. The result was amazing - an almost invisible egg, covered in black and white hairs:





If she does that a couple of hundred more times she is going to have a bare bottom!

Ovipositing and oviposturing were going on all over the place:









Males have shorter tails (and lack the abdominal black):





The other day I saw a woodland ringlet laying eggs. Each egg took all of three seconds - just squeeze and off. Whatever Tolman says, there must be some adaptive significance in the sloe hairstreak strategy for her to spend so much time on it.


(Woodland ringlet egg)

Guy

[Pauline]

That's absolutely fascinating Guy and you have captured the action (and resulting egg) amazingly well. I do like to see action shots such as this but I also love the one of the fresh Hairstreak on the daisy type plant

[David M]

Magnificent observations, Guy. Tolman is clearly right....only there was no pictorial evidence to back it up. You have provided it and quite demonstrably!

[Wurzel]

Really interesting to see Guy, nature never does things just for the sake of it so there must be some advantage to it, more camouflaged, are the hairs distasteful or irritating Lots to ponder

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Thanks, Pauline, David and Wurzel. I was very glad to witness that.

I took hundreds of photos today and have spent the last two hours processing them. My write-up will therefore be brief!

The main target - though it's pretty much an annual ritual now - was the so-called Asian fritillary, Euphydryas intermedia, Switzerland's answer to scarce fritillary. This was out in surprisingly good numbers considering the early date, though I think I only saw males today.









A strong breeze kept butterflies mostly close to the ground today, so no opportunities for scenic shots!

Other firsts for the year included alpine grayling ...



... alpine grizzled skipper ...



... alpine heath ...



... and scarce copper (to mention just a few):



More random pictures from the day:


(dingy skipper)


(pearl-bordered fritillary)


(an exceptionally swarthy female pearl-bordered fritillary)


(a pair of northern walls)


(large blue)


(heath fritillary)


(dog)


(geranium argus)


(mazarine blue)

On the way down the hill - some 25km of pure cycling fun - I stopped off at a track that looked interesting. At one point I said to Minnie, 'Mmm this looks good for escheri ...' and even as the words left my mouth an Escher's blue flew by and stopped to nectar a moment or two:



I'll have to try the formula with poplar admiral ...

Guy

[Cotswold Cockney]

I'll see your Alpine "Exotica" Guy and raise you one freshly emerged male Ringlet, in my garden today. It hung around for several minutes but I did not have my image capturing device handy...... typical.

Even so, delighted to see this somewhat rare garden visitor again. Was a frequent sight in and around the garden back when. The surrounding farmland had Skylarks signing most of the spring and summer. Now there are several thousand houses where they once sang and flew. To my eyes the Ringlet is as beautiful as any other bug. Always under estimated unfairly in my view, Beauty is is the eyes of etc...Ringlets have beautiful eyes...

Such is progress.

Meantime, please keep those superb images coming Guy. A joy to my old minces... as we used to say dahn in old London Town.

By the way, is that LB M.arion obscura? When I was in the area many moons ago, they turned up in most places.

[David M]

Some superb butterflies there, Guy, including a couple that I yearn to see myself, namely Asian Fritillary & Alpine Grayling.

That Pearl Bordered Fritillary would have had me scratching my head had I only seen the upperside. I've never seen one remotely like that specimen.

[Padfield]

Thanks for the encouragement, CC! It's always good to get your feedback and observations. And I agree - there are fewer better things in this world than a spanking fresh ringlet...

I didn't get much of a view of the underside of that fritillary, David - just enough in passing to be sure it wasn't a tit frit. That only really leaves pearl-bordered.

I set off this afternoon specifically to get another sexy Satyrium - this time ilicis. They were out in force, proving particularly fond of the white melilot growing abundantly on site:








(there's another behind that one)

As so often, I have little time for a decent write-up, so here are a few more pictures of selected beasties!


(southern white admiral)


(dusky meadow brown)


(great sooty satyr)


(assorted whites - rapae, napi and mannii)

Yesterday I had a look in my woods in case the first white-letter hairstreaks were on the wing. To my amazement, I saw what looked like a very tatty one, silhouetted against the sky in their usual patch of thistles. But on closer inspection, and by judicious use of the flash, I saw it was in fact a green hairstreak. Up in the mountains these are still looking fresh. My local ones, clearly, are just about over!



Guy

[Padfield]

I popped up my local mountain this afternoon, mainly for clouded Apollo but also just to see what was on the wing and enjoy a walk.



The clouded Apollos were out and about. This one was unusually amenable:



Although I was some way from my usual violet copper site, I spotted this female:



Females do wander some distance in search of new egg-laying sites.

Here is a black-veined white on Alpenrose, one of its favourite plants:



A long way off, a water pipit was calling from the top of a tree:



When I visit this spot I usually go down to a stagnant pool where Minnie has a cool bathe after her climb. Today there was an alpine newt (the wonderfully named Ichthyosaura alpestris) hanging around just under the surface, waiting to pounce on drowning insects:



Here is a damsel in distress:



She wasn't in distress for long ...



Guy

[David M]

Another mouth-watering sequence, Guy, especially that colourful mountain panorama, which makes me keen to get to France as soon as possible! I hope to be seeing some of those species very shortly.

[Cotswold Cockney]

Females do wander some distance in search of new egg-laying sites.

Very true Guy, have seen Wood White females moving along lanes and roadsides presumably seeking new habitat for their offspring far away from any woodlands. My favourite W.Gloucestershire Woodlands never had Wood Whites in it during my many visits during my late 1950s schooldays. Now there is a strong colony there. Back in the 1970s, there was a good population in a distant corner of the Forest of Dean many miles away. I have even seen one flying along the hedgerow in the front of my City suburban garden. Not stopping, just covering ground slowly but persistently as I have seen before.

Perhaps the most unusual female out of habitat was observed many many moons ago.

Deep in a favourite S. Midlands Purple Emperor woodland, I saw a female Blue flying strongly along the main ride. It stopped briefly near my feet to feed from some wild flowers. Then I could see it was a large female specimen of the Chalkhill Blue. Miles from any suitable hillside grassland habitat. Having fed briefly, flew off again strongly in the same South direction. Although relatively small, the Chalkhill Blue is a powerful and substantial creature compared to say the lightweight Holly Blue. Despite that slimline lack of weight, the Holly Blue also can travel good distances strongly as I have also observed.

[bugboy]

Wonderful images as per usual Guy but I love the line 'popped up my local mountain'

[Goldie M]

Fantastic shots Guy, your so lucky to be near all those wonderful Butterflies, I particularly like the shot of Minnie surveying her
( boundaries though Goldie )

[Wurzel]

Fantastic images Guy, spellbinding There was one that stuck out which I think you may have mis-identified I'm sure that your 'dog' is actually a Greater Butterfly Terrier

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Thank you David, CC, Buggy, Goldie and Wurzel for your comments.

As so often, little time to write, having spent the last hour and a half sorting through the day's photos ...

Today was Phengaris - Maculinea in the old money. In particular, scarce large blue and dusky large blue. For once, I timed my trip to the Bernese Oberland perfectly and both were on the wing in good numbers.

Dusky large blue is always easy to find. You just scan the heads of greater burnet until you see one sitting there:



Today, unusually, they were sitting on other flowerheads too, including bistort:



Here are a couple together. I don't know what the white background is - it wasn't deliberate:



Another typical view:



As I cycled back to Gstaad I kept my eyes peeled beside the road and saw several well away from my main site. This one was some 10km away:



Dusky large blue is often found away from water - wherever the foodplant grows.

Scarce large blue is an altogether different beast - much more active and generally harder to photograph. Here are a few piccies:


(male)


(female)


(female laying)


(another female laying - there was a lot of this going on)


(female)


(female)


(male)


(possibly two females)


(female)

I witnessed a curious encounter between two males. One of them was intent on mating the other. The other had no interest in the one but didn't fly off all the same:













Not quite sure what was going on there! They are definitely both males.

To finish, as that's already a lot of photos(!!), I'd like to claim this as the first ever photograph of a violet copper sitting on a dog:



Minnie is very well behaved and stood stock still on command while I took a few pictures:



There were quite a few violet coppers around still, though they are looking worn. That was a female. This is a male:



Oh, and for non-butterfly shots, here are Libellua quadrimaculata and Lestes sponsa (female):





Guy

[Wurzel]

Cracking set of shots and good to the Greater Butterfly Terrier in action again Great to see Dusky Large Blues - takes me back to 2015 and the Czech Republic - the most common butterfly With the Scarce Large Blues could it be that the first male had previously mated and picked up some chemical trace/scent from the female which set the second male off?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Hi Wurzel. That was my thought too - that one male must have been covered with female scent, having recently had his way with one of the very many females all around.

Things have been rather hectic of late, so here are just a few recent pictures I haven't posted, to keep things colourful:


(Apollo and female great sooty satyr)


(the first chalkhill blues of the year)


(female and male silver-washed fritillary)


(first white-letter hairstreak, in my local woods)


(female purple emperor, also in my local woods)


(first emperor egg of the season, also in my local woods)

Guy

[Pauline]

You're teasing me Guy I've been trying quite hard without any success! Perhaps I need to take a stepladder with me?!

I think that shot of the Dusky Large Blue with the pale background is quite exquisite - it looks like an old fashioned painting out of a first edition book and deserves to be framed. The male and female SWF together is also quite unusual but even more so - a little Minnie complete with butterfly

[Wurzel]

A sublime paring of species for you 'multi-species' shot Guy Also sublime is the in flight Chalkhill, the leading edge is wonderfully metallic

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Thanks Pauline and Wurzel. No intention to tease, Pauline - and anyway, some of the amazing shots of early stages you've posted far outstrip any potential teasing I could do! Yes, I was pleased with the chalkhill blue in flight, Wurzel, but as I'm sure you are aware, it was pure fluke a spare male got in the way like that!

Bit of a tease now. I'm going to post this reply so my next post, of something seriously, seriously rare, can be at the top of a new page ...

Guy