PhilBWright

[Padfield]

Here's another, speculative angle on the butterfly dairy connection. The German for butterfly is Schmetterling. This is probably cognate, via south German dialect, with the Czech smetana, meaning cream. Now, I can attest that in the Alps, blues, skippers and ringlets (Erebia sp.) gather in their thousands on the nutrient-rich, manured tracks leading to and from the mountain milking stalls. These, then, would be the 'cream flies', abundant in the vicinity of upland dairy farms.

Guy

[David M]

Here's another, speculative angle on the butterfly dairy connection. The German for butterfly is Schmetterling. This is probably cognate, via south German dialect, with the Czech smetana, meaning cream. Now, I can attest that in the Alps, blues, skippers and ringlets (Erebia sp.) gather in their thousands on the nutrient-rich, manured tracks leading to and from the mountain milking stalls. These, then, would be the 'cream flies', abundant in the vicinity of upland dairy farms.

I often wondered why the German for butterfly was 'schmetterling'. I understand 'papillon' and 'farfalle' but this one was a mystery.

[PhilBJohnson]

Hello,
Green-veined White
Egg Laying Females (Green-veined Whites) specifically, the science involved in leaf species choice, with reference to how a butterfly larva has evolved to eat only specific leaves (and not other juicy leaves of different species (or similar non native hybrids).

https://youtu.be/wETF6KFFN30 (linked to my youtube account) Youtube search: Philip Byerley Johnson

Cabbage white Diaries

12th July 2018 13:21pm A Female large Cabbage White takes a nectar break on Red Valerian between Nasturtium leaves

13th July 2018 Large Cabbage White Eggs & Larva in different growth stages on underside of Nasturtiums.

The larva faeces are black, can you spot singularly laid Small White eggs as well as the Large White yellow egg Clusters?

Saving Young Nasturtiums from infestation by growing them inside a 80 -100 litre clear recycling bag. Watering can be saved a bit like this also, if the bottom of the bag is tucked inside the pot to catch condensation drips.

Once the larva reached a certain size, local Sparrows found a food source.

28th July 2018
A "Large, camouflaged" Small White Larva of, Song Bird feeding size, that might not have survived so long on a variegated (not green) leaf.

Kind Regards.

[David M]

...can you spot singularly laid Small White eggs as well as the Large White yellow egg Clusters?

I presume they are the white objects in the lower half of the image, Phil?

[PhilBJohnson]

"Pip"
An over-wintered Large white Pupa (indoors, on the inside of our window frame).
20th February 2018, see it wiggle with water mist:
https://youtu.be/ule4GLaGUzA
Any adult Large White sightings yet, which might have escaped (or been disturbed) from a warming green house, "warm, cold frame" or garden plant centre?
I have assumed migrants might not have a strength to fly that distance yet, to reach Lincolnshire.
#ClimateChange

[PhilBJohnson]

2019 was relatively, seasonally early in February, in Lincolnshire.
2017 was relatively, seasonally early in Spring in Lincolnshire:
https://youtu.be/OI1KnVIJ1wU
These videos have been reproduced, explained better, with seasonal relevance:
https://youtu.be/zL_4MCRiYT4
April soon, here is a video from 2017, that I have just been given time to complete (reproduced):
https://youtu.be/k3FGLxbTyTk

[David M]

I love these videos of butterflies in slow motion, Phil, and particularly when Orange Tips are the subject.

This unpleasant spell of weather is set to come to an end tomorrow, so let's hope this year's OT's are a mere couple of weeks away,

[PhilBJohnson]

Our native Common Dog Violet was once so numerous, that it’s leaves we’re the primary food source for the larva of many of our native Fritillary Species now much less common also.
Violet flowers are small but are more easily identifiable when they flower in that "small Springtime window" (March or April).

Specifically unidentified (by me) Violets in our local Orchard 16th March 2019

What variety of violets are these, please?

Spring Butterflies
https://youtu.be/vxnK-XzLnAA

[Allan.W.]

Sweet Violet (viola odorata ) I reckon ,generally the first (but not always) to flower, also found fairly often in white !
Regards .Allan.W.

[PhilBJohnson]

Thank you, Allen.
Happy Mother’s Day.

11th October 2018 (Pupation Day)

On the 23rd March 2019, I saw my first “Cabbage White Adults” flying over an allotment near ours.

31st March 2019 “Pip” is still a pupa

This Large Cabbage White pupa “Pip” is still developing on the inside of our window frame, (where it is warmer than outside), leaving me with a conclusion that the “allotment “Cabbage whites” seen on 23rd March near Lincoln, Lincolnshire, possibly pupated earlier (as broods overlap) and quite possibly “under glass” (Warmer) where Brassica was grown with a Cabbage White escape route!

Kind Regards.

[PhilBJohnson]

19th & 20th April 2019
Warm days again in Lincolnshire. The Brimstone butterflies have been laying eggs, in the last couple of days, as the Buckthorn has just started to leaf.
Here was an Easter Egg, near to the end of the twig:

19th April 2019.(Good Friday). A Brimstone Egg

New Video Link:
https://youtu.be/RI4QetCXgTg

Kind Regards,

[PhilBJohnson]

In 2018 on July 4th I started some "Cabbage White Diaries"
This part follows (not too closely) "Pip", a male Large White butterfly. Their Life cycle is truly awesome with the species being more than six months as a pupa. What a way to over-winter!
https://youtu.be/ZmlRMYN4Qfs

The male Large White butterflies travelled long distances in the Spring looking for females. Some migrate. It was thought that a Large White butterfly seen in April in Lincolnshire, was far more likely to be male than female.


Kind Regards,

[David M]

Nice composition, Phil (although the spider segment was a bit gruesome). Most interesting was the footage of the pupa twitching as it was being sprayed.

[PhilBJohnson]

DB Scabious Check
I observed a Marsh Fritillary at Lincolnshire Butterfly Conservation’s Snake Holme Pit Reserve today. I was not sure if one had been publicly recorded there before. I had noticed the small amount of Devil’s Bit Scabious (DB Scabious). For that reason of there not being significantly large quantities of the larval food plant, I suspected the Marsh Fritillary, to be, an unnatural distribution (although I was not sure about surrounding land, including the Forestry Commission wood (opposite side of road), without Public Access.

Marsh Fritillary

Kind Regards

[PhilBJohnson]

May 23rd 2019
My Wife and I were very pleased to have visited Shropshire, meet other members of Butterfly Conservation and learn about the Wood White:

15.19pm May 23rd 2019 Bury Ditches (Forestry Commission).

I will share more here, later.
Other observed behaviour included courtship rituals and egg laying.

[PhilBJohnson]

The Importance of Devil's-bit scabious (DB Scabious) as a Nectar Source
Buddleia
"The generic name bestowed by Linnaeus posthumously honoured the Reverend Adam Buddle (1662–1715), an English botanist and rector, at the suggestion of Dr. William Houstoun. Houstoun sent the first plants to become known to science as buddleja (B. americana) to England from the Caribbean about 15 years after Buddle's death."
Reference: Wikipedia August 10th 2019
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddleja

Before 1730 in the United Kingdom (when there was no buddleia), and few imported non-native species, it was thought that DB Scabious played an important evolved role in woodlands and on field edges as an energy nectar store for butterflies about to enter hibernation.
Traditionally, because DB Scabious was late summer flowering, it might not have seeded before a single annual flower meadow cut was implemented as part of a landscape management plan, which in turn might not have helped this perennial spread to new areas.

All pictures taken on August 9th 2019, Southrey Wood, Lincolnshire:

6 Butterflies (3 peacocks on DB Scabious).

Peacock Nectaring on DB Scabious

Peacock Nectaring on DB Scabious to store up energy before hibernation & Spring breeding

Silver-washed Fritillary (male)

Painted Lady butterfly on DB Scabious (possibly before migration).

Meadow Brown on DB Scabious

Peacocks and Ringlet on DB Scabious

Buddleia sometimes, wasn't often used by this butterfly.

Comma on DB Scabious

Kind Regards

[PhilBJohnson]

Little Scrubs Meadow( Was SSSI status) Lincolnshire and Devil's-bit Scabious (DB Scabious)
The importance of DB Scabious, not as a Nectar Source
As one might know, it was another good year for the Marsh Fritillary adult butterflies on the wing in May, at Chambers Farm Wood. The Primary food source for the Marsh fritillary caterpillars was DBS.
As there was a fear of butterfly population collapse a following year, one theory was, to high grass cut before DB Scabious flowered, so that the DB Scabious plants would put their energy into leaf clump forming, rather than seeding.
The plant is a perennial, so could come back year after year without caterpillar "devastation".

20th May 2019, Little Scrubs Meadow using an iPhone with monopod and bluetooth camera remote to avoid habitat trample on SSSI (we kept to the paths).

Kind Regards.

[PhilBJohnson]

Royal Mail Presentation Pack July 2013 - Information provided about the Marsh Fritillary Species and Devil’s-bit scabious (DB Scabious).
"Groups of Marsh Fritillary caterpillars hibernate in silken tents built around the scabious which may be submerged in water for several weeks without harm."
My thoughts were that the scabious (DB Scabious) wasn't harmed by temporary flooding, but a study of the caterpillars underwater was not done (or widely done) because of 1981 species protection laws. Probably, a field was surveyed after flooding, to find the caterpillars still there and alive. The DBS image (not shown for copyright reasons) next to the text suggested that a caterpillar moved higher up the tall perennial (DB Scabious), while the plant was still in flower.
There might be a science reward for someone to show first pictures or video of the Marsh Fritillary caterpillars hibernating under-water during temporary flood and surviving.
In my opinion, it was a misnomer, that a Marsh Fritillary Species needed a Marsh, but the DB Scabious was found to thrive in damp meadows, where the plant was less grazed by large mammals (including livestock).
Arable Farmers could help bring back more of this native plant (DB Scabious) by planting it in less intensively drained, wide field margins (or hedgerows).
Native Wild Flower Gardeners, will also help.

[PhilBJohnson]

Devil's-bit Scabious (DB Scabious).
Here is a link where DB Scabious can be invested in, describing DB Scabious as the best butterfly plant:
https://www.naturescape.co.uk/product/d ... -9cm-pots/
I would like to see DB Scabious more again in Wildlife Gardens and on highway verges. To me DB Scabious was obviously one of our native plants, that was far more numerous in the past in our English Landscape. Some insects had evolved to be very attracted to small round mauve "flowers on sticks". Alliums, chives and verbena might have benefited from an evolved aesthetic attraction or plant association.
According to the above website on 20th September 2019, with reference to scabies:
"The short black root was in folk tales bitten off by the devil, angry at the plant’s ability to cure these ailments"

I certainly know of a little black "critter" or Marsh Fritillary caterpillar that might bite something off a DB Scabious plant!

Kind Regards.

[PhilBJohnson]

Cabbage White Diaries -Large White, 25th September 2019

One pupation walk failed and caterpillar ended up hanging from spiders thread (26th September 2019).

Pupation successful start, butterfly might not emerge now until May 2020 (26th September 2019 if left undisturbed).

This short video clip showed, what I thought was the third instar "knee-jerk" group reaction:
https://youtu.be/l6mLcY3v-i4
(26th September 2019)
With low temperatures in October and November, these caterpillars were not thought to make it to 5th instar pupation in time for hibernation.

"the larvae exhibit aposematic colouring, signalling that they are not palatable to birds"
Reference - LIFE CYCLES OF BRITISH AND IRISH BUTTERFLIES, page 90, Large White Larvae

"When disturbed, a group of larvae will jerk their bodies from side to side in unison, which must be a formidable site to any predator"
Reference - LIFE CYCLES OF BRITISH AND IRISH BUTTERFLIES, page 257, Small Tortoiseshell, fourth instar.

I thought that the was interesting as the superficially similar yellow stripes on the Small Tortoiseshell larvae, were also, not thought to be for camouflage.