August 2019

[Testudo Man]

A late afternoon/evening trip to Queensdown Warren (in Kent) yesterday, saw another darker than usual, female Chalk Hill Blue at roost (7.15pm).
Its not the same butterfly that i sighted back on the 11th August either. It looks to be quite fresh (going by the condition of the wing fringes).

Image is not cropped.

I seem to have found a few unusual butterflies at this same location, for this season.
Here is another female Chalk Hill Blue (from last week) showing unusual underwing markings.

Image is not cropped.

[Allan.W.]

Hello Paul ,
Like yourself ,I have seen many abberant Chalkhills this season,including 4 Spotless indivduals similar to yours in one early morning visit to Lydden ,2 were sitting about 2 feet apart in one roost . As for the colours of the females ,I always find that they are very variable ,and at one site nearby
the majority of the females are very dark indeed ,I,ve posted a pic of one of them ,more or less ,as I took it ……….maybe cropped a bit ,I,m very much a point and shoot merchant and not at all technically minded.
Regards Allan.W.

[millerd]

I haven't seen many reports of Clouded Yellows so far this summer, and all my trips to the south coast and their other usual haunts (like Denbies) have drawn a blank. I was therefore very pleasantly surprised to come across a male Cloudie in the old chalk workings at Kiplingcotes in East Yorkshire today, on a hot and sunny afternoon. Photos in my PD (eventually!).

Dave

[MrSp0ck]

I haven't seen many reports of Clouded Yellows so far this summer, and all my trips to the south coast and their other usual haunts (like Denbies) have drawn a blank. I was therefore very pleasantly surprised to come across a male Cloudie in the old chalk workings at Kiplingcotes in East Yorkshire today, on a hot and sunny afternoon. Photos in my PD (eventually!).

Dave

We had 8 At Hutchinsons Bank last Friday, often 2 in the same scrape, the number dropped on Saturday to about 5, and Sunday 1, all were males. As we had a pairing on 17th July i would expect a few more in a couple of weeks, the ones last weekend were migrants rather than bred on site.

2 of the Male Clouded Yellows 23rd August Hutchinsons Bank

Pair 17th July Hutchinsons Bank

[Ian Pratt]

Peacock caterpillars seen today on nettles.

[Vince Massimo]

Ever since the end of June, when the Painted Lady influx started, I have been looking for eggs, but with very limited success. As of 22rd August I had found 1 egg on Thistle and 10 on Common Mallow, all of these being in Lancing on the Sussex coast. On 23rd August I inspected a small Mallow plant in my newly evolving seaside garden in Lancing and found 57 eggs in various stages of development, some hatching during the morning.

Mallow plant - Lancing, Sussex 27-Aug-2019

7 Painted Lady eggs and 1 larva - Lancing, Sussex 24-Aug-2019

2 Painted Lady eggs laid at different times - Lancing, Sussex 27-Aug-2019

2 Painted Lady eggs laid at at the same time (hatching) - Lancing, Sussex 24-Aug-2019

This isolated plant is only the size of a large dinner plate and is growing in the shelter of a south-facing wall, with some good nectar sources nearby (where small numbers of Painted Ladies have been seen to congregate daily), which may explain the concentration of eggs on the plant. Egg numbers were seen to increase during the day and by the 26th August there were 80 eggs, with several more hatchings. I am still monitoring things, but there seems to be a high level of predation of the new larvae.

Later that weekend I found 6 more eggs on Mallow and 1 on Burdock, but nothing approaching the concentration on my plant. By now all of the relatively taller Thistle plants had been frazzled by salt-laden winds after recent storms, so no chance of finding anything on them.

Vince

[bugboy]

Well I've done it, finally caught up with a real life adult Long-tailed Blue although to be fair if I couldn't find one this year I might as well hang up my camera and find another hobby . Unbeknownst to me until after I'd arrived a local BBC news crew had also arranged to do a thing there about the LTB, so I think I might have been caught on camera creeping around in the long grass looking particularly weird . Still that's 62 out of the 59 UK species ticked off now . I also visited Tidemills for an hour, finding two hatched LTB eggs and what I'm presuming is a LTB larval borehole into a developing pod.

Hatched egg on the right, borehole near the tip of the left hand pod

Presumed LTB larval borehole

[David M]

...Pair 17th July Hutchinsons Bank

Great find, MrSp0ck. I rarely see pairings of this species on the continent where they're very common so to observe it in the UK is pretty special.

[Rivoldini]

Nice male Silver Spotted SKipper at Aston Rowant.

[David M]

Well I've done it, finally caught up with a real life adult Long-tailed Blue...

Well done, BB! Shall look forward to seeing it in your diary in due course.

[David M]

On Saturday 24th August, I went out onto nearby Fairwood Common to see if I could find any Marsh Fritillary larval webs.

I managed to locate half a dozen or so, with a couple of them hosting active larvae:

[David M]

Monday 26 August at West Williamston Reserve in Pembrokeshire:

No adult Brown Hairstreaks seen even though conditions were perfect. Two ova located.

Plenty of Speckled Woods, a few faded Hedge Browns, a handful of Small & Green Veined Whites.

Lots of Painted Ladies (50+), good numbers of Small Tortoiseshell (20+).

A few Common Blues, three Small Coppers, a couple of Peacocks and what looked suspiciously like a Silver Washed Fritillary flying overhead.

[Testudo Man]

Hello Paul ,
Like yourself ,I have seen many abberant Chalkhills this season,including 4 Spotless indivduals similar to yours in one early morning visit to Lydden ,2 were sitting about 2 feet apart in one roost . As for the colours of the females ,I always find that they are very variable ,and at one site nearby
the majority of the females are very dark indeed ,I,ve posted a pic of one of them ,more or less ,as I took it ……….maybe cropped a bit ,I,m very much a point and shoot merchant and not at all technically minded.
Regards Allan.W.

Hi Allan, im really sorry for the late reply to your post mate.
Its always facinating to see/sight/photograph an aberrant specimen, we just never know what mother nature will produce for us.

I recently saw 2, very small 3rd brood female Common Blues, which showed nice colouration.
Whilst theres plenty of eyes out there, looking for any aberrant/unusual butterflies each season, im sure some real beauties are missed (gone unnoticed) too.
Nothing wrong with point an shoot images mate (we all do that, to a certain extent)...its took me a decade, an tens of thousands of photos later, to capture some half decent images these days. keep on shooting, cheers Paul.