Brown Hairstreak in urban garden

[chrisox]

I had a female Brown Hairstreak in my garden in Oxford today. It was settled on some long grass and opened it wings so I could see the orange markings on the forewings, and saw the white lines and oranges on the underside. I rushed inside to get my camarea but of course it had gone when I came out. I do have plum trees in the garden which I believe might be a larva food plant. I have also seen one of these in my garden once before some years back. I gather they spend a lot of time hidden away in tall trees and shrubs, although the female will wander when looking for places to lay eggs. Is it unusual to see them in urban gardens does anyone know?

Cheers

Chris

[chrisox]

This is a picture I did manage to get of a female Brown Hairstreak that was in my garden two years ago in September.

[millerd]

Hi Chris,

I don't think it's particularly unusual if you live in one of their hotspot areas. I know that the Upper Thames branch of BC have surveyed the Oxford area over several years (mainly for the eggs in winter) and discovered that Brown Hairstreaks were present in many suburban parts of the city. They do lay on plums and damson trees as well as blackthorn, so it will be worth checking your tree for eggs after leaf-fall this autumn.

I'm very envious of your sighting, by the way...

Cheers,

Dave

[chrisox]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the reply. Yes I was very pleased, and surprised, to see it. I had the decision of staying and admiring it or running inside to get a camera and hoping it would still be there. I chose the second unfortunately. However I shall keep a look out and will check the prunus trees in winter. Would be lovely to have a Brown Hairstreak egg in my garden.

Cheers

Chris

[millerd]

Chris,

You may find this link interesting.

https://www.upperthames-butterflies.org ... _egg_hunts

Cheers,

Dave

[chrisox]

Hi Dave,

Yes interesting. Sounds like they are doing pretty well in this area.

Cheers

Chris

[chrisox]

I am a bit excited. I've checked my plum tree that I saw a Brown Hairstreak in this summer, and have found 6 eggs! Beautiful white 'urchin-shaped', nestling in the fork of branches. They are laid at heights of 1.3 mtrs to 2 mtrs from the ground on the east facing side of the tree. There may be more and I will check again when it's stopped drizzling.

Having butterflies breeding in your own garden, particularly less common ones, is very rewarding. I have marked the eggs and will monitor them and hopefully see the caterpillars in the spring. Enclosed a few pictures I managed with my point-and-shoot camera in Macro mode.

Brown Hairstreak egg on our Plum Tree

Brown Hairstreak egg on our Plum Tree

Plum Tree

Cheers

Chris

[millerd]

Congratulations, Chris! They obviously like your tree...

It does make you wonder how many gardens support the species in this way, virtually unseen except for chance sightings. When the trees are in full leaf, and the females are laying, they can be almost completely hidden.

Cheers,

Dave

[David M]

Nice result, Chris....and good to see you've got plenty of food hanging from the branches - should keep the birds from searching for the eggs to pick off.

[chrisox]

Well, I checked the other plum tree we have in our garden today and found another 10 eggs! In a couple of cases two were laid together. That female was really busy back in July. Yes, I was wondering about putting some netting or something over them to protect them from predators both at egg and larva stage. Does anyone have any suggestions for the best way of doing this?

Two eggs laid together

Cheers

Chris

[petesmith]

Chris,

I would suggest sleeving them. You can either make your own net sleeves, or purchase them from an entomological supplier. Check the blackthorn for any potential predators (spiders/earwigs etc) before sleeving. The eggs will probably hatch in early to mid-April, depending on the season. Keep an eye on the larvae as they develop - I would suggest removing them when they are full grown and finishing them off in plastic boxes. They turn a purplish/brown colour just before they are about to pupate.

Very exciting having Brown Hairstreaks egg-laying in your garden!

I had Purple Hairstreaks laying on a 20 year old Oak in my garden last year and this year - nearest small copse is almost a kilometre away, so I was delighted to find eggs!

Good luck!

Pete

[David M]

Sleeving them is a good idea. You don't have to do all of them, but the more you do the more will likely survive. As Pete says, once the larvae are near full grown you could try to allow a few to pupate in an enclosed container.

[chrisox]

Thanks for all your replies. I've found some places that sell sleeves and also netting on a roll. I'd like to sleeve as many as possible so I think I might buy some netting and make up some sleeves myself. I'd like to bring them in and rear them through, mainly to protect them but also to see them hatch out. I reared some Holly Blues last year that had laid in my garden and they seem to go through a similar process; I put lots of leave litter and twigs in the bottom of the cage and they pupated fine in that.

For the last ten years we have pruned back the plum trees every year. Sad to think we might have been destroying eggs

Cheers

Chris

[chrisox]

As an update to this post... We recently carefully pruned our plum trees, and I did a more studious count and have found a total of 31 eggs on our two plum trees. I noticed about 3 or 4 eggs I had marked in December had gone, presumably predated.

I've also bought some tubular netting from Insectopia (http://www.insectcage.net/) and have put sleeves over some of the eggs. When I did this, a week or so after we had pruned the trees, a found a few more eggs had gone. I wonder if predators are becoming a bit more active now spring is coming. I tried to remove any potential predators before netting by dusting over the branches with a soft paint brush to hopefully knock any off.

I also found a couple of eggs that I think had a hole in the top; it was hard to tell for sure with my magnifying glass. But these may be from eggs laid last year.

I shall monitor and see how it all goes.

Chris

[Pete Eeles]

Great report Chris! I do the same thing with Brimstone larvae on an Alder Buckthorn in my garden, otherwise a single tit could wipe out the lot - and I've seen them return over and over to get their fill!

Cheers,

- Pete

[bugboy]

If I had Brown Hairstreaks breeding in my back garden (if I had a back garden) that's what it would look like . As Pete alluded to, Tits are one of the main predators of them, and once they get their eye in they can easily eat a high proportion. Luckily these small birds rarely live for more than a year or two, so every winter it's mostly new birds learning what's good to eat rather than old experienced birds making a bee line for these tiny eggs.

[chrisox]

Yes, I gather it's spiders and the like that eat the eggs, and birds that eat the caterpillars. It's ironic that we like to encourage birds into the garden and have a feeder sticking out of one of the plum trees that attracts Blue and Great Tits, which of course sit in the tree before going on the feeder and might just spot a tasty caterpillar. Hopefully the netting has put a stop to that.

Cheers

Chris

[chrisox]

Just to say, it looks like some of the eggs have hatched. Really hard to tell with my 7x magnifying glass but I'm pretty sure I can see dark holes in the top of some eggs. Not all yet, some are still intact. I tried to see the tiny caterpillar but no luck. I gather they bury themselves in the buds anyway. I'll keep a look out and see how they progress. I tried to take some photos of the hatched eggs but I don't have the camera equipment for such close up photos.

Cheers

Chris

[Benjamin]

That’s brilliant Chris - they should become visible soon - keep looking out!

[MrSp0ck]

The larvae become more visable in June, so you should notice them when they move to the leaves.