Egg laying behaviour Queen of Spain

[nick]

please forgive me if you see this same plea for help -word for word -elsewhere. I want to ask many people.

I have a request for info if you can please.
I write for a mag called British Wildlife and learnt today of a Queen of Spain at Holmbury St. Mary, Surrey on 11th Aug that was apparently egg laying in a churchyard. Please read below part of an email to the person who first alerted me to this sighting; and then if you can comment on the butterfly's behaviour please do - or if you know someone who might, know please may I have their contact details?

I have spoken with Alan Waters who saw the QoSpain - on the 11th of Aug. He is a professional gardener and was working in the churchyard which has a wildlife area that he maintains.

He has bred many species of European butterfly as a hobby and wanted to catch the QoS when he realised that it seemed to be trying to egg lay on some dried grasses that had been cut earlier. Conversation about various papers he wrote to the AES about 20 yrs back convince me that although searching for and breeding butterflies is no longer an active past-time, he would know a QoS when he sees it.

Sadly he didn't concentrate on exactly where it seemed to be trying to egg lay - instead he followed the butterfly across the churchyard and it flew over the hedge. He waited by the hedge hoping, in vain, for it to return.
By the time he got back to search the area of cut grass, though he thought he remembered where it had laid an egg he couldn't find any violet plant under the grass (he didn't know they use pansy) but thinks he might have been looking in the wrong part of the previously cut area. He realised a few days later that the egg might have been laid (in the style of SWF and DGF) near the foodplant but not actually on it.

I will speak to Alan again after trying to find out if what he saw and described, despite assuming it to be 'wrong', is actually normal behaviour for QoS. Perhaps his disbelief that it laid on dead grass is a normal occurrence.

[Pete Eeles]

Hi Nick - and welcome!

As you'd probably expect, I have some niggling doubts:

1. My own experience is from abroad, where I've only ever seen Queen of Spain Fritillary in very open areas - such as open grassland. Even where they're abundant, I've never seen them in nearby villages (and certainly not towns). So - the first thing that concerns me is the location (although I'm no expert!). To find such a creature in a churchyard rings immediate alarm bells with me.

2. There have been no sightings (that I'm aware of) of Queen of Spain in the British Isles this year.

3. As you say, to be egg-laying on grass with no violets in the vicinity is strange. Also - it seems that there's some uncertainty about whether egg-laying was actually happening.

I don't know of any experts as such. Guy Padfield (take a look under the Contact link) lives in Switzerland and may have an opinion. Although we have quite a few well-travelled members among our ranks who should be able to help. Roger Gibbons, who runs the excellent "Butterflies of France" website at http://www.butterfliesoffrance.com/ may also be able to help.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Mikhail]

I share Pete's doubts. My only experience of ovipositing QofS was in the Cantabrian Mts in northern Spain, where eggs were attached to the mountain pansies. Reluctantly, I suspect a Wall Brown may have been the culprit here.

Misha

[Piers]

If it was a QoS it would be fairly safe to assume it was a release or escapee. This is a popular species with amateur breeders.

Given the fellow who witnessed the butterfly I have no reason to doubt his ID skills; however what I would doubt is that it was attempting to lay. Rather than a misidentification I would say that it was the reported behaviour of the butterfly that is unlikely.

Felix.

[nick]

Thanks for your various thoughts. All rather negative I note; as I am a sceptic by nature that doesn't dissuade me from my belief that he did see QoS but that the whole thing doesn't really stack up.

Yes location quite wrong - very likely that it was released/artificially introduced. Also seems an unlikely habitat, unless the wildlife area in the churchyard has some largish bare patches - but Alan did say that the QoSpain appeared near him as he worked, seemed to be egg laying and left fairly soon after it appeared - maybe it realised churchyards aren't ideal QoS habitat?

Trevor Boyd has been in touch to say that QoSpain are recorded, in the Collins' Butts of Europe book, as laying into the dry, soft vegetation around foodplants (and not on the foodplant's leaves) if conditions are damp.
Learning this I checked Thomas, Heath and lastly the MIllenium Atlas and the latter says (paraphrasing) there are reports of females using other surrounding vegetation.

Apparently (thanks to Matt Rowling) eggs are small and hard to find

cheers Nick

[m_galathea]

2. There have been no sightings (that I'm aware of) of Queen of Spain in the British Isles this year.

One was found in a small wood by an old railway line in West Sussex on July 14th. They managed a good photograph too!

http://www.sussex-butterflies.org.uk/ol ... l2009.html

[Piers]

Hi Nick,

As I said, I don't doubt Alan Water's ID skills so it's fairly safe to assume that it was indeed a QoS (you'd have to be pretty hapless to confuse a Wall for a Queen of Spain!), however, with an immigrant as rare as this bitter experience has taught us to err on the side of caution; the probability has to be that it was a release or escapee unless can be satisfactorily proven otherwise. They are a popular species to breed and regularly available as ova or larvae.

I well remember the excitement that surrounded the Minsmere sightings (was it Minsmere?) for a few consecutive years in the mid 1990's which in the end transpired to be excess stock from a breeder of butterflies.

I look forward to reading your next report in British Wildlife.

Felix.

[nick]

I had not heard that the Minsmere Q o Spain were from a breeder's excess stocks. Do you have any refernce to that, please, as it is still widely believed to be a genuine immigration event in many circles that I belong to.
As to mis-identified Wall, there are as few Wall in Surrey as Q o Spain (or fewer). I don't know of a single Wall record from Surrey, for the last three summers.

I phoned Alan (the observer) and told him that his description of the egg laying behaviour is in accordance with 2 books; which given his own doubts that he had observed correctly, I find more convincing as to the butterfly being a fritillary and most likely a Q o Spain. As to origin, I told him it was most probably a released butterfly - which he didn't seem happy about.
he said (and I dont know one way or the other) that female butterflies dont try to lay unless they are mated. Where, he asked, had a released female found a male?

cheers Nick

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks for the update, Nick - much appreciated.

Alan makes a good point regarding the potential to find a mate. I guess the questions remaining are whether it really was attempting to lay, whether females lay even if unmated (which I doubt) and whether or not an alterative to violets (such as violas or pansies) was in the vicinity.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Piers]

It was a rumour that I heard around the time; QoS is popular with amateur breeders and widely available, the release of surplus stock is common. The only surprise is that we do not have more frequent reports of such occurrences. A name was mentioned but this is not the place to repeat it.

And besides - if memory serves me correctly the evidence for a genuine 'immigration event' was slim to none; in as much as the species appeared each season with absolutely no evidence of breeding despite intensive searches for the early stages. Considering the known occurrences of this species breeding in this country during the last one hundred years almost every other possibility must be surely be ruled out before any consideration could be given to a genuine immigration and subsequent establishment of a colony, albeit a temporary one.

Regarding the recent sighting, egg laying would be possible if the escapee/release had already paired. This species (like many fritillaries) with copulate in a release case without much hesitation.

Felix.

[Dave McCormick]

Well if the butterfly was egg laying, could someone find evidence, like eggs/cats or something and if there is any where it was said to be laying, could prove what it was, but if they are hard to find, might not be easy. Do they hibernate as eggs or later stages?. If there isn't anything we can't say for sure, but thought if they hibernate as caterpillars, not eggs, could be searched for in the area the female was found egg laying.

[Padfield]

I've just caught this fascinating thread - much too late, unfortunately.

I don't know if Queen of Spain lays near the foodplant under certain circumstances but I do know that many butterflies 'oviposture' (my own word) on entirely inappropriate plants, for some reason not apparent to me. Here is a Meleager's blue oviposturing on a dead leaf. It looks exactly the same as ovipositing, except that nothing comes out. This was in the vicinity of the appropriate foodplant:




It's almost as if she's priming herself. I've seen other species do this, though mostly lycaenids.

Secondly, near me, Queens of Spain regularly visit villages for nectar. They nectar at hanging bowls, ornamental gardens &c. &c. They love herbs like rosemary and thyme and positively flock around lavendar. If any of these kinds of plants grew in a churchyard it wouldn't surprise me to find a QoS hanging around, especially if it had made a long flight and needed sustenance.

Obviously, we'll never know, but I would conclude this observation is less out of character for QoS than might be supposed.

Guy

[Dave McCormick]

Guy, I have seen that a few times before, but mostly in whites, small white and green-veined whites. From what I summised, they probe the plant and determine if its the right plant to lay on, some species could take longer than ohers I suppose. I know of a species of plant in the Amazon that, if too many eggs are laid on a leaf, the plant kills the leaf and this insures the plants surivial and the butterflies that use the plants must be careful. So it seems that some species more than others are more caring to insure at least if the plant is not messed with or dies etc... some of their offspring make it to adulthood.