Hi all,
Happy days! Time is very short at the moment, so I will post more at a later date. Suffice to say this looks like 'the real deal' and a paper is being written that discusses all of the data and argues all possibilities. For now I'll just re-iterate my BC Sussex web story and post some larger images, taken on 4th, 8th and 10th October. In the unlikely event that any UKB regulars can make it at such short notice, I'll be meeting a few people at Grid Ref SU85040660 at 3pm tomorrow.
Neil
10 September: 'Today about 25 people joined me, to witness a spectacular and very significant event. The female Queen of Spain Fritillary seen in Brandy Hole Copse near Chichester on 14 July by Robert Beale (see earlier report on this website) has given rise to a UK brood of this very rare and stunningly beautiful immigrant. First photographed by local John Kelsall on 22 September (but now reported as first being seen 'up to a week earlier'), I have personally observed 6 different insects (5 male, 1 female) since 4 October. A great deal of data has now been collected (paper in preparation) and it is clear that there has been a 'staggered' emergence of butterflies on the site (pristine specimens have appeared alongside increasingly battered-looking individuals). Today 2 males were still on the wing, along a maize field margin a couple of hundred metres south of where Robert's July butterfly was seen. I also found the dismembered remains of what was a still fresh-looking male butterfly on Thursday, lying in the undergrowth where I last saw it at roost. Predation by a spider seems most likely. Importantly, Barbara Ottley discovered Field Pansy (the caterpillar food plant) around the margins of the crop today, adding the last piece to the 'jigsaw puzzle'. Records going back to 2007, when an unusually high number of specimens (6, possibly 7) were recorded between Old Winchester Hill (Hampshire) and East Sussex, cluster around this area. The currently strong populations along parts of the Normandy coast will be the original source of these butterflies. 2009 has certainly been a year to remember!'
)
) broke my passenger window on my car and bent the door frame last night... 
(again)
