I risked life and limb yesterday (the MR2 Roadster is notoriously incapable of handling any snow or ice), to travel down to some woods in Wiltshire. The only other explorer reckless enough to venture out in the still-deep snow was 'Captain Oats', i.e. Matthew (the spelling is correct; he's so-named after Seth Cohen's plastic horse in the TV series 'The O.C.', starring the hugely talented Mischa Barton
). After transferring to his more 'capable' vehicle we promptly got stuck in the woods a few times, eventually retiring to work along the main road verges. Matthew is doing some interesting research on the Purple Emperor's 'early stages' here, and we soon found some previously marked caterpillars, deep in hibernation. Amazingly under these conditions, we actually found previously 'unknown' larvae. They are typically over-wintering in either forks, in fissures in sallow branches, or against buds. Their camouflage is superb, with colours varying to suit their individual hibernation sites. Amazing little critters!Neil
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On another tack.... I've just seen some 'rushes' from some filming done (ongoing) last summer for the Beeb - a butterfly epic in the making. Can't say what it includes, but we have a great treat in store late 2010/early 2011 
