Is this an Elm?

[Padfield]

Re WLH foodplants, I think this is quite authoritative:

http://pbh-butterflies.yolasite.com/hos ... nectar.php

It links to a complete database of hostplants, complete with sources, which you can download here:

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/schools/science ... base.shtml

Lime is not recorded there as a larval host plant of WLH.

Jack, just out of interest, are you an Atlas, a Lebanon or a Deobar?

Guy

[Gibster]

Jack, just out of interest, are you an Atlas, a Lebanon or a Deobar?

Or maybe just a Gone-to Cedar? (Only kidding, Jack)

Obviously if Jack was a tree he'd be a Noble Fir...certainly not a common old Elder

Guy, I wonder where Paul Whalley's book found the Lime-feeding WLH larva "fact" from???

Gibster.

[Mikhail]

Higgins and Riley give lime as a larval foodplant of the WLH. Humphrey Bowen, in the Flora of Dorset, also mentions the hybrid lime as a larval foodplant. E. Friedrich, in Breeding Butterflies and Moths, states that in captivity larvae can be reared on the leaves of Purging Buckthorn, or even the unripe seeds of Norway Maple and Large-leaved Lime. My Swiss tome (German edition) says that eggs and larvae have repeatedly been found on Purging Buckthorn growing in the vicinity of Elms. Perhaps we ought to keep an open mind.

Misha

[Padfield]

My Swiss tome (German edition) says that eggs and larvae have repeatedly been found on Purging Buckthorn growing in the vicinity of Elms. Perhaps we ought to keep an open mind.

I have the French edition of the same book, Misha, but I didn't think to check it. Indeed, it mentions eggs and larvae being found on purging buckthorn (but only growing near elms, as you say). Nor did I check H & R, who give lime as a foodplant. Certainly, open minds are in order! Very interesting!

Guy

[Liz Goodyear]

I think the word here is PROOF?

When Colin Plant wrote the Moths of Hertfordshire a few years back he would only state the larval food plants of a particular moth where he had the proof. He referred to other referenced food plants but made it clear he had no evidence. Too many books quote other books and so on and so on.

I prefer to find out for myself
Liz

[Jack Harrison]

Jack, just out of interest, are you an Atlas, a Lebanon or a Deodar?

Sadly a Deodar but imagination is a wonderful thing.

Jack