Iolas blue video

Post by **Padfield** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:03 pm

If anyone's interested, I have posted a video of a female Iolas blue laying eggs in the calyx of bladder senna at http://www.guypadfield.com/movies/iolas071.wmv.

I took the video yesterday (Sunday 20th May) in the Rhône Valley in Switzerland. It's not particularly sharp, but the behaviour is quite interesting to watch.

G

Dave McCormick · Post by **Dave McCormick** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:51 pm

Quite nice guy. I think videos show things quite well, and studying them can show some thing you may never have seen at the time.

Martin · Post by **Martin** » Tue May 22, 2007 8:17 am

There was one thing I didn't like about the video...it wasn't long enough

Martin.

Dave McCormick · Post by **Dave McCormick** » Tue May 22, 2007 8:39 am

Good point! It was a bit short. You only see it happen for a second and then, it ends.

Matsukaze · Post by **Matsukaze** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 11:21 pm

The food plant appears to be quite common in London, on old railway lines and brownfield sites, such as on the Isle of Dogs:

http://www.thewildflowersociety.com/wfs ... page_3.htm

Post by **Padfield** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 8:52 am

It's a lovely plant and I look forward to seeing it next time I pass through London.

Although global warming would have to go into overdrive for Iolas blues to reach London, bladder senna is favoured by a number of other species, including long-tailed blues, green-underside blues, silver-studded blues (probably not the UK subspecies) holly blues and Lang's short-tailed blues. The first time I went looking for Iolas blues, holly blues and green-underside blues constantly caught my eye, hanging around the yellow flowers. But when I saw iolas there was no doubt as to its identity - it's huge and has seven-league wings!!

If climate change does allow some of the more southerly species to extend their range northwards, perhaps bladder senna is precisely the sort of plant British gardeners might think about encouraging.

Guy