Pete Eeles

[Pete Eeles]

Looking forward Pete to some tips about your techniques. For example, do you make your own sleeves or buy them? Lots more questions that can wait.

Jack

A bit of both. All purchases are from Insectopia (formerly Arnold Johnson insect cages): http://www.insectcage.net/shop/buy-flow ... leeve.html

Cheers,

- Pete

[John W]

And who should I meet when leaving the site, but the very chap responsible for the introduction - we had a good old natter!

Hi Pete. Do you know whether the colony founder was surprised or unsurprised / pleased or displeased with the little flurry of visitors this week?

Cheers
John

[Pete Eeles]

And who should I meet when leaving the site, but the very chap responsible for the introduction - we had a good old natter!

Hi Pete. Do you know whether the colony founder was surprised or unsurprised / pleased or displeased with the little flurry of visitors this week?

Cheers
John

I think "pleased" would sum it up, and I suspect for several reasons. Not least of which is that others are able to enjoy the sight!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

Hampshire and Isle of Wight BC - New Members' Day

A fantastic day welcoming 42 new members to the branch, in a now-regular fixture in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight BC events calendar! The morning was spent in presentations - myself providing an overview of the butterflies found in the 2 counties, followed by Robin Turner discussing the website, Dave Green discussing the importance of recording, Tim Norris discussing the moths found in the 2 counties, and wrapping up with Lynn Fomison discussing the importance of gardens for butterflies and moths, as well as our 3 reserves.

Dave's presentation highlighted the incredible number of records provided for the 2 counties: 1,950,156 records of butterflies and moths (507,694 butterfly records) (1,442,462 moth records). Just amazing! Of course, Dave also explained how these records are used to positive effect. We all then headed off to Magdalen Hill Down for lunch and a tour of the reserve. Despite the wind, we managed to notch up a good tally of species, including:

Brimstone (+ larva), Orange-tip (larva), Green Hairstreak, Brown Argus, Small Blue (+ egg), Common Blue, Holly Blue, Speckled Wood, Red Admiral, Peacock, Painted Lady, Small Heath, Large Skipper, Large White, Grizzled Skipper (+ egg). We also saw a Drinker moth larva, a Coleophora case, Adela croesella, Burnet Companion, a Small Elephant Hawkmoth, Six-spot Burnet (+ larvae and pupae), Cinnabar and Celypha lacunana. Some photos below.

Cheers,

- Pete

Small Blue

Orange-tip Larva following a skin change - with the old skin still intact

Grizzled Skipper egg

Small Elephant Hawk-moth

Drinker moth larva

[Pete Eeles]

Pamber Forest

Took the dogs for a walk earlier this week before heading to Johannesburg for a couple of days. Not much flying, apart from Speckled Woods and the occasional Green-veined White. But Brimstone larvae were all over the place, feeding on the plentiful Alder Buckthorn. A couple of shots below. Also a wasp (Id required) munching on a small beetle.

Cheers,

- Pete

Fully-grown Brimstone larva

Immature Brimstone larva, backlit and showing droplets on the end of each hair

Unidentified wasp

[Pete Eeles]

Purple Doings

Back home, and all of the Purple Emperor larvae have either pupated, or are in the process of pupating. Most larvae that remain are in the "head down" position, meaning that pupation is imminent.

There are also several pupae.

And a side-by-side shot, since they're on the undersides of neighbouring Sallow leaves.

Cheers,

- Pete

[ChrisC]

your wasp looks like a sawfly, possible tenthredo species.

Chris

[Pete Eeles]

your wasp looks like a sawfly, possible tenthredo species.

Chris

Thx Chris - I've only really taken notice of sawfly larvae in the past!

Cheers,

- Pete

[John W]

And a side-by-side shot, since they're on the undersides of neighbouring Sallow leaves.

Amazing camouflage!

[Pete Eeles]

Silchester Common

A great hour spent at Silchester Common, my local Silver-studded Blue site. The SSBs have been out for a few days now, and I managed to see around 40 in total, but only a single female. I guess this bodes well for a good showing, given that the males typically outnumber females by a factor of 2:1, so many more are likely to emerge over the next week. I only found one emerging, and it wasn't attended by ants, unfortunately! Some photos of this delightful little creature below.

Male Silver-studded Blue

Female Silver-studded Blue

Male Silver-studded Blue

On leaving the site, I looked on some of the Alder Buckthorn that I'd been monitoring, and where I managed to find quite a few larvae a week or so ago. I was very surprised to find a pupa under a Buckthorn leaf - the first I've ever found in the wild!

Brimstone pupa

Finally, back at home, I noticed that one of the Purple Emperor larvae has pupated on the upper surface of a Sallow leaf - something I've never seen before, but this was known to Frohawk as stated in his classic "A Natural History of British Butterflies"!

Purple Emperor pupa

Cheers,

- Pete

[millerd]

That lustrous sheen on the female SSB is amazing - it must have been very fresh... And I love the colours in the first photo.

Dave

[Padfield]

Wonderful! You can smell the heather!

Guy

[Pete Eeles]

Pamber Forest

I popped into Pamber Forest yesterday for the briefest of visits, to look for oak woodland species. I managed to notch up a single White Admiral and 6 Silver-washed Fritillary (all male) in the space of 30 minutes.

Male Silver-washed Fritillary

Male Silver-washed Fritillary

Back home, I took at look at some Marbled White larvae that I'm rearing through. They're all final instar, with a couple preparing to pupate. The photos were taken late evening, given that the larvae hunker down deep in the grass tussocks during the day.

Marbled White larva - brown form

Marbled White larva - brown form

Marbled White larva - green form

And finally, I rescued a Grizzled Skipper egg a while back that was in serious danger of being squished since the plant it was laid on was growing in the middle of a footpath! The resulting larva is feeding on Wild Strawberry, and has spun a web at the leaf base, and from which it emerges to feed. I've yet to see the thing in action and suspect it's currently undergoing a skin change. Hopefully, more photos to follow on this one!

Grizzled Skipper web

Cheers,

- Pete

[Mark Colvin]

Hi Peter.

ChrisC is correct regarding your 'unidentified wasp' as it appears to be a specimen of the Green-legged Sawfly (Tenthredo mesomelas). I'm a first time user of the Forum so hope i've posted correctly.

Kind regards. Mark

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks Mark (and Chris!) and welcome - I really appreciate the ID!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

Pamber Forest

Another brief visit to Pamber Forest a couple of days ago was surprisingly good, topped off with a good old natter with Graham Dennis, the forest warden, while watching a White Admiral running (I kid you not) across a patch of moist ground in between bouts of feeding on minerals - something neither of us had ever seen before, and very strange! A few more sightings of fresh male White Admiral and male Silver-washed Fritillary were complemented with sightings of a couple of very fresh hutchinsoni Comma, looking spectacularly bright (unfortunately no photos of these), a good number of Meadow Brown, an unusually-large number of Large Skipper, good numbers of second brood Speckled Wood, several newly-emerged Brimstone and a single Marbled White. A few Speckled Wood were ovipositing.

Speckled Wood ovum

Meanwhile, back home, the first Purple Emperor has emerged, and this male was released into suitable habitat:

Male Purple Emperor

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

Home ... then Leckhampton Hill, Cheltenham

I've given up predicting anything this year and this morning was no exception. Before we set of to see family in our home town of Cheltenham, I took the dogs out to a nearby field - the field where I've found Purple Hairstreak ova for the last few years thanks to a fallen oak that is still putting out spectacular buds year after year. I was hoping to get some shots of Large Skipper (and hopefully see my first Small Skipper of the year) but failed on both counts. What I did find absolutely blew me away - I've yet to see any Purple Hairstreak at all this year when a solitary Purple Hairstreak flitted past my head and landed on the very oak just mentioned. Unfortunately, one of the dogs managed to cause it to fly up and I thought it was gone forever. Just a few minutes later I saw it flitting about again (I assume it was the same individual), and it landed on a nearby Bramble and sat there for a few minutes with wings closed. I was about to get an underside shot when I could see it starting to gently open its wings a millimeter at a time. I quickly change position and, as the wind dipped, it did what I was hoping - which was to fully-open its wings and, wow! Thankfully, I was in the right position to catch the glorious purple iridescence of the forewings of a very fresh female Purple Hairstreak! I've really wanted to get such a shot for several years and now, at last, it is "in the bag"! Made my day.

Female Purple Hairstreak

We then set off for Leckhampton, Cheltenham, where I grew up. I sneaked out for an hour to visit the very place that got me interested in butterflies when I was 8 or 9 years old - Leckhampton Hill. I remember seeing so many species here - Green Hairsreak, Duke of Burgundy, Dark Green Fritillary, Marbled White, Chalkhill Blue and even Marsh Fritillary (on one occasion). The Marsh Frits and Dukes are long gone, but the others are still hanging on. On the way back to the car I saw a couple of pristine Ringlet, my first for the year.

Leckhampton Hill

Ringlet

Cheers,

- Pete

[Susie]

That purple hairstreak really is a stunner. It's serendipitous events such as this that make life worth living.

[Trev Sawyer]

Ooh Pete!
I lie awake at night dreaming of getting a shot like that - you lucky Bu**er

Trev

[Pete Eeles]

Susie called it "serendipity". But "lucky Bu**er" is right on the money Only took 5 years to get anything remotely like this in the wild. And I'm still aching from missing a similar shot of a male in 2002! That's ... er ... 9 years ago! Yikes!

I'm still astounded that the only PH I've seen is a female, and can only assume that there are several males in the vicinity, given the significant extra time it takes for the larva to feed up, and for the eggs to develop within the pupa, when female. I'll be returning to the site at every spare moment!

Cheers,

- Pete