Padfield

[Padfield]

With the weather still holding, I crossed into Italy again this morning to spend some more time at the site where I had tantalising glimpses of nettle tree butterfly last Saturday. Then, I only discovered the site at the end of the day. Today I went straight there.

Finally, the jinx is laid to rest. I saw half a dozen nettle tree butterflies and photographed two individuals. Both the ones I photographed were ovipositing on nettle tree, whose leaf buds were just opening. Here are some pictures of one of them:











What an extraordinary butterfly this is. The palpi are hugely extended, giving the face a very strange look, and the antennae widen gently to the ends rather than being clubbed. I was able to spend time just watching the species today, getting a feel for its flight, its appearance on the wing, its character. Most enjoyable.

At the same site were chequered blues, sooty coppers and many other species:





At midday I decided to return to Switzerland and check out a site in the Rhône Valley, where, by chance, I bumped into Matt Rowlings. With baton blue, Provençal short-tailed blue, large white and Berger's pale clouded yellow adding to the other new species I had seen for the year in Italy - small copper and sooty copper - I sign off a remarkable March with a total of 32 species on my year list.

Guy

[Pete Eeles]

Wowee! Those Nettle-tree Butterfly images and observations are just stunning. I've never come across anything like that before, even in literature I have! Do they lay their eggs singly or in batches?

Brilliant post

Cheers,

- Pete

[Reverdin]

beautiful shots Guy

[Wurzel]

Absolutely cracking shots of a weird looking butterfly It looks more like it should be called the Proboscis butterfly As natural selection is so stringent what purpose do those enlarged palpi serve, are they some form of adaptation for feeding?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

PS I had a look on Wikipedia and the nettle tree butterflies are also called "snout" butterflies and the European species is also called the European Beak but no reason was given for it although they do disguise themselves as dead leaves so perhaps the palps look like the twig end of a leaf?

[Padfield]

Thanks, Pete!

The behaviour reminded me very much of brimstone. A single female would 'work' a tree, moving from leaf bud to leaf bud. I didn't attempt to find the eggs because in both cases where I watched a female laying she was still there when I left the tree. I try not to interfere and only look for eggs where a female has moved on. It might be worth going back to look for caterpillars in a few weeks' time.

These are the leaves of a nettle tree that was slightly more advanced:



I only saw females ovipositing on more tightly furled leaves but I guess they won't have any choice soon, when they are all out.

I would have written more detailed observations, Pete, but I'm quite exhausted! Term ended yesterday but instead of having a lie-in today I got up at 05h45 and zoomed off to Italy! Very glad I did...

Thanks Rev and Wurzel, too. I'll think about the possible uses of that snout when I've had 40 winks!

Guy

[Wurzel]

Cheers Guy enjoy your 40! I edited my post with an additional idea after briefly using wikipedia

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[marmari]

Guy,
I knew you would sort it re the Nettle Tree.

[Nick Broomer]

Hi Guy,

I bet you`re glad you went back for another go for the Nettle Tree Butterfly.

Lovely photos, especially pictures 2 and 4, brilliant, well done.

All the best,

Nick.

[Padfield]

After an early start and a long day on Saturday I took Sunday at a more leisurely pace, with just a walk to the local woods. I checked Aurelian was still there - and he was. He has remained motionless at the end of his twig since he moved there. Tomorrow I leave for Easter in the UK so I will have to entrust him to the woodland spirits for a week or so and hope I can find him again when I get back.

There are now orange tips and wood whites here in the mountains but compared with the Valley things are quite relaxed. There were no brimstones flying in the woods yesterday and I saw just one peacock. A few small tortoiseshells, commas and large tortoiseshells were on the wing.

The blackthorn is still completely bare up here and the oak buds are tight and wintry, as you would expect:



As a sort of postscript to my nettle tree posting (though I hope to make more postings about this species when I go back to look for larvae and/or chrysalids later in the year) I thought I'd mention that although most books claim the species is monovoltine my Swiss book states authoritatively that it is bivoltine. The summer brood, apparently, is very short-lived. The butterflies emerge in June, when the females are almost immediately mated and begin laying. That generation doesn't hibernate but gives rise to the second generation in August, which does. The book claims it is the existence of this short-lived generation in June, followed by a later emergence in August, that gave rise to early reports of aestivation in the species. Sadly, I live just too far away from the nearest colonies to research all this properly myself. The Swiss populations, in Ticino, are even further away than my Italian site, which is already quite a trek.

Anyway, here's a final shot (for the time being) of that amenable female doing her stuff:



I think you're right, Wurzel - the whole design of the butterfly is for camouflage among dead leaves during hibernation and the peculiar head and antennae are surely part of this.

Guy

[Jack Harrison]

Off Topic - Red Kites

At the end of January/early February in large triangular area bounded by by Newbury in the south, Borton-on-the-Water in the west and Peterborough in the north, Red Kites were to be seen at almost every point. Little Rissington airfield had about half-a-dozen. Many were to be seen over the Marlborough Downs. I don't think they had been specifically introduced to these areas so presumably were natural colonisers from the introduction scheme. It can't be long before they occur over the whole of Britain.

Buzzards are also doing well in Ireland. The literature suggests that they are not particularly numerous here but I have been seeing them in many places.

Last report from Ireland for a while. Back to Norfolk tomorrow but first a morning crossing of the Irish Sea - gales are forecast. Should be fun!

Jack

[Rogerdodge]

Nice observation Jack, and I agree about the expansion of the range.
I have seen them more often in Devon in the last year, than in the last 40 years (5 times).
However - why this is in Guy's Diary defeats me.......

[NickB]

Loved those shots, Guy. The Nettle-tree butterfly is a strange creature indeed.
When we saw them in Provence in April, they were always on a Nettle Tree, and too far up to get decent shots.

Provence, April 2011

They must have just emerged from hibernation and few were in top condition.
As I said before, their pose strikes me as particularly Gallic!
N
Keep 'em coming....

[David M]

This is a butterfly that particularly fascinates me and I hope I may get the chance to see one when I visit the Pyrenees in late June.

Other than hanging around nettle trees, what other habits does this species exhibit?

[Padfield]

This is a butterfly that particularly fascinates me and I hope I may get the chance to see one when I visit the Pyrenees in late June.

Other than hanging around nettle trees, what other habits does this species exhibit?

All the summer generation nettle tree butterflies I've seen, which is only a handful, have been puddling or taking minerals on tracks and roads. If the Swiss book is right, the June butterflies should also hang around nettle trees, as they stick in a little sneaky breeding, but the August generation is the dispersal/hibernation phase and so probably doesn't.

I've been in England for a week now, returning to Switzerland tomorrow, and have seen exactly three butterflies - two small whites on Good Friday and one (possibly two) orange tip in the garden today. It was sunny on Good Friday but cold here in East Suffolk and although I cycled to three of my favourite green hairstreak sites there was nothing on the wing at all - not so much as a brimstone, peacock or speckled wood. The two small whites were both urban.

This morning, this orange tip was bouncing around the flowers in my garden:



Inspired, I set off again to look for green hairstreaks (which, to be fair, are a late April butterfly at best in a normal year in this part of the world) but there was a strong and very chilly breeze so it was no surprise that nothing was flying.

Giving up on green hairstreaks I decided to look for purple hairstreak eggs. I soon found several - all hatched - on several trees.







Here's that third one again. Because of the algae growing over it it really wasn't very conspicuous:



The trees where I found them were just like those I search in Switzerland - rather young, with healthy branches reaching out into the sun. The eggs were all on branches with a south or south-easterly aspect. This one was largely in leaf (that is, the buds had burst and tight green furls were unrolling all over the tree):



This one had no green bursts at all:



All the eggs found on both were hatched, though. I found none unhatched or parasitised.

There is no hope of finding larvae at this time of year. They crawl out of the egg and immediately burrow into a bud. I did see evidence of this but obviously didn't open any buds. While I searched I saw plenty of other creatures, herbivorous and carnivorous, lurking around on the branches. This one, presumably a larva of some sort, looks a bit carnivorous, but I have no real grounds for that:



Nice to be back in Suffolk - but what a different environment!

Guy

[Wurzel]

Only three species of butterfly? Is this a case of the grass definitely not being greener?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Pawpawsaurus]

I've been in England for a week now, returning to Switzerland tomorrow, and have seen exactly three butterflies!

I bet you can't wait to board the plane. Can't say I blame you.

Paul

[Mark Colvin]

Hi Guy,

I think your bug is probably a Lygaeidae nymph of some sort.

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

[David M]

All in the timing. Had Guy come a week earlier, he'd have been in heaven.

[NickB]

I've been in England for a week now, returning to Switzerland tomorrow, and have seen exactly three butterflies -
Nice to be back in Suffolk - but what a different environment!
Guy

Yes indeed; in the East it has been a slow start, with an early burst of activity of all the usual suspects, but very low numbers since then - for me at least.
We had a mad March Green Hairstreak (!) but nothing since until, like you Guy, visiting GH hot-spots, I saw a single one on the 6th April nectaring on Blackthorn (on the top of the bush).
That place has produced GH around that date for the last few years I have visited; for me, GH are the sign the season has really started.
Still waiting....
N

[Padfield]

Thanks for the comments all. I remember when I was a boy that after the first flush of butterflies in March (usually the end of March) there was often a tantalising period of cloud, rain and cold lasting well into April when I saw nothing. That is East Suffolk - and I love it - the bleak, windswept, shingley land that inspired Britten's haunting harmonies and George and Ernest Adnams's unique hop blend. I'm glad at least to have seen the early signs of this year's purple hairstreaks and hope to see some late adults when I come back in August.

Rain and snow are forecast for the rest of the week in my mountain home, with snow on both Sunday and Monday as the kids come back for the new term. It's a curious fact that the vast majority of summer terms begin with snow.

Thanks for the tentative ID Mark. I recognised it as an immature stage but I had no idea of what.

Guy