Holly Blues

[Hoggers]

I wonder if anyone can help me answer a question that has popped up in my mind about Holly Blues? Are they communal, territorial or wandering free spirits or some other combination? I only ask because year after year I see them in my garden ( or rather not " them " because I only see single butterflies, never more than one ) and when I've located one it seems to stick to one part of the garden. And when I'm out and about I have never come across more than the odd one or two, I've yet to find them in any numbers.

[John W]

My experience of Holly Blues is much the same as yours - they don't seem to have hot spots where you can find loads of them, they just pop up in ones and twos more or less at random.

Here's one from the lanes near Five Oaks in West Sussex (more famous for their Orange Tips):

6th April 2012

Cheers
John

[NickB]

In my experience in my local Cemetery, the males set-up territory close to where they emerge; I often see competing males spiralling up above the same bushes year after year.
They also seem to do circuits over a few tens of metres as they search for females, returning to the same places. Watching the same patch, it is also evident that their numbers do fluctuate over a period; as the parasitic wasp (Listrodromus nycthemerus) http://www.flickr.com/photos/unovidual/4826786042/ population rises they go from abundance to scarcity very quickly.

I also get a few wandering males in my garden as they spread-out, particularly in "good" years. They are one my favourites, I have to admit, but very difficult to get decent shots of.....
I noticed that the few I managed to see this year were spooked by my AF whining as I focused-in....
N

[Mikhail]

In 1999 Butterfly Conservation published a booklet on the Holly Blue by Ken Willmott that's well worth reading if it's still available.

Misha

[Lee Hurrell]

My own observations match Nick's quite closely.

The most I've seen at once is 9, all flying around a big expanse of Ivy and Holly art Slough train station.

Lee

[David M]

Ditto, really.

Holly Blues tend to turn up in dribs and drabs (I've even seen one in my mother's garden in the Isle of Man). I don't think it's a butterfly you can really set time aside to go out and spot; they just appear.

The one place I have seen large numbers of them fairly regularly is Forest Farm near Cardiff. The site is full of mature trees and shrubs and they clearly like it there. If I remember rightly, there was one day last summer when I saw well into double figures, and I've seen 7 or 8 in a single visit on a couple of other occasions.

[NickB]

In 1999 Butterfly Conservation published a booklet on the Holly Blue by Ken Willmott that's well worth reading if it's still available.
Misha

It may be available second-hand somewhere; it is out-of-print, unfortunately...

[millerd]

I have a copy, obtained for a very modest sum at the Herts & Middx BC AGM in 2011. They may have more - worth getting in touch via the details given on their website.

Dave