Padfield

[Padfield]

Unfortunately I didn't take any good photos of him (he was deep in the shade) but this one might be a little clearer:



I didn't see him as a hawk moth, I must admit.

Thanks for the encouragement, Roger! I certainly won't give up, though if I now have to expand my search to the surrounding sallows there are a lot of leaves to look at...

Guy

[Reverdin]

Guy.... our posts crossed.... see back

[Padfield]

Yes - thanks, Rev.

The fact I didn't see this chap before now shows how difficult it is looking for these brilliantly camouflaged creatures among the sallow leaves. I have looked for more purple emperor cats all year but never spotted him.

I'd love to know the species ...

Guy

[Reverdin]

Tau Emperor

[Padfield]

I think you're right!

In that case, he still has some time to go before pupation! I was wrong about his position.

Thanks for this.

Guy

[Padfield]

So I was looking for an emperor and found an emperor ...

The species is common around here in the spring but hardly ever stops for a photo.


(2004 - near Huémoz)



(2009 - near Huémoz)

Guy

[Rogerdodge]

Sorry Roger... it seems to have a horn at BOTH ends.... or is that an illusion

Try Aglia tau - the Tau Emperor Moth ???????

Paul
You are correct of course.
I don't think I looked closely enough at the photo.
What a cracking creature - the early instar catties are wonderful.
Well done Guy.

[Padfield]

It's quite amazing I never found an early instar larva while looking for iris cats! Those antennae are remarkable and though I saw quite a lot of other things eating the sallow I certainly never saw anything like that! Something to keep an eye out for next year.

Again - sorry Rev (or is it Paul now? ). I had seen your earlier post and didn't bother looking back when you mentioned the posts crossing - it was the edit that crossed. Hence my ignoring your suggestion the first time!!

Guy

[Padfield]

It was graduation day today, so I spent the morning in a marquee clapping and - yes, let's be honest - feeling a little proud.

In the afternoon I went to Martigny, intending to potter around a few sites there. But when I arrived a sudden whim drove me to cycle 1000m uphill to see if there were any mountain dappled whites still on the wing - I missed out on this species in the spring because there were so few good days to go out.

There weren't any dappled whites - so unless I catch some much higher up it looks as though I've missed them for this year. Their foodplant was also completely over - it had flowered, seeded and been scythed and there was no evidence of it. Nevertheless, it was a good afternoon in great scenery. There were plenty of Apollos about and the first great sooty satyrs were on the wing, flapping along the roadside verges looking, well, big and sooty. Marbled fritillaries seemed to be everywhere.

New for the year were Escher's blues. Here is a couple mating by the road:





There must have been something in the petrol, because this pair of heath fritillaries was also enjoying a public romance, by the same road:





In a meadow higher up a pair of roe fawns looked set to entertain me until a couple with a small child in another meadow clapped their hands and the fawns dashed back to the safety of the woods:



Those higher meadows had mostly been scythed and were low on butterflies, so I had a beer stop before cycling back down the hill:



Spring is over and summer is here. Marbled whites, meadow browns and ringlets were everywhere and the first rock grayling of my year posed briefly on a rock, then bounced off:



An energetic and rewarding afternoon, even if I saw relatively few species. If the weather holds tomorrow I think I'll catch the train into Italy and try for Hungarian gliders. I read with sympathy accounts of the weather many of you have been getting in the UK recently. It's been mixed here, with plenty of rain, but enough sun and warmth have been getting through to keep the butterflies flying.

Guy

[essexbuzzard]

That's the differance Guy, when it's not been raining it's been cloudy and windy, with a marked shortage of sunshine-even by UK standards!
Great report Guy,keep 'em coming.

[Padfield]

Thanks! I'll try and keep 'em coming...

In the end I postponed my Italy trip today and stayed in Switzerland. The nominal target was one of my favourite fritillaries, the so-called 'Asian fritillary', Euphydryas intermedia wolfensbergeri. None of its names really do it justice. It is essentially the Alpine version of the scarce fritillary, Euphydryas maturna, and very similar to this species. It lives in high Alpine glades and feeds on blue honeysuckle. Today I only saw a handful but they were all very fresh and I suspect it is the beginning of their flight season.





Large blues were common - mostly females ovipositing on thyme:



These large blues are very different from the ones you see on Collard Hill. The uppersides of the females are dark, with varying amounts of blue:




(unfortunately I focused on the ground, not the butterfly, there...)

Here is an extreme version, that you might have some difficulty accepting as a large blue!!



I have to say, that's the blackest I've ever seen. Normally you can make out the spots on the blue background.

Other upland species and forms seen today were Alpine grayling ...



... northern wall ...



... and the high Alpine form, subalpinus, of sooty copper:





Those I saw today were strikingly large, quite unlike the ones on my local patch, and with very uncluttered undersides.

Pearl-bordered fritillaries, little blues, green hairstreaks, mountain green-veined whites, geranium arguses and many other species added their particular characters to today's walk. But I saw no mountain dappled whites - which I have in the past seen here later than this - and no Alpine grizzled skippers. This last species is one of the earliest upland butterflies and must have finished its flight season at that locality. I saw them there in good numbers last year.

Here's a little blue enjoying my sweat ...



... and another, following a false heath fritillary around:



And this is a female pearl-bordered fritillary:



A chequered skipper to close:



Guy

[Pete Eeles]

Excellent report Guy. The variability of the Large Blue is quite incredible! And I have more shots of "in focus" background than I care to remember

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

I thought your pictures were always perfect, Pete ...

The melanism in large blues is interesting because its extent seems to vary from locality to locality, not just with altitude. Some places typically produce very dark individuals - like the site I was at today. In some other places relatively blue individuals fly at high altitudes (my local large blues are not particularly dark, even at over 2000m, though they are much darker than the UK ones). The same phenomenon appears in the geographically isolated populations of the Pyrenees, while so far as I know all the true lowland populations are bright blue.

This was at 2200m in Vaud (on my local mountain):



This was considerably lower (about 1500m if I remember correctly) in the Pyrenees:



I have no photos of the lowland form, though I've seen it a few times in France, mostly back in my schooldays. One day, maybe, I'll visit those dazzling creatures on Collard Hill...

Guy

[Gothic_dreams]

Stunning Photos

Chris

[Pete Eeles]

I thought your pictures were always perfect, Pete ...

Very kind - but I think you're referring to the 1% I actually post

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

I forgot to post this picture from yesterday. I'm quite familiar with this little moth but I don't know what it is. Can anyone help?



Guy

[Rogerdodge]

Guy
Today I received the latest edition of the scholarly British Wildlife Magazine.
(Bi-montly, £20(ish) per year. Back issues £4 each, or £3.50 for 3+)
In the latest is an excellent 8 page article entitled –
Adventures with Caterpillars – The Larval Stage of the Purple Emperor Butterfly
by the inimitable Matthew Oates.
It is illustrated with some good photographs (some by Neil Hume, AKA Sussex Kipper).
A particularly relevant (to you Guy) paragraph is attached as a scan.
I am sure the publishers will not object to this, as they are getting free advertising.
http://www.britishwildlife.com for back issues or subscriptions

[Padfield]

Thanks, Roger - that is certainly very interesting. You will remember where Diocletian's pupa was in 2010. Well, that's almost exactly where Aurelian was feeding up, so I expected him to pupate somewhere near, as it was evidently the right sort of place (though perhaps not perfect, since Diocletian died in the pupal stage). Constantine was the same distance off the ground (i.e., about eye level). However, they both pupated in miserable conditions in a miserable June and might have got it wrong.

I searched every accessible branch on the tree where Aurelian fed up and unless he was still in some pre-pupal stage I am confident he wasn't there. I then checked adjacent trees he might have reached by crossing over where branches touched or by taking a short trip along the ground. It would seem unwise for something so perfectly designed to be invisible in the sallow trees to journey very far across ground but many caterpillars of other species do go walkies just before pupation. That left, importantly, branches higher up the tree, some of which had very dense leaves and were extremely difficult to examine from beneath. The trick of lying on my back and using binoculars might come in handy. The other thing I considered doing was taking photos from several different angles and studying them at leisure on the computer!

The most important thing is that I think he reached that footloose stage without coming to harm. There is no doubt in my mind it was he who ate his seat leaf and the tits and other insectivorous birds haven't been in that part of the woods at all summer. If he's up there, hidden away, ready to emerge in July, I'm pleased for him! Never again will I watch an emperor cruising around the treetops or taking minerals on the path without thinking of the long, hazardous and quite remarable journey he or she took to reach the winged state.

Guy

[Reverdin]

Hi Guy
try.. Geometrid...... Psodos quadrifaria...... Foodplants: Rhododendron and other low plants

[Padfield]

Brilliant Paul!

I thought it was a micro but there it is, in Volume II of Moths of Europe! There's nothing else like it.

Guy