Butterfly World, Stockton

[Philzoid]

The coming Easter was time for my annual visit to see my folks in "Sunny Sunderland", dubbed that by my daughters as virtually evertime we go there the sun shines. Despite the gloomy outlook we weren't to be disappointed again as the sun did put in long appearances and the temperatures were a tad warmer than those we left behind in Surrey.

Anyway, on the way up on the A19 (Friday 29th) I noted a sign for "Butterfly World" and decided to check it out on our return journey (Tuesday 4th). I'm so glad I did as it was definitely a worthwhile visit (even though my stop caused me to catch the M25 in rush 'hour' ).

Although the premises are smaller than Wisley, the plants are purposely selected to feed the larval stages and to supply nectar to the imagos. Only a couple of rotting fruit feeding stations were necessary. The butterflies were more numerous, very active and I barely saw a deformed specimen when compared to Wisley. This more natural set-up means that many of the butterflies get to carry out their normal life cycle and the proprietor (Gareth I think forgot to ask ) who is very hands-on, can maintain his stock by this and the breeding program from butterfly farms in tropical locations. Gareth told me that a percentage of his stock actually goes back to the wild (any views on this ) He also said that he can repair any insect with a broken wing (glues it or a false one back on ) and they are able to fly again. This is necessary if it is important stock he needs to rear on. Finally he needs to be a keen horticulturalist to maintain his plants. Ladybird pest control is part of this, as is picking off stick insects (we now have three new pets to look after )

In addition to the butterflies there is an added attraction of a Meerkat den as well a small selection of reptiles. If you're in the North East area Butterfly World, Preston Park is a must visit (or three ). Entrance for the price of a pint (Surrey) and no queueing for hours to get in too .

Heliconius erato or melpomene? Note pollen on wings

Great Eggfly. A very active butterfly often seen chasing off large Morphos.

Lots of Red Lacewings activity

One of only a couple of "feeding stations"

Plenty of Tailed Jay

Nice example of autumn Leafwing

Pink-spotted Cattleheart: a new one for me

Heliconius erato / melpomene / hybrid?

Meerkats invented the tripod lol

Phil

[Wurzel]

Alright Philzoid?

Glad you had a good time up north Some cracking shots there and one or two species I've not encountered before

Where can you get "false butterfly wings" from? And more importantly I hope it's not being paid for by the NHS

WRT the Stick Insects the ones I had at work did very well on Privet just a couple of twigs fresh each week.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Philzoid]

Thanks for the comments Wurzel. A couple of new ones for me too. Judging by his photographs he has a lot of variety throughout the year. I was told they're getting in the Green Birdwing Orthnithoptera priamus which is a pretty spectacular butterfly later on this year.

WRT the wing repair I was taken aback a bit (when he mentioned glue ) and I didn't find out the detail. I'll drop him an email to see if I can find out more.

My stick insects are on privet, but I'm not sure whether the girls will look after them as they should once the novelty wears off Perhaps they'd have been better off going to the Meerkats

Phil

[Padfield]

When I was a boy I had stick insects. My sister brought three females home from school one day and it fell to me to look after them. I put them in a breeding cage and fed them on bramble, which they loved. Despite all being females, they laid eggs constantly (the eggs just dropped them out of their bottoms and fell to the wooden floor of the cage with a bouncing sound that I can remember to this day, because it continued day and night) and by the summer or that year I had over 300 stick insects in two cages. Sometimes, for some unknown reason, they would escape and we would find stick insects in the curtains.

When we went on holiday in August I decided to liberate them all on the bramble in the garden, knowing that they wouldn't survive the winter so I could do no ecological harm. I did this. They were still there in September. There were none there the next year.

Guy

[EricY]

Interesting, from what you have posted it looks a better selection of species than I saw on my visit to a comparable place near Sheffield. Eric

[Philzoid]

When we went on holiday in August I decided to liberate them all on the bramble in the garden, knowing that they wouldn't survive the winter so I could do no ecological harm. I did this. They were still there in September. There were none there the next year.

If I liberated mine it would spell certain death such is the weather over here at the momoent . Currently my charges (Carausius morosus) are ensconced in a large plastic sweetie jar and although very inactive, appear to be surviving as noted by the droppings (but no eggs yet). When they were caught they were extremely active (I've never seen a stick insect move so quickly) which reflected on just how warm Butterfly World was (or how cold our house is ).

Interesting, from what you have posted it looks a better selection of species than I saw on my visit to a comparable place near Sheffield. Eric

I've only been to this one butterfly house apart from Wisley so I cannot compare to Shefflield but I was impressed with the overall number and 'health' of the butterflies. The theme of my picture selection was to try illustrate this. I did take (singleton) pictures of other species such as Morpho peleides and achilles; Paplio memnon and polytes; and Papilio thoas (ssp. brasiliensis I think) but pictures of (most) of these have been posted on the Wisley thread.

Phil