Pete Eeles

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks Dave - yes, 2cm would be about right.

Fermyn Wood
With Matthew Oates seeing 137 individual Purple Emperor at Fermyn yesterday (http://apaturairis.blogspot.co.uk/), I just had to go and see for myself! Despite, by all accounts, today being a little "quieter", I still saw more than 50 individuals myself (I gave up counting since I found one every 50 yards or so), which is more iris than I've seen in the last 3 years put together! Arriving at 0745, I saw my first grounded Emperor at 0805 and it carried on like that until at least midday, with a definite peak of grounded males between 1000 and 1100.

It was great to meet up with the man himself, and Matthew pointed out various master trees and "breakfast tables" (e.g. fox scats!). This was extremely helpful since Fermyn is a big place, even when sticking to the Lady Wood, Souther Wood, Titchmarsh Wood and Greenside Wood block as I did. It was also great to see Nick Ballard (NickB), Mark Bunch (essexbuzzard), Mark Tutton (Tutts), a plethora of other UKBers (all of whom were very kind about this website!) and Max Whitby and Fiona Barclay from NatureGuides. If you want to see a Purple Emperor and get some decent photos of this beasty, get to Fermyn now!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

The bags are packed ...

... and I'm sitting at Heathrow Terminal 5, waiting to board a flight to Sydney (via Singapore). For work, I hasten to add I can't tell you how difficult it is leaving our glorious summer for an antipodean winter - I'll have to make the most of the cricket by mentioning it in every meeting I have

Back home - there are just a few critters left to look after. First off, the Grayling larvae I've been looking after are all fully-grown and have started to pupate. I must admit, I was very surprised at how deep into the soil these guys go to pupate - very moth-like! Their colour is also a surprise - being very bright orange-red. The family have strict instructions on what to do should any emerge as an adult while I'm away!

Grayling pupa

Grayling pupa

And finally - a Dingy Skipper larva, showing its "tent" of Bird's-foot Trefoil leaves, and a shot with them opened up where you can see that the larva is about to change into the next instar. The tent was carefully put back together with some cotton "ties".

Dingy Skipper larval tent

Dingy Skipper larva

So - 2 weeks of winter coming up for me - and I've already got plans for squeezing the last drop out of summer when I get back, with a trip to Ireland beckoning and, hopefully, some more subspecies. I'll be monitoring UKB in the meantime, so do keep the excellent posts and photos rolling in!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Susie]

Have a safe journey.

[Wurzel]

Have a great trip and safe journey. I'd definitely mention "128" a lot

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks both! Currently in Singapore airport waiting to reboard. Heard a loud bang on the way over, thinking the plane had hit an air pocket, but it turned out to be someone fainting and whacking their head on the floor! Poor thing, but all ok now!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Jack Harrison]

air pocket

Sorry to say so Pete but with over 40 years as a professional pilot and 50 as a glider pilot, I never did understand what an "air pocket" is.

Turbulence with a down current: yes. But there is no such a thing as a "pocket of air" which results in an aircraft falling.

But I am impressed with you technology in sending a message to ukb from Singapore. I guess (as it's night at the moment) you won't even see any of these butterflies out of the terminal windows.

http://butterfly.nss.org.sg/images/book ... er-340.jpg

I haven’t been to Singapore for some 40 years. Painted Jezebel and Common Bluebottle were much in evidence then.

Jack

[Susie]

I know from my time in an aviation litigation department which dealt with fatal incidents that sometimes 'air' can sometimes be less dense, ie when large pockets of marsh gas has been released, which can cause planes to drop. However this is incredibly rare.

[Jack Harrison]

Susie

I know from my time in an aviation litigation department which dealt with fatal incidents that sometimes 'air' can sometimes be less dense, ie when large pockets of marsh gas has been released, which can cause planes to drop. However this is incredibly rare.

That’s intriguing and I’d never heard of it before. Do you have any specific accident records/references where marsh (presumably methane) gas was cited as being contributory to the accident? I'd be fascinated – as no doubt would be my son who flies for a low-cost UK based airline - to get more details.

I did however find this old Notam (Notice to Airmen) that might have some relevance:
TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS ARE IN EFFECT FOR NATURAL GAS VENTING .... WILLIAMS NORTHWEST PIPELINE
That presumably was referring to Natural Gas from a fuel-supply supply pipeline

Jack

[Pete Eeles]

Doings Down Under

Greetings from the other side of the planet Of course, it's winter here, and having moved from Sydney to Melbourne, I can feel it - with short days and a need to wrap up when going out. With all of the action I'm missing at home, I needed to somehow get some butterflying in! ... so decided to pay a visit to Melbourne Zoo where they have a pretty extensive butterfly house. Of course, being this side of the planet, the species were somewhat different from butterfly houses back home and, stepping into the enclosure, was immediately greeted by a species I was hoping to see - my first ever encounter with a birdwing (albeit in captivity) - a Cairn's Birdwing, Australia's largest native butterfly (found in Queensland). I was pretty gobsmacked watching such huge butterflies flying so delicately around the place - simply breathtaking! The butterflies here seem to do well in general, and I witnessed quite a few pairings of various species, egg laying etc. A Cairn's Birdwing egg is HUGE! Unfortunately, most of the other visitors seemed pretty oblivious to what was going on around them, although I could see the educational value of this exhibit with quite a few children taking interest in the butterflies around them and asking their parents difficult questions There was also an emerging cage with various pupae (behind glass, unfortunately!) - including the Cairn's Birdwing (photo below).

Cairn's Birdwing (male)

Cairn's Birdwing (male)

Cairn's Birdwing (female)

Cairn's Birdwing (female)

Cairn's Birdwing mating pair (female at top)

Cairn's Birdwing (egg)

Cairn's Birdwing (pupa)

A selection of other species is below, finishing off with a non-butterfly, taken at Sydney Zoo At Melbourne Zoo I got the opportunity to walk in an open area that contained Emus, Kangaroos and Wallabees - another first for me!

Australian Lurcher

Blue-banded Eggfly

Brown Soldier

Common Crow

Common Eggfly (male)

Common Eggfly (female)

Cruiser (male)

Cruiser (female)

Monarch (called a "Wanderer" down under!)

Orange Lacewing

Orchard Swallowtail (male)

Orchard Swallowtail (female)

Not a Butterfly :)

Cheers,

- Pete

[Mark Colvin]

Hi Pete.

Nice work. Glad to see you are keeping your hand in

Kindest regards. Mark

[Pete Eeles]

Home at Last!

I arrived home on Saturday from Melbourne, exhausted but glad to be back! Anyways ... time to check up on the last of the livestock, and I managed to get some (what I think are) interesting photos! The first 2 photos show 2 different Chalkhill Blue pupae. The 2nd looked like it still needed to "colour up" but 2 hours later the blighter had emerged and I missed the whole thing!

Chalkhill Blue pupa

Chalkhill Blue pupa (2 hours before emergence)

The Dingy Skipper larva is doing well and is starting to look nice and plump.

Dingy Skipper larva

The next 2 shots show the colouring up of the same Grayling pupa. I'm confident this will emerge in the morning, hence my comments on the images!

Grayling pupa (emergence -2 days)

Grayling pupa (emergence -1 day)

And, finally, a Silver-spotted Skipper pupa that was nestled within the grass blades of Sheep's Fescue. I'm amazed at the pupal case, clearly showing two pairs of legs, the antennae and, most surprisingly, what I believe to be marked pockets where the androconial scales (that make up the sex brand) of a male would be. Time will tell! I wonder what a female pupa looks like - I suspect that Reg Fry's image is of a female: gallery/images/upload/8287ba8436370cb65 ... 31201b.jpg.

Silver-spotted Skipper pupa

Cheers,

- Pete

[Mark Colvin]

Welcome back, Pete.

I know it will be good to get back to some real entomology ...

[Vince Massimo]

Welcome back Pete, looks like you arrived just in time

Some really interesting shots, but particularly the Silver-spotted Skipper pupa. I also notice that yours has a (relatively) much longer proboscis sheath than the Reg Fry example. Could this be another feature of a male pupa compared to a female?

Regards,

Vince

[Pete Eeles]

I know it will be good to get back to some real entomology ...

Too right!

Some really interesting shots, but particularly the Silver-spotted Skipper pupa. I also notice that yours has a (relatively) much longer proboscis sheath than the Reg Fry example. Could this be another feature of a male pupa compared to a female?

Well spotted. Could be - it's fascinating stuff for sure!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

Stockbridge Down

First off - I was correct - the Grayling emerged this morning and is, as we speak, hopefully procreating where he (for it was a "he") was released. I was hoping to get some nice photos, but the blighter had other ideas. So ungrateful

Anyway - with much-needed therapy required - I headed off to Stockbridge Down where I had 3 surprises that I'll come to. First off, the Chalkhills are absolutely everywhere and a conservative (and unscientific) estimate would put their numbers at around the 5000 mark, but there could easily be double this number. Lots of emerging adults, mating pairs and ovipositing females. And so to the first surprise - an ab.fowleri male - very nice!

Chalkhill Blue (male)

Chalkhill Blue (female)

Chalkhill Blue (male) ab.fowleri

Wandering through the clouds of butterflies was "heaven on earth" as far as I'm concerned At one point the wind died down to nothing, no cars were driving along the road, and all I could hear was the sound of crickets doing their stuff. So I lay down on the ground and just gazed into space for a while. If that's not therapy, I don't know what is! Back on my feet and I decided to look for Silver-spotted Skipper. Lots of whites were flying, but one flew right by me and - WOW! - the second surprise! Not only my first Clouded Yellow of the year, but a female f. helice. Absolutely stunning. I was hoping to get a backlit shot but she had other ideas.

Clouded Yellow (female) f.helice

I finally found a dozen or so Silver-spotted Skipper, and was pleased to also find a couple of fresh Small Copper on the way and a male Clouded Yellow travelling at high speed across the down.

Diminutive Policeman

Silver-spotted Skipper (male)

Silver-spotted Skipper (female)

And to the last surprise of the day which, unfortunately, was a nasty surprise. A well-known (to the Hants/IOW branch) collector was on the down, looking out for aberrations. I know who he is, where he lives, his phone number, his car registration etc. etc., but the wildlife crime unit don't seem to be able to do anything about him. He's a pleasant enough chap - just amoral in my opinion. Anyway, I made my views on collecting perfectly clear before walking away, which he rebuffed by claiming that taking a dozen Chalkhill Blue from a population of thousands isn't going to do any harm. And he's probably right - but that's not the point is it? Hey ho. I now need some more therapy!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Wurzel]

That's great news about Stockbridge - now I need to just hope for some good weather at the weekend Congrats for the first two surprizes As for the collector man is there nothing that can be done?

In terms of therapy I recommend a good beer (Crafty Old Hen, Poachers Choice or Old Thumper are good) and a Midsommer Murders, always makes me feel human/ better/ relaxed

Have a goodun
Wurzel

[Jack Harrison]

A well-known (to the Hants/IOW branch) collector....

There can't be all that many collectors these days. Does he by any chance have the initials CL? If it IS the same CL that I know, yes he is a pleasant enough chap. I don't agree with what he does but he is probably right - little harm in the long term.

Or was it PM?

Devil's advocate here. Without those Victorian collectors, we would be far less knowledgeable today.

Jack

[Pete Eeles]

As for the collector man is there nothing that can be done?

Having looked into this several times before, it seems that getting a prosecution is extremely difficult. In fact, I'm not sure if anyone has ever been prosecuted for collecting (only for selling protected species).

In terms of therapy I recommend a good beer (Crafty Old Hen, Poachers Choice or Old Thumper are good) and a Midsommer Murders, always makes me feel human/ better/ relaxed

Being teetotal my therapy is found in the wilds of Hampshire

Does he by any chance have the initials CL? Or was it PM?

No - it was neither CL nor the Prime Minister

Devil's advocate here. Without those Victorian collectors, we would be far less knowledgeable today.

Very true. It was also a long time ago and a lot of those specimens are in museums.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pauline]

I must just have missed you yesterday Pete. That was where I photographed my Clouded Yellow but not the pale version and the photos not as good as yours as I couldn't catch her nectaring. Still, my second one of the year and lovely to see.

[Pete Eeles]

Denbies Hillside

I had a meeting in London this afternoon, so decided to pop into Denbies on the way to see what all the fuss has been about! A real pleasure to spend some time with UKB's Susie who knows this site better than most, and who pointed out various items to me as we wandered around the site. Thanks Sooz! The site is renowned for its aberrations and it wasn't long before Susie spied the first - my 2nd ab.fowleri in 2 days! We managed to find a few other male aberrations approaching ab.fowleri, but a more detailed analysis will have to wait until winter!

Chalkhill Blue (male) ab.fowleri

Chalkhill Blue (male) ab.

Chalkhill Blue (male) ab.

Other aberrations were also present, with a couple shown below. I believe the second to be ab. postica-obsoleta.

Chalkhill Blue (male) ab.

Chalkhill Blue (female) ab. postica-obsoleta (corrected following Neil's later comment)

But the spectacle I enjoyed the most was seeing a group of male Chalkhill Blue feeding on a dog turd Photo and video below. Wish you could have been there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuM-hUzwv7w[/video]

We also found several Silver-spotted Skipper along the way. As I left the site, who should be coming down the hill but Matthew Oates and Patrick Barkham with a Channel 4 TV crew in tow! I started chatting with the birthday boy (it's Matthew's 60th birthday today) and realised I was being filmed! Fortunately, with a face made for radio, the footage wasn't broadcast on Channel 4 News this evening! But I really enjoyed talking with both Matthew and Patrick, as ever. Again, my thanks to Susie for really making my morning!

Cheers,

- Pete