June 2015

[Cotswold Cockney]

Some of you may recall my finding an Elephant Hawk Larva on some Hairy Willow Herb in my garden last summer. It was near fully grown and soon after, I found it wandering on my patio no doubt looking for somewhere suitable to safely pupate and spend the winter. I put it in a container where it could pupate safely and kept it in my garage over winter checking it occasionally. Each check showed it would wriggle which is always a reassuring sign. A few days ago the pupa lost the pale areas between the abdominal segments and generally became darker all over. A sure sign that emergence is near. I brought it indoors two days ago and this morning, there was a freshly emerged moth with already fully expanded wings.

Ten O'Clock this evening took the moth outside as it was getting dark and coaxed it out of its container onto the brick wall of my garage. As I did so, it started exercising its wings vigorously. A sign that take off was imminent. Checking the wall half an hour later it was gone. Nice to know this beautiful moth is about in our suburban gardens. A near neighbour who is a keen Fuchsia grower found a fully grown larva on one of his prize plants a few years ago. Knowing my interests in such things the larva was brought to me and that too successfully spent the winter in my garage and produced a fine moth the following summer.

This image shows the beautiful moth tonight just before its release. One of my favourites. Glad it is so common :~

[Jack Harrison]

Better success than a friend had. Apparently he had bred some scarce moth (can’t recall the species) and put the newly emerged adult on the window sill at dusk. It did all the usual warming up exercises and eventually flew off into the twilight – only to be taken by a bat!

Jack

[Philzoid]

I was moth trapping last night Jack and observed a moth quite high up spiralling in the tractor beam of the trap light. Suddenly a bat appeared but the moth evaded capture by dropping like a stone.

[Greenie]

At Lullingstone Country Park in Kent today , recorded species included 2 Sm. Skipper , 3 Marbled White , 6 Dark Green Fritillary and 2 Painted Lady ,
one of which was ovipositing on Greater Knapweed .

[Cotswold Cockney]

At Lullingstone Country Park in Kent today , recorded species included 2 Sm. Skipper , 3 Marbled White , 6 Dark Green Fritillary and 2 Painted Lady ,
one of which was ovipositing on Greater Knapweed .

Excellent Foodplant Observation.

[bugboy]

Fantastic few hours spent at East Blean Woods chasing Heath Frits around today. I have around 200 photos to sift through but here's a taster. Full report in my PD in a day or two.

Only 1 Holly Blue and 1 Meadow Brown also seen but I didn't wander far from the main Frit flight area.

If anyone hasn't been yet but wants to go there's still lots of fresh emergents around so you probably still have a week or two left

[Testudo Man]

Painted Lady Explosion!!!.............................not quite but i did sight approx 6 of em

Dropped into my local Church on the way home from work yesterday (15/6/15) and as soon as i got out of my car, one flew past me!
It was wall to wall sunshine, no shade as such, and 3.30pm, so these Painted Ladies were extremely active!! and a little hard to approach.
Some showed signs of "wear an tear"/faded, but others looked quite fresh. Other species seen were - Meadow Brown, Female Common Blue, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell. I spent a good hour+ observing/chasing/photographing these beauties, in a "sea" full of chest height giant Daisies.

Location - Kent, cheers Paul.

Ist photo is uncropped, all shot with Panasonic FZ150, the last 3 photos i used a Raynox 150 macro lens attached, which meant getting within approx 6 inches of the butterflies!!

[David M]

Encouraging stuff, Paul. I too saw half a dozen in the outpost of south Wales last weekend so there is clearly some sort of serious migration happening.

[Neil Freeman]

Yep, saw more than 15 Painted Ladies down on The Lizard 2 weeks ago (was it that long ago already ), that is more in a few days than I saw in the whole of last year.

A trip down to Bernwood Forest and Meadows today produced 7 maybe 8 Black Hairstreaks, 2 in the meadows and 5 maybe 6 at the compensation area. Early days for these yet this year, not many reported from anywhere yet. I should think that this weekend and next week should see numbers rise.

Cheer,

Neil..

[IAC]

With pretty middling conditions up here in south eastern Scotland things can be still quite lively at times in any warmer spells. I have spent an insane amount of time chasing the Small Blues around the Berwickshire cliffs at Burnmouth and Eyemouth since mid May...and now they are almost being ignored for their more flamboyant cousins the Northern Brown Argus. With high cloud, overcast, and a stiff gusty southerly at 18oC the Common Blues, Northern Brown Argus and Small Blue were swarming, intermittently.


Iain.

[Cotswold Cockney]

Ideal mothing conditions with plenty flying in the garden. Final locking up check prior to retiring found this little beauty on my back door. I put it somewhere safe in the flowers where it is just another white flower.

[Willrow]

Belated sighting report from Alun Valley area, Near Bridgend for last Sunday. The area has (probably?) the last remaining colony of High Brown Fritillary in Wales and is of immense importance, I believe the species is due to emerge at any time now, however, last Sunday only it's near relative the Dark Green Fritillary was on the wing in the area (which includes the publically accessed Old Castle Down). At least a dozen DGF were seen during a prolonged visit.

More details are available on my Personal Diary for anyone interested

Recently emerged female Dark Green Fritillary

Closed-wing pose of the same female DGF

On Monday I headed west to St Govan's, Pembrokeshire to re-visit the area where myself and fellow UK Butterflies member DavidM had such an succesful time last June surveying the area for southern Wales only Silver-studded Blue - I'm pleased to report that the area I wanted to pay particular attention too produced encouraging results...and I shall include a more detailed report of my visit on my Personal Diary pages as soon as time allows...there just does'nt seem enough hours in a day at this time of year

Here are a few pics from my visit...

Superb Silver-studded Blue

Broadhaven Beach vista...

Female Silver-studded Blue side pose

Bill

"When in doubt - venture out"

[Mark Tutton]

Two Monarch sightings have just popped onto the Hants BC sightings page - sadly both from two or three weeks ago so I can't chase them - looking at the photos two different specimens and both looking pretty fresh so who knows!

27 May - Portchester Cemetery

4 June Portsmouth

http://www.hantsiow-butterflies.org.uk/news.php

[millerd]

I'd be sceptical of these being migrants - it's the wrong time of year for them, and there have been no big weather systems to bring them across the Atlantic. I suppose they could conceivably be from southern Spain or the Canaries/Madeira, where they can be found year-round. More likely to be escapes or releases.

Dave

[bugboy]

Portsmouth Natural History Museum have a walkthrough butterfly house during the summer months......

[EricY]

Frenzy - to illustrate the numbers flying around

Frenzy - to illustrate the numbers flying around

Frenzy - to illustrate the numbers flying around

Had to cut my planned 4 day Kent visit to just 2 days. Left Norfolk @ 3.30am Tuesday & was into Kent before 6am so did not have to pay Dart crossing! Made 2 afternoon visits to East Blean woods for the Heath frit, loads in a coppiced chestnut clearing about 200 yards from car park, not many in car park clearing that looked to be a more recent coppiced than the one with approx. 3 year old coppice. Failed to find the rare Black veined moth in spite of several visits to recorded woods. Did find some very nice rare Orchids though. Eric

[EricY]

Sorry must have held my finger on the trigger with that 1st shot!

[Ian Pratt]

Recently my wife and I have been in Kent partly on business and partly for pleasure. We have visited several lovely NT gardens which are full of flowers but bereft of butterflies. It made me realise that although there may be many reasons for having an interest in butterflies, in my opinion there is one major reason. It is to warn the powers that be that we are in danger of losing our native flora and fauna through habitat destruction, over use of pesticides, pollution and climate change etc. Long may ukbutterflies and similar sites highlight these concerns.

[Jack Harrison]

Eric:

Left Norfolk @ 3.30am Tuesday & was into Kent before 6am so did not have to pay Dart crossing!

Didn't know you had Scottish blood

The entomological proof of that meanness:

A Scotsman, an Englishman and an Australian were in a bar and had just started on a new round of drinks when a fly landed in each glass of beer. The Englishman took his out on the blade of his Swiss Army knife. The Australian blew his away in a cloud of froth. The Scotsman lifted his one up carefully by the wings and held it above his glass. "Go on, spit it oot, ye wee devil" he growled.

Jack

[NickC]

I've been busy replanting with insect-friendly plants recently, including quite a few buddlejas. I was rather surprised this evening to find this striking larva on one of the latter:

A little research online reveals it's the larva of the mullein moth. The information I found online says it usually chomps a plant called mullein, but it can often be found munching buddleja in gardens.