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I have never heard of a May gap. Butterfly Conservation website refers to a June gap. I have been to France in May many times and this year was the worst ever for butterflies by miles. Insecticides seem to be the answer I was given.

On the local North Downs again this evening to watch the Adonis Blues ,good numbers about and I found 3 pairs , amongst the Adonis I found two new female AB;Krodeli ,one part of a pair ,the other was an interesting individual ,as it also showed a lot of Blue patches on one of the forewings . Also flying a few Common Blue ,Dingy Skippers ,Brown Argus and Small Heath and a single Wall .
Regards Allan.W.

I've been keeping a casual eye (when time allows) on a couple of Orange-tip cats at work. Interestingly this morning when I had a quick look I found they had both moved down onto the leaves where they were having their breakfast, despite there still being plenty of green seedpods to tuck into. All pictures are phone pics. Elsewhere I found several more dotted around the site including one near final instar and a couple of younger ones who seemed quite content sharing the same stalk!

an interesting individual

Stunner!

Spent an evening at my local, Essex's finest Heath Fritillary colony in Hockley Woods. Surprising how worn some of them are already, despite being less than a week old - reflective of their thorny habitat I suppose.
Surely the warm weekend will bring a lot more out!

Nice report, Tom. With temperatures set to be in the high twenties tomorrow, I'm sure the Heath Frit population will respond.

Love is in the air in the West Wight!

Ian Pratt wrote:I have never heard of a May gap. Butterfly Conservation website refers to a June gap. I have been to France in May many times and this year was the worst ever for butterflies by miles. Insecticides seem to be the answer I was given.

Ian, last spring in France was terrible for butterflies due to the Siberian High Pressure system that descended upon western Europe in March.

Numbers were well down due to this, and from my experience last week they haven't recovered this year to normal levels.

Of course, this is in a mountainous region where pesticides are less of an issue, but in an agricultural area I would guess things are as bad if not worse.

Friday 31st May, in an hour and a half on Fairwood Common, 75 Marsh Fritillaries were counted along with 39 Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries.

A handful of Small Heaths, Green Hairstreaks and Common Blues were also seen.