www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Much as I love to blame Homo rapiens for things, David, I don't think it makes sense here. Anyone who knew what they were doing would have taken the pupa attached to the leaf, not just broken it off, and Hostilian was just too far off the path and well concealed for casual vandalism - especially as nothing else was damaged. I think he became someone's meal - and as Mike says, probably a jolly good meal. I think it unlikely he was broken off by wind, even given the possibility he was blown into other stems, Chris. As Lee says, perhaps he just wasn't well camouflaged enough. It's a shame, but there you are. Of a total of 5 wild purple emperor pupae I have found to date, three have perished and a fourth (Trajan) would have done if I hadn't rescued him. The fifth is Novus. I hope, appropriately, Sextus will be the sixth.

I took the parents for a gentle hill walk today. Obviously, I concentrated on looking after them but I was happy to see some butterflies too, including half a dozen clouded Apollos, my first olive skipper of the year, little blues, idas blues, marsh fritillaries, mountain green-veined whites and in the train on the way up my first bright-eyed ringlet of the year.



My father did a painting from a picnic table near our lunch spot:



For anyone who's interested, I've started adding my father's sketches and drawings to his website, here: http://www.guypadfield.com/ppadfield/sketchbook.html


(clouded Apollo, caught in a moment when the sun went in - otherwise this is an incredibly mobile species)


(olive skipper)


(idas blue, with a little blue)


(little blues with an idas blue)


(Minnie meeting some friends)

Guy

Such stunning scenery, Guy. No wonder your parents are so keen to visit.

What a lovely scene to sit and paint!

Lee

When summer comes there are few lovelier places to be than the Alps, Lee.

My mother's knee was playing up today so my father, Minnie and I went up the mountain leaving her at home to do the crossword.

This is the local high point, at a little over 2100m (Minnie on the lead, as some bouquetin were just the other side of the ridge as we arrived):



Several swallowtails were hilltopping and if some of the other walkers had been just a little more considerate I could have had some outstanding photos. We couldn't believe it - they got up and walked straight in front of me when it was quite obvious what I was trying to do. It is not easy to show swallowtails hilltopping in such a way as to bring out the full sense of being on the top of a mountain.

This sort of gives the idea:



The view over the Lac de Bretaye:



Back down the hill:



Minnie had a lot of firsts today. One was seeing a man run down a hill and fly into the air:





She just gawped - I wish I'd taken a photo!

Another was télécabine travel:





Again, I was focused on my father so didn't take many photos of butterflies, but there were a few new species for the year, including dewy ringlet, alpine argus and alpine grayling - a species I've not previously seen on my local patch:



That was species 101 for the year, on midsummer's day. One of the beauties of living in the Alps is that the second half of the year brings with it a whole host of upland species, so when I get to this point it is as if a brand new season is about to begin.

Guy

Up the local mountain with my parents again today, this time for a picnic by the Lac des Chavonnes:







As usual, I had other responsibilities than photographing butterflies but I did note that bright-eyed ringlets are now drifting around quite commonly and like a couple of days ago clouded Apollos were flying in good numbers today. That is good news because I thought last year was tough on them - the snow didn't melt before they should have been flying and I don't think I saw any on my local patch. At these altitudes orange tips and green hairstreaks are still common and it is always lovely to see them flying with the summer upland species. Alpine heaths are now quite common:



In my region this is pure gardetta, untainted by any arcania/darwinia genes!

Walking back home, as the rain began to fall, I decided to check a local lesser marbled fritillary colony. Males are now on the wing - I didn't see any females:



A lone high brown fritillary was lurking in the grass too, unsure whether to fly or go to roost:



Going to roost would have been more sensible as a heavy hail storm was just about to break ...

Guy

Wow, what stunning scenery and butterflies.
It's such a shame I can't get my teenaged kids to be interested in that sort of a holiday!

It is stunning, Nick. If walking and admiring the scenery doesn't turn your kids on, there's always white-water rafting, abseiling and paragliding. Oh, and bungy jumping. Everyone should bungy jump at least once in their life. Stepping off a bridge and dropping like a stone is so counter-intuitive it is really quite a profound experience.

Today was the last of my parents' holiday so we did the longest and hardest route. They're both in their eighties and I felt very proud of them, but ensuring their safety and managing Minnie, who is now on heat, left little time for butterflying!




(humans look tiny in this environment)



Despite that, and the iffy weather, I did get the opportunity to nip off and secure my first alcon blues (form rebeli) of the year:


(female ovipositing)


(the same female)

Eros blues were also on the wing:



In the morning I checked on Novus and Sextus. This is Sextus:



He looks ready to be thinking about pupating.

Like Hostilian, he has nowhere to go. Either he pupates on this tiny sallow sapling or he moves onto a nearby tree of some other species:



Novus has avoided being eaten so far. This was him yesterday morning:



Guy

I hope Novus survives, Guy, if only to see whether the 'wonky horn' develops into a wonky antenna.

I hope he survives too, David!

I've been very busy recently, not least with my parents, and haven't been able to keep up with my reports, here or on my own site. Sextus ate his leaf and moved on two days ago - where, I don't know. I will search more thoroughly in a few days' time because it is easier to find a pupa than a pupating caterpillar. He is certainly not on his tiny sallow bush and there are literally thousands of sycamore, beech and ash leaves to search! Novus is still doing fine.

For the first time in weeks I was able to check my white-letter hairstreak pupa today. He seems to be intact and is presumed alive. If so, he should emerge this coming week if the weather improves - it poured all day today. Interestingly, the leaf he devoured before pupating on its vestige died and fell off - no doubt the tree cut off supplies to it, once the leaf stopped sending newly photosynthesised sugars. But because Wally had secured it with silk it remains attached:


(the green leaf behind is accidental - I had to manipulate the branch carefuly without touching the dead stem or leaf to get this photo and it happened to bring it in front of a living leaf)





I searched in vain for white admiral pupae. Two days ago I saw the first local adult flying. Great banded grayling and Arran brown are also now on the wing locally, though they might regret this in view of the current weather.

Guy

When the rain cleared this afternoon I took Minnie for a local walk. Within minutes butterflies were on the wing. A recent emergee is great banded grayling, which is now bobbing along commonly beside the village paths:



In the forest I continued looking for white admiral pupae without any success. There are certainly none on any of the individual honeysuckle plants where I watched the caterpillars growing up. Nevertheless, there are now plenty of adults flying around (nothing like my recent Geneva experience, though!):



Arran browns are now common too. I saw my first just a few days ago and now they seem to be everywhere in the woods:



Woodland browns are out in good numbers too. I am very fortunate to have such a thriving local population of this rather scarce butterfly.





High brown fritillaries are also cruising around the forest quite commonly. I only photographed one - which struck me as particularly large and intensely coloured:



Very soon the emperors should be on the wing ... Novus must be just days from emergence now.

There were heavy storms last night and though they didn't dislodge Wally Walbum's leaf (which is hanging on only by a silk thread) they did throw him on top of a neighbouring leaf so when I got there he was lying in full sun. I rearranged things so he was beneath the leaf and only hope he wasn't too completely cooked. I might retrieve him tomorrow - after all, if I hadn't rescued him from the stream when he was a caterpillar he wouldn't be alive at all, so I've already interferred. I've seen white-letter hairstreak in my garden and there are countless colonies in the region so he shouldn't have any problem finding mates if he emerges on the shady side of my balcony.

Guy

Wally Walbum is now on my balcony, where he will receive plenty of morning light but no direct sun.



I have no idea if he is still alive but he is intact, at least - not perforated with forest bug holes.

I noticed a week ago that Novus had black spots on him. Here he is today, viewed from both sides:





I haven't seen similar spots on iris pupae before and hope they are not sinister ...

He pupated on the night/morning of 18th-19th June so if he is still alive he should be coming to term very soon (Thursday will be two weeks). I was intending to go to Italy on Thursday for Hungarian gliders, so I hope he doesn't decide to pop out on that day ...

Guy

L'empire des lumières:



A 15-second exposure looking down to the lights of the valley, with one lone, hopeful light up here in the mountains... For those who don't know glowworms, the female holds her lantern up to attract males. The species has suffered much from light pollution.

Guy

Great image Guy. The shots in these diaries are definitely becoming more artistic, more imaginative and more innovative. It is many years since I have seen a glow worm.

Thanks Pauline. I love glowworms. There is something really touching about their patient vigils, night after night - and when eventually I see their light has gone out I always wonder if they found love or died waiting.

Tonight the weather was quite different and again I couldn't resist a photo - but this time of a celestial creature. Scorpius was high in the south, with Antares glowing, and Mars was in the west, in Virgo. 'Antares' (the brigtest star in Scorpius) means, 'rival of Mars', so I tried to get a picture with both of them in it. Saturn, in Libra, is in the middle of the picture, above the Dents du Midi:

L'empire des lumières II





Guy

Great images, Guy.

Even from your photographs, it is clear that your part of the world suffers far less from light pollution than ours.

I think we're lucky that way, David.

Minnie had her first trip to Italy today - and yes, her passport was checked (as was mine) on the train during the return journey! This is about making sure her rabies vaccinations are up to date, rather than immigration, of course.

Our targets were large chequered skipper, Hungarian glider and the summer brood of nettle tree butterfly. I had prospected for large chequered skippers earlier in the year and thought I had found a good spot. Today proved me right - plenty of these delightful creatures were bobbing around like cheerful puppets on invisible strings. They were very restless - rarely settling and constantly going after other butterflies. But rather than chasing them they were sort of bouncing them - the Tiggers of the butterfly world. It was a real pleasure to spend time with them.


(male, with meadow brown behind)


(female)


(male)

Unfortunately, that site involved quite a hill climb, with Minni on my back, and to get to the glider site I had to go back down to the valley and then climb up again, this time rather higher. She is only 6kg, but with 2 litres of liquid and sundry extras in my frontpack I got a very serious workout and arrived exhausted. Minnie arrived raring to go!

Gliders were thin on the ground but I found a spot where two or three were constantly present - and constantly flying. I didn't see any of them touch leaf or ground in an hour of standing and watching. It didn't really matter - I've photographed them before. The great thing is just that they were there.

Elsewhere on the site MInnie came across her first purple emperor:



He was a magnificent, freshly emerged specimen.





At the glider site I saw a couple of nettle tree butterflies. Both were taking minerals on the same road as the emperor. I stopped off at another site on the way back down, though, and saw much more significant activity. Many books say nettle tree butterfly is single-brooded but my Swiss reference says it has a short-lived summer brood that gives rise to the hibernating generation. Today I watched a female busily occupied with ovipositing on a large, full-leaved nettle tree. That rather supports the double-brooded theory!



Otherwise, second brood chequered blues were on the wing, dryads were common (they are a late July butterfly around Huémoz) and scarce, sooty and purple-shot coppers were all flying. I thought I saw a woodland grayling, but couldn't be sure - then found a dead one on the road. So I'm counting my first sighting! When I've cleaned up and recovered a bit from today's exertions I'll measure it up and post scans of ups and uns for reference.

A few Minnie piccies from the day:






(knapweed fritillary)

Guy

Padfield wrote:
Today proved me right - plenty of these delightful creatures were bobbing around like cheerful puppets on invisible strings. They were very restless - rarely settling and constantly going after other butterflies. But rather than chasing them they were sort of bouncing them - the Tiggers of the butterfly world. It was a real pleasure to spend time with them.

I know exactly what you mean about the Large Chequered Skippers - they are wonderful to watch, if anything deserves the name Skipper (or perhaps bouncer), it is them - I spent a happy day watching them after stumbling across a small colony in the Loire - your photos certainly do justice to them, I love the first.

William wrote:I spent a happy day watching them after stumbling across a small colony in the Loire...

That's the best way to enjoy butterflies - when you just stumble across a colony, like an unexpected gift.

For the record, I've measured and scanned the fagi I found today. The body was mangled on the road but from the size and markings I think this is a female. With a wing length of nearly 40mm it is certainly fagi!

Ups:


Uns:


Measurements:




Guy

Excellent information, Guy. I shall certainly use it if I think I see this species next week whilst I'm in the French Alps.

As for yourr Large Chequered Skipper images, all I can say is that this butterfly has one of the most striking undersides of any. It is truly beautiful.

Somewhere I think I might still have a male fagi I found on the road in Spain, David. I should look it out and measure that up too - unless I eventually threw it out.

I can still find no trace of Sextus, though equally I have no reason to suppose any harm has come to him. He ate his leaf and went wandering, as they do. I might have to go looking without Minnie, as it's not very nice for her, sitting among brambles and saplings while I examine leaves.

I fear Novus might not be alive. He looks OK, apart from the black spots, but I bent his tree over to test his touch reaction and he didn't move when brushed with a leaf. While I was there, I got some better photos than I can normally get:





I had wondered if the spots were puncture wounds from forest bugs, but the variation in size suggests they are not. Some are tiny marks - and all forest bugs presumably have very similarly sized proboscides. If anyone knows what they are I'd be very interested to find out.

I looked for white-letter hairstreaks in the woods and in the end saw just one, dancing around at the top of a tall ash tree. So the fact Wally has not emerged yet is not significant - he may well be alive, if not actually kicking either. As I remarked before, his pupal case seems to be perfectly intact:



He pupated almost exactly a month ago and this stage is supposed to last 3 to 4 weeks. So if he is alive he should jolly well be thinking about cracking open that shell!

Guy