www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Somehow, despite the weather, Mrs Iris is still getting out and about. I don't think she will have done much today, as it is really cold, but I think this egg was laid yesterday:







It is expected to be warmer on Thursday and Friday. It will be interesting to see if more eggs are laid then. I'm not quite sure what it is about purple emperor early stages but I find them utterly compelling. My dream is to see an individual through from egg to adult in the wild, without interfering - so far my record is Aurelian, whom I followed from the egg until the day he/she went wandering to pupate.

Guy

Today's mission was my first lifer of the year - Polyommatus humedasae, or Piedmont anomalous blue, which only flies in the Aosta Valley of Italy, where it is known at only three locations (see http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/17941/0). For some reason, I've never popped over to look for it before. The forecast for Aosta was not good but the forecast for Switzerland was worse so I set off with a friend, Markus, from Munich, on a butterfly holiday here, hoping for the best. As it turned out, it was sunny most of the time we were in Italy but Switzerland remained under heavy cloud all day (and it's raining as I write ...).

We had an hour to kill in Aosta itself, waiting for a bus, so I casually suggested looking for geranium bronze. When I'm travelling around southern Europe by bus this is often a fruitful way of spending forced time in towns. Italians love their Pelargoniums and it didn't take long for Markus to find a couple of eggs on an ornamental flower bed in the centre of town while I was searching for adults nearby. Happily, we soon found an adult too - so now I know how to get marshalli on my year list even when I can't afford to travel!





I had expected today to be more of a reccie than a butterfly day but the weather was great - lots of sun, very warm, with cloudy spells - and the butterflies were brilliant. Best of all, of course, was humedasae. Males and females were flying in excellent numbers. I got good underside pictures of males and females and reasonable uppersides of females. Unfortunately, the males were less obliging with uppersides and I only got one very poor shot - despite being dark, this species only ever showed the upperside in full sun and most of the amenable males were found during cloudy spells. Here's a random selection of shots:












(ovipositing)






(The only male upperside I photographed. It moved its wings as I clicked ...)

A poor picture of some eggs:



A great life tick!

Both fagi and hermione were flying. Most were easy to identify. Here are a definite fagi and a definite hermione:


(fagi)


(hermione)

A few more piccies from a great day:


(female lycaon)


(lavatherae)


(reducta)


(icarus)

The day list wasn't huge but we weren't twitching and it was very satisfactory. Between us, this is what we saw (brackets indicate things I didn't see but Markus did):

Apollo, (scarce swallowtail), small white, green-veined white, wood white, (clouded yellow), Berger's clouded yellow, baton blue, blue-spot hairstreak, Chapman's blue, Escher's blue, Piedmont anomalous blue, geranium bronze, chalkhill blue, common blue, Adonis blue, damon blue, Meleager's blue, heath fritillary, silver-washed fritillary, knapweed fritillary, didyma, high brown fritillary (marbled fritillary), reducta, great sooty satyr, woodland grayling, large ringlet, speckled wood, wall, small heath, dusky meadow brown, meadow brown, marbled white, pearly heath, marbled skipper, rosy grizzled skipper, safflower skipper, large skipper, Essex skipper, Lulworth skipper.

Guy

Hi Guy,
I too made the trip to the Aosta Valley for the Piedmont Anomolous Blue around 4 years ago and found them very plentiful in the location. I was told there was Iolas Blue there as the foodplant was present, but they were not out at the same time as the PAB. Excellent photos Guy of a very attractive butterfly which from your photos show it not to be just a 'brown' blue but very beautiful. I know I was very excited when I saw my first one.

Regards
Mike

Hi Mike. Thanks for the comments. The pictures leave much to be desired but I can go back whenever I want (my Swiss tavel pass takes me as far as Aosta, so the marginal cost for the whole day is under €4 if I take the bus or free if I cycle). Next year I'll visit earlier, when the males are fresh.

Yes, we noticed bladder senna in the region, but as you say, it is far too late now for iolas. I'm also lucky to have that on tap in the Rhône Valley - a fantastic butterfly.

Guy

Great stuff Guy - I was very taken by the story of the Piedmont Anomalous Blue (we drove through Aosta on our holiday this year, not that I would have known where to look) and it's great to see some photos of it, incredible to think that there is a butterfly in Europe only known from 3 sites, but also a shame, is there any kind of conservation effort underway?

Not everyone gets the chance to spot a Piedmont anomalous blue - how fortunate you are Guy.
And thanks for the fagi and hermione comparison - those 2 photos make the differences a bit clearer.
Chris

Great images, Guy. So glad you got to see your target species.

Superb pictures Guy. Who needs a DSLR or a Lumix FZ200 for that matter when you can get shots like these? (Another thread on this topic at this very moment)

I'm coming in your direction tomorrow. Well a little bit in your direction. Carlisle

Just been chatting to a coach driver from Bern. (Car Rouge Premium). His knowledge of the geography of the British Isles puts most Brits to shame. He's the first person I have met on Mull who has heard of Co.Cavan Ireland (where we have that small second home). I have to say that it strikes me as odd to leave behind proper mountains in the Alps for our 3,000 feet "bump" here. But I suppose if that's what his customers want, well so be it.

Jack

Thank you all for the further comments. Interesting that you were passing through Aosta earlier this year, William. I've lived almost next door for about 20 years and never went there until yesterday!

Today I went for a last chance in 2014 for Hypodryas intermedia - the so-called Asian fritillary. I did see two or three individuals, in flight, but none paused for photos. Normally I go at the end of June and there was much less of everything there today, except for Erebia euryale (the large ringlet), which was out in force:


(blind male)


(partially sighted male)


(fully sighted female - form adyte)

Minnie proved quite an attractant:



She is showing the makings of a good lepidopterist:



Other species flying included mountain green-veined white, black-veined white, small white, little blue, cranberry blue, mazarine blue, sooty copper, scarce copper, Titania's fritillary, heath fritillary, false heath fritillary, Niobe fitillary, marbled ringlet, blind ringlet, lesser mountain ringlet, large wall, dingy skipper and chequered skipper.

In the evening MInnie and I popped out to check on the iris eggs. The first egg I found, four days ago, is ready to hatch. Then, it had a complete maroon band floating just above the base, indicating that it had been laid several days earlier:



Tonight, the band was floating at the top. It is, in fact, the head of the caterpillar within and I think means it will hatch tomorrow morning:



Unfortunately, it was late and I couldn't get decent pictures even with flash:



For the best picture ever taken of an iris egg/caterpillar at this stage, see Pete's amazing shot here:

gallery/images/upload/4cfdb67fdab73834b ... 4e29b6.jpg



Similarly, the last freshly laid, green egg that I found a couple of days ago ...



... had coloured up by this evening (again, apologies for the awful quality!):



Guy

I was glad to see last night's egg hadn't hatched by this morning, so I could get very slightly more natural pictures of it:



That photo is taken from the same angle as Pete's definitive photo (gallery/images/upload/4cfdb67fdab73834b ... 4e29b6.jpg) so I know I am right to interpret the tail as tapering to the left below the dark head. I wonder if they all spiral anticlockwise rising or if there are right- and left-handed eggs. Insect structure is, I thought, in every way laterally symmetrical.

Not far away, this slightly less accessible caterpillar/egg was preparing to face the world too:



Guy

I am waiting to see it hatch, Guy. We can't expect you to have a video monitoring set-up, although that would be great

Padfield wrote: I wonder if they all spiral anticlockwise rising or if there are right- and left-handed eggs.
Guy

Coriolis effect? I wonder what happens down-under.

I'm ready for the next instalment,
Chris

PS:
In fact, if I understand rightly, the Coriolis effect is a visual effect that only concerns relative movement.
However, supposing a living creature is conditioned, say, for arguments sake, to always "have its back to the sun", perhaps this could affect its development (direction of growth) in the egg. In this case, what about eggs upsidedown on the underside of leaves ? Food for thought.
Anyway, it is lunchtime now in Vitrolles, and my thoughts are indeed turning to food.
Bon apetit,
Chris

Interesting thoughts, Chris. The Coriolis effect is perfectly real and measurable, if you take as the coordinate basis for measurement a non-inertial (specifically, rotating) frame of reference - but as you say, it only applies to objects moving relative to that frame of reference. The diurnal passage of the sun seems much more likely. HOWEVER, I'm not even so sure about the spiralling thing now. Closer shots of the second egg actually look the same, but going the other way, and I wonder if it is symmetrical after all:



That looks like a little person spiralling clockwise up - but it is also possible to imagine that as a symmetrical pattern.

The egg I photographed this morning now looks very different. It is deep in shade and difficult to photograph unfortunately:



I think there's something going on in there!

And just to change the scale a bit, here's a high brown fritillary enjoying the buddleia in a less shady part of the same woods:



Guy

Just catching up after a week with no Internet - superb images and discussion on the iris ova!

Cheers,

- Pete

Thanks, Pete.

The little emperors stayed in their packaging today, which surprised me. But checking my notes for the last iris egg I saw hatch I find that although the larva emerged the day after I saw it was 'heads-up' I hadn't checked it for three days before that - so it might have spent four days heads-up. A third egg had gone heads-up today too - one that I know is not more than 6 days old. So given that in good conditions they hatch in 9-10 days, and these are bad conditions, I guess they must spend several days in this state.

In any case, the weather is awful. If they had emerged they'd probably have drowned by now. Here is one egg looking rather sorry for itself:



And this is the newest addition to the heads-up club:



The forecast is for continued cloud and rain, with occasional thunderstorms, until at least Tuesday. My heart bleeds for anyone on holiday in Switzerland at the moment. July temperatures were 0.8° below the July norm for 1980-2010, and it was the wettest and least sunny July on record. August has begun in exactly the same vein. Weather fans can read the full grim story here:

http://www.meteosuisse.admin.ch/web/fr/ ... 14prov.pdf

Earlier in the month I told David I didn't think the ten days of rain we'd had would seriously affect the butterflies. I might have to revise that now! It is difficult to imagine single-brooded July butterflies like purple emperors not suffering from over a month with barely a glimpse of the sun.

Guy

I've decided to stop naming my purple emperor caterpillars after mostly vile Roman emperors and give them a little more nobility. In recognition of the endless rounds of birth and death they represent, this next batch will honour gods and other beings from Hindu scripture, myth and epic. It also means I can use female names.

And so, here is Brahmā, firstborn of creation and progenitor of all beings, sprung from the Golden Egg at the manifestation of the present (and every) cosmos (more specifically, this morning):



He is eating the remains of his egg (something not attested in the Vedas), after which he will make his way to the tip of the leaf - his first, perilous journey in a perilous life.





None of the other eggs have hatched yet.

Guy

Fabulous photos of something I've yet to see (an iris larva eating its eggshell) - it's on my hit list

Cheers,

- Pete

There was better to come, Pete!

When it finally stopped raining this afternoon I took Minnie out to check on the eggs again and by an amazing stroke of luck that suggests the gods really are smiling on me, I passed the spot exactly as Brahmā's consort, the beautiful Sarasvatī (often anglicised as Saraswati) decided to pop her head up!





She then proceeded to crawl out in front of my very eyes ...









... before setting about her first meal:







It was a real privilege to be there.



Here is a short video of her (it needs to be viewed in HD - and the quality improves after a few seconds!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krbEXVoL1cI[/video]

Elsewhere, Brahmā was doing his ritual ablutions in a leaf-puddle:





Guy

Superb Guy - there is something quite magical about watching a caterpillar's first steps, I was privileged to see the same with a Large Skipper recently.

Yes, a brilliant sequence

Vince

Excellent photos Guy. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
Chris