Padfield

[David M]

Please stop posting Violet Coppers images, Guy.

This species is now firmly no.1 on my 'hit-list'!

[Padfield]

Please stop posting Violet Coppers images, Guy.

Well, I might try and go up at least once more to get some better pictures ... Sorry!

I got up late this morning, having stupidly stayed up late to watch that silly song contest. As I needed to be back early too, I couldn't go far, so decided to nip along the valley for iolas blues, with the chance of some cardinals thrown in. As it happened, there were loads of cardinals and I spent what little time I had photographing them. It was quite incredible. Here are a few shots:


(male)


(male)


(male)


(male)


(male)


(female)


(female)


(female)

This male had a small wing deformity that will make him instantly recognisable if I see him again later in the year:


(note the lip on the leading edge of the left forewing and the slight deformity lower down on the same wing)



This female had more extensive wing damage but like the male above she was seemingly perfectly happy, cruising around, nectaring and generally having fun:





Males and females ignored each other completely - unlike the case later in the year, when males get highly territorial and sexually aggressive! This lousy picture shows a male (on the left) and a female (on the right) apparently oblivious of one another:



With all that excitement I completely forgot about iolas - and I knew it was far too hot for any good pictures of this species. But just before I left I checked the bladder senna and spotted a single male zooming manically all over the place, looking for females. He stopped briefly at one point and I got a record shot, on full zoom:



Other interest was provide by a female painted lady I watched laying on thistle for some time:





I co-authored a paper on the cardinal in Switzerland, which was published in Entomo Helvetica in 2014. When the 2015 edition comes out the 2014 edition will be available free online and I will post a link to it.

Guy

[Padfield]

Today's happy discovery was a new 5th instar emperor cat, Kālī, high in the same tree where Nakula lives. What made it particularly gratifying was that neither the leaf cluster she was on nor any others on the same branch showed any signs of caterpillar activity, meaning she had recently moved there from some distance away. This confirms the idea that in summer the higher instars do go wandering and reassures me that some of those I have lost - for example, Agni and Sarasvatī - might still be alive and well, higher up their respective trees.

Here is Kālī:





These pictures were taken hand-held on full zoom (x42) on a cloudy day, then cropped. I was very pleased with how well they came out after processing.

A little distance away, also high up the tree, Nakula is now in 5th instar:



I did try to catch a glimpse of Agni and Sarasvatī but it is very difficult to get a suitable angle on the higher leaves of their trees. If either of them pupates it might be easier to find them, as the pupa hangs below the leaf.

Eleswhere, Māyā and Yudhiṣṭhira were both in their usual spots. Māyā is a rapidly growing 4th instar and Yudhiṣṭhira is still 3rd, but laid up for his next moult.

Finally, a white admiral cat:



Guy

[Goldie M]

I love the Butterfly shots Guy, It really is a lovely Butterfly especially the Female Hope your caterpillars are still alive Goldie

[Padfield]

Thanks Goldie. The cardinal is an amazing butterfly, you are right.

This picture of Kālī, my latest, says it all for today ...



I doubt any generation of purple emperors has seen as much rain as this lot, born into the monsoons of last July and August and completing their development in these interminable April and May showers.

Guy

[trevor]

HI Guy,
I guess the Cardinal, of which i know nothing about, is a close relative of the Silver Washed Fritillary.
There are so many similarities , even down to the sex bands on the fore wings of the male.

Beautiful images.
TREVOR.

[Padfield]

Hi Trevor. The cardinal is indeed closely related to the silver-washed fritillary, though it is noticeably bigger and much, much more powerful in flight. Once you have seen one there is no possibility of confusion even from 50m away.

From close up, note that the male has just two sex brands, not three as in silver-washed. The species is extending its range and it is not impossible another will be seen in the UK before long. It is resident in N.W. France (Loire Atlantique & Vendée).

Guy

[Jack Harrison]

The [Cardinal] species is extending its range and it is not impossible another will be seen in the UK before long. It is resident in N.W. France (Loire Atlantique & Vendée).

Now I wonder if I could find a bookmaker who would give me odds of say 200/1 of that happening by end of 2019? Bookies take bets on almost anything so maybe there's an idea. One contributor to ukb - I will keep his name confidential in case he is coy about his former profession - could no doubt advise.

To digress slightly: when we maths students graduated in 1960, there was a lot of discussion about what careers we might follow. One chap, J.A. was going into his father's bookmaker's business. We rather felt that wasn't quite the thing for a B.Sc. Now 55 years later, I can look back and see who the real fools were from that year - those who became teachers (no offence Guy!), computer programmers, bank managers - one even a Professor in Astrophysics. You can bet (deliberate choice of word) that J.A. made a lot more money during his working life than any of his contemporaries.

Jack

[Padfield]

The [Cardinal] species is extending its range and it is not impossible another will be seen in the UK before long. It is resident in N.W. France (Loire Atlantique & Vendée).

Now I wonder if I could find a bookmaker who would give me odds of say 200/1 of that happening by end of 2019?

I wonder if you could find a bookmaker who would pay out, given the virtual impossibility of proving an individual had arrived in the UK under its own steam ...

I'm a happy fool, Jack!

Guy

[trevor]

Guy, RE.Cardinal,

Send em' over !!.
TREVOR.

[Padfield]

Guy, RE.Cardinal,

Send em' over !!.
TREVOR.

There's a plan afoot to mark them, so as to be able to keep track of individuals over the summer. There's still a lot of uncertainty over such things as voltinism, longevity, possible aestivation &c. This means if you see one in England you'll know if it came from me - and Jack's bookmaker should pay out on a butterfly clearly marked 'GP03' on both hindwing undersides!

One of my emperor cats, Māyā, is on a tiny, spindly sapling - I call it a spindling - in the shade and I've long wondered whether she will make a bid for freedom, or indeed whether I should help her, as the spindling sprouts out of root stock and leaf litter and it would not be easy to navigate to another sallow (there are only two in the immediate vicinity). So it was little surprise to me to find her gone today. I spent a few minutes checking the two nearby sallows, without finding her, and supposed that was that, when suddenly I spotted her near the ground, on the stem of her spindling. I had been looking on leaves.





The pictures give you an idea of how small her spindling is - that is the main stem!

She obviously had been thinking of wandering. I left her there and continued on my walk, again wondering whether I should transfer her somewhere better, where she could zoom up to the high branches and enjoy the sun. But that would be an extreme measure and would certainly disorient her. Purple emperor cats keep track of their local patch and leave silk trails to help them navigate back to their seat leaves.

By the time I returned, at the end of my walk, she had climbed back up to the leaves and I left her there, happily munching away:



I've decided to leave her there at least until 5th instar (she's currently 4th instar).

This was an after-school walk but a few butterflies were still flying (we had sun today!). Here is a woodland duchess:



Guy

Guy

[Padfield]

While scanning the high leaves of a sallow at lunchtime today, looking for Agni (who bolted up the tree a week or so ago), I spotted the tell-tale dull shadow of an iris cat on a neighbouring sallow. You only see sharp shadows when the leaves are in the sun, and these leaves were in shade. I tried to get a better view but it was impossible. After a minute or so it moved and stuck its head over the edge of the leaf. Amazing! Something looking more like Hydra than an emperor cat pered down at me!



I moved so I could see it against leaf, not sky, as there is always considerable chromatic aberration in my camera at full zoom, taking something dark against a light sky.





This is a caterpillar in the act of shedding its skin. The face looking down at us is the old head. Behind it is the new head, with still soft, light-coloured horns. The white stuff is shed skin. This normally lies at the foot of the caterpillar - but I guess there must be some associated with the head that comes off at the top end!

Soon after that photo Gaṇeśa (as I named him) hid back behind his leaf.

High up in the original sallow I did indeed spot Agni, happily feeding up. He entered 5th instar 12 days ago so will soon be thinking about pupation. I have almost no chance of finding him when he does but I will try!



Minnie found a slow-worm:



She thought it was a snake and left it alone.

Guy

[David M]

Wonderful images again, Guy.

My sincere hope is that you will be able to locate at least one of these individuals during its pupal stage.

I don't think your life will be complete until you succeed in this.

[bugboy]

Wonderful images again, Guy.

My sincere hope is that you will be able to locate at least one of these individuals during its pupal stage.

I don't think your life will be complete until you succeed in this.

If anyone can, Guy can!

[Wurzel]

Just catching up Guy. Those Cardinals are lush and I'm hoping like hell that they do make it here, the sooner the better! I loved the cat shots but can't take them seriously as they remind me of a cartoon character waving at us from the other side of the leaf

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[kevling]

Guy,

As if your photos of Emperor cats couldn't get any better, along came page 105 of your diary. I know they have to pupate soon, but I'm going to miss them (especially the one playing peek-a-boo).

Regards Kev

[Padfield]

Thank you for your comments, David, Buggy, Wurzel and Kev! It's true, one does get quite attached to these little creatures. A butterfly's journey from cradle to grave is an amazing odyssey and it is a real privilege to be able to share it, in some cases for almost a year.

Of all the purple emperor stages the pupa is the hardest to find. Since I began following the species in 2010 I have found just five, of which four perished. During the feeding stage the larvae cannot really risk wandering off their sallows because they would need to find another sallow, but when they are ready to pupate this is not such an issue. Last year Hostilian left his sallow and pupated in a sycamore. Most, of course, will pupate in the same tree they have lived in all their lives but they may travel a significant distance and if the tree is large and leafy it is a neck-breaking task to locate them - not least because the pupa looks exactly like a leaf.

That said, there is hope! After his wanderings yesterday, Agni settled down on an uneaten sallow leaf in an uneaten leaf cluster, on the upperside of the leaf, nearer the stem than the tip. Today, 24 hours later, he was in exactly the same place and the surrounding leaves were still uneaten. Prima facie, this suggests he has chosen this leaf to pupate under. It is rare for a larva to bed in on the seat leaf so far from the tip.

Yesterday:



Today:



If this really is his chosen leaf he will crawl over the top tomorrow and lie head down beneath the leaf for a couple of days, before pupating. If not, he will probably zoom off somewhere else and I will have very little chance of finding him, given the density of the leaves and the fact he is quite high up the tree already.

Magic Māyā is still 4th instar. Gaṇeśa has consumed a huge amount of his leaf since yesterday, so his head must have come off in the end! I didn't have time to check out Nakula and Kālī. This Māyā:



On a different subject, we have begun marking the cardinals. I say, 'we', but as we only agreed the protocol earlier this week and I have a job in Villars I haven't been able to do any of the marking myself yet. But my colleagues have been to the valley and so far 8 of the cardinals sport identifying numbers. I might get a chance at the weekend to mark some more. We hope this will help us understand the voltinism and dispersal of these fantastic butterflies.

Guy

[David M]

On a different subject, we have begun marking the cardinals. I say, 'we', but as we only agreed the protocol earlier this week and I have a job in Villars I haven't been able to do any of the marking myself yet. But my colleagues have been to the valley and so far 8 of the cardinals sport identifying numbers.

This could be a fascinating learning curve. How far do you realistically think these individuals might wander?

[Jack Harrison]

David asks

How far do you realistically think these individuals might wander?

I I wonder if future technology will allow radar tracking with butterflies fitted with miniature transponders and tracked by drones?

Jack

[Padfield]

This could be a fascinating learning curve. How far do you realistically think these individuals might wander?

I think I'll wait and see before answering that, David. But last year I did photograph a cardinal near my house, in the mountains. It seems most probable it came from the same colony, near Martigny, as that is the only known colony in Switzerland.

Jack - radar played its part in resolving the painted lady mystery but not, I believe, with the aid of transponders and drones! There is an iPad app called 'Shark Tracker', though, which enables you to see where the great whites lurking near beaches are. Or at least, the tagged ones ... With the rise of wolves in Europe I think tagging them would be a good idea too, if only to resolve disputes with farmers.

Today was black hairstreak day. Yes, that time of year has come round again! I visited two sites in the Canton de Genève - though basically anywhere in that region where blackthorn grows seems to sport the butterflies. At my first site I saw mostly males and none stopped conveniently for a photo. At the second it was nearly all females and though they were almost equally frustrating I did eventually get a few shots:






(this one is a male)



At both sites, large coppers were flying. This butterfly has recently spread in western Switzerland and is now a regular feature of my black hairstreak hunts.






(male at first site)


(male at second site)


(female)

I wanted to spend more time with that female, especially as she seemed to be particularly interested in docks, but there were some horses in the paddock and they took a very great interest in Minnie. It is difficult to photograph butterflies amongst stampeding horses and a terrified dog. So we scarpered and said goodbye from the other side of the gate.



Other year ticks today were black-veined white, marbled fritillary, heath fritillary, brown argus, Reverdin's blue, meadow brown and pearly heath. There were no marbled whites or ringlets - surprising for the sites. It seems this is a late year in the Geneva region too.

Guy