www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Apologies for the presumption, Guy.

Hope you have a safe journey home (where I'm sure Minnie will go berserk when she sees you!)

Green/Purple Hairstreaks are pretty impressive garden 'ticks', but I note that even the BC First Sightings 2016 page is yet to record Holly Blue, so it's not surprising you haven't seen one (although Testudo Man has posted on the April Sightings thread that he saw one on 3rd April).

Green/Purple Hairstreaks are pretty impressive garden 'ticks'

My personal best was when I lived in northwest Norfolk 2011-12: Purple Hairstreak and White Admiral.

Jack

When I lived in Gryon I had 64 species on my garden list ... I doubt I will ever be so lucky again!

Patience is a virtue and hibernating caterpillars have it in spades. Gautama, the only purple emperor caterpillar I have followed through the winter, is now just days from his first 2016 meal, but he is not getting ahead of himself. Compare these two pictures, the first taken on 12th February, the second today. I think he has moved forward a little under a millimetre. You can almost hear him salivating.





I had taken those big, purple buds to be flower buds and thought he had made a mistake, but the mistake was mine. They are clearly leaf buds.

The honeysuckle was in leaf all over the forest today, but not in any of the places I knew there to be hibernating white admiral caterpillars.



This little chap has probably a couple of weeks to wait:



This one might get his meal sooner:



But he seems quite happy where he is:



Life becomes more dangerous when they leave their little sleeping bags.

I returned to cloud and rain, which is also forecast for the next few days. So no new butterflies on the wing yet. And yes, Minnie was over the moon to see me again!

Guy

Another camilla cat waiting on another, equally bare bush. From a casual glance, you'd never guess there was anything here apart from a couple of dead, hanging leaves:



But look a little closer and you can just make out the caterpillar, blending perfectly into the bristly surface of the leaf:



At this time of year, most caterpillars seem to be poised half in and half out, perhaps testing the air, feeling for spring and the scent of new growth ... Seeing them like this makes the sight of them gliding along forest rides in the summer all the more wonderful.

Guy

Interesting that your higher altitude WA cats are all still sleeping and waiting for the buds to burst. The ones I was following have all gone off to eat and the honeysuckle has been in leaf for months (admittedly our topsy turvy winter meant that its been in leaf since December!) I'm still hoping I can relocate one before they grow their wings in July

bugboy wrote:I'm still hoping I can relocate one before they grow their wings in July

You will - and once you've found one you'll find them all over the place. What is much harder, here at least, is finding the pupae. I've yet to succeed, even when I've followed them right up to the last day before pupation. I fear I will have to do a Pete Eeles and camp out for several hours watching for one to make his move ... I just don't know where they go. They get big and fat and ready to pop, then just disappear into thin air.

Guy

bugboy wrote:Interesting that your higher altitude WA cats are all still sleeping and waiting for the buds to burst. The ones I was following have all gone off to eat

Are you sure they haven't been predated? Of the 6 I have remaining, 2 have gone AWOL (assumed predation) and 4 are still in their hibernacula.

Cheers,

- Pete

Padfield wrote:They get big and fat and ready to pop, then just disappear into thin air.

Predated I assume? With all of the wriggling that a newly-formed pupa often performs, in order to cast its final larval skin, I'm surprised any survive at all to be honest! They're hardly inconspicous when doing this!

Did you ever find the remains (e.g. a cremaster)? I think you said not ... just the silk pad?

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote:

bugboy wrote:Interesting that your higher altitude WA cats are all still sleeping and waiting for the buds to burst. The ones I was following have all gone off to eat

Are you sure they haven't been predated? Of the 6 I have remaining, 2 have gone AWOL (assumed predation) and 4 are still in their hibernacula.

Cheers,

- Pete

No I can't be sure, I was only able to check on them a handful of times through the winter. In the end I had only two make it as far as hibernation out of the 9 (I think) I found which is probably about average. 3rd of feb they were still hibernating and 6 weeks later they weren't, one hibernaculum was also missing but the other was still in place, minus cat. It was still in place on tuesday this week infact but still no sign of any caterillar. There is a fair bit of leaf nibbling but I've been unable to locate any culprits as yet. Looking back last year it was the 16th April I found a WA cat out and about feeding with it's feeding damage looking very similar to what I've seen this year

In answer to Pete's question, no I found nothing when the fat cats disappeared. CC confirmed they do wander great distances at pupation time, and onto other trees and bushes, so I presumed this is what happened. I certainly can't rule out predation, especially as I suppose in total I've seen only half a dozen through to this stage - but my percentages with purple emperor pupae are much higher and they're supposed to be particularly difficult to find. Maybe 2016 will be the year ...

In general response to Buggy, the white admirals use a different species of honeysuckle out here, which might explain differences in behaviour and phenology. I only started looking for the caterpillars a couple of years ago and discovered they were incredibly easy to find once you got your eye in. But that might not be true in the UK.

Still cold here! I popped over to the Papiliorama yesterday to make up for the lack of butterflies here - only to find half of Switzerland had had the same end-of-holiday idea. It was more alive with children than butterflies. The more interesting species were also a bit thin on the ground but I did get a few photos.


(Caligo atreus showing off its upperside)




(a Caligo cat)




(study in green - Graphium Agamemnon)

No one apart from me seemed to notice the delicate, transparent Greta oto lurking in the shadows:





Nor the leaf-eating bird droppings that were actually the larvae of Papilio thoas:





And here's a huge fish - I have no idea what species - coming to the surface to take a great gulp of air!



Guy

I had a couple of hours in the Rhône Valley on Sunday, though for most of it my camera lens was stuck ('lens error'). I initially thought it must be something to do with the fact I accidentally left the camera outside all night during a thunderstorm when I was in England (it was playing up in the Papiliorama too) but now suspect it was a dog hair jamming it! When I eventually blew hard and systematically into the barrel, all around, it cleared and has worked properly since. Minnie is moulting and my clothes are usually covered in hairs at the moment. For that reason I have very few pictures to show for a walk that took my year list up to a more respectable 29 species.

Most notable, I think, were the painted ladies. Normally, these arrive in mid to late May. They are here already. I saw at least half a dozen, some fresh, some looking very weary. I got this shot shortly before I had to head home:



Perhaps this bodes well for the UK - the timing is similar to 2009.

Grizzled skippers (malvoides) are now on the wing:



And I have finally got my holly blues!



Just a few more pictures, of wood white, brimstone and a swallowtail that has already had adventures:







Oh, and the Minnie Monster:



If we get some decent weather next weekend I should be able to spend more time - and with a fully functional camera - with the butterflies.

Guy

Padfield wrote:For that reason I have very few pictures to show for a walk that took my year list up to a more respectable 29 species.

I really need to emigrate!

Don't, David. Britain needs people like you ...

I nipped down to the valley this afternoon for a very quick walk and clocked up another three species - common blue, chequered blue and mallow skipper. It was the heat of the afternoon, and really very warm, so little was stopping and my photos were only record shots. But things are beginning to move now. Again, painted ladies were prominent. I saw them in double figures at least, which is really not normal for mid-April. Interestingly, clouded yellows were also common, including one helice female. I Wonder if they are survivors of the mild winter or co-migrants with the painted ladies.

Guy

Hope you are right Guy,and they will come to GB-though they won't find the weather much to their liking at the moment!

I'll keep you posted. With other migrant species, what happens here doesn't seem much of a guide to what happens in the UK, but the 2009 lady invasion reached us and then you in quick succession.

Are those teeth marks I see in Gautama's leaves? Has he got a little impatient?



He's certainly edged forward again ...

Guy

That sounds like a cracking spring haul Guy - I hope the Cloudies do make it here

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Padfield wrote:With other migrant species, what happens here doesn't seem much of a guide to what happens in the UK, but the 2009 lady invasion reached us and then you in quick succession.

Would be nice if it happened again, Guy, but we're due northerly winds from Friday onwards so I suspect the march of these butterflies will be slowed somewhat.

Hope they do come here Guy, although last year I did see PL's in my garden some thing I'd not seen since 2009,
we could do with more Clouded Yellows in the North as well I've only ever seen them in the South. Goldie

For the clouded yellows, Wurzel, I don't think there's much correlation between what happens in CH and what reaches the UK. I have noticed a correlation with the painted ladies though - especially in 2009, obviously. We will see! If David's right about the wind direction they might still have a bit of work to do before they get to you, though. I do hope some of these migrants reach you up north too, Goldie!

Rain these last two days, with snow at higher altitudes, but the sun broke through this afternoon and I saw my first orange tips up here in the mountains (they have been common in the valley for a while) on my early afternoon walk.

Gautama is still waiting, as are all the white admiral cats whose locations I can remember. Here's one - the easiest to see:



Here's Minnie taking a great interest in a plucking post in the woods - probably sparrowhawk but maybe goshawk:



She also took a great interest in this smooth snake:





It was basking on the track, so I moved it on. It could easily have got trodden on. Minnie is usually wary with snakes, so I was surprised she was so keen to sniff it. The commonest up here are the huge Aesculapian snakes - up to a metre and a half long - but she's come across vipers in the valley too. Normally she gives them all a wide berth.

Guy

Gautama's patience is trying mine!



I didn't deliberately cut off the tip of that leaf bud - it just shows how much this has grown. I held the camera in the same position as always and it didn't quite fit in.

This is a natural colour - i.e., without flash - picture of him:



At every stage of its life-cycle the purple emperor is brilliantly camouflaged.

After a rainy morning it suddenly became bright during my afternoon walk - as the pictures of Gautama show. Pecocks, commas, small and green-veined whites, brimstones and orange tips were all on the wing in the woods, as was a single red admiral. At one spot I found at least half a dozen male violet fritillaries buzzing around. This isn't the way you would normally describe their flight but it is how it seemed today - and because they were very small I initially wondered if I had come across some early Dukes. They were freshely emerged and hyperactive but I was able to get a couple of record shots:





Although violet fritillaries are generally common in the region this is the first time I have seen them in these particular woods - not far from my iris hunting grounds.

Guy