www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Thanks for your enthusiasm, Pete!

The two eggs laid yesterday (assuming they are the same age) are both on my 'short' dog walk, so I can check on them regularly, and reasonably in the open, so it is easy to move the leaves into the light for photos. What I'll try and do is take pictures from all round to see if the asymmetry in the band matches the asymmetry in the head capsule - which always has a ventral, 'mouth' side and a dorsal side. Maybe I'll even catch some intermediary phase between the head capsule and the band - it is a very quick process. In my chart, it is clearly a band on day 11 and clearly a head capsule on day 12.

Brilliant - something to do, whatever the weather!!

Guy

Today was an alpine trip - to a site near Zermatt where I have found Warren's skippers, Pyrgus warrenensis. I found them again today, but as always with Pyrgus it was not straightforward. In principle, carlinae, cacaliae and serratulae also fly in the region and all of these have forms which are similar to warrenensis. I was above 2200m the whole time, so alveus was probably not a problem - but small alveus can be very similar to warrenensis.

Some carlinae were unmistakable, from the uppersides alone:



This one is less well marked but still clear-cut:



This is warrenensis:



And here is another:



This is a female warrenensis:



Here are some undersides:





This one looks a bit different but I think it is warrenensis all the same:



This one has the feel of cacaliae but the underside precludes that species:





The warrenensis slopes are difficult to negotiate and I concentrated mostly on Pyrgus skippers.



But there were other species to be seen too. Here is a small selection:


(female purple-shot copper)


(male scarce copper - this individual photographed at a lower altitude, after the clouds came, though they were flying higher up too)


(Grisons fritillary)


(yes - it's that time of year - the silver-spotted skippers are out)


(large blue)


(almond-eyed ringlet)

And lower down, again after the clouds had come, an Eros blue:



Minnie sat under a tree most of the time. I had to attach her on a long lead because there were marmots everywhere and she knew it!



The red thing is her water bowl. It wasn't possible to work the slopes and manage Minnie on a lead. But in the heat she is happy in the shade.

Finally, a view of the Matterhorn on the way up:



Guy

Poor Minnie! She's her own worst enemy, I suppose.

Still, I'm sure she enjoyed the trip in spite of being tethered whilst Mr. Padfield nailed Warren's Skipper for the thousandth time!!

The walk up was an hour and a half, David, and the walk down an hour (because we didn't have time to pause), so she got her chance to explore, albeit on the lead. And then, of course, she got over 30 km in the backpack, looking out at the passing scenery, on the cycle ride back down to Visp.

Passing a wych elm in my woods this morning I noticed white-letter hairstreak activity near the top.

It's not a tall tree - and certainly not a 'master tree', so I guessed they were females, laying eggs.



Here is one of them, looking down on me from a height:



Others were beneath leaves. You can tell this is a female by the long tails:



This one was lower down and I hoped I would witness her lay an egg but she didn't in the ten minutes or so I watched her:





The tree is inaccessible as far as observing eggs or caterpillars is concerned but it is good to know there are plenty of gravid females around and where they are laying.

Here is the purple emperor egg I found freshly laid, now on day 4:



The other, nearby egg looks similar:



The woods are full of female white admirals drifting around the shady parts laying eggs themselves. Here is one, photographed without flash or lighting, so very soft!



Finally, Cartman has stayed on his new leaf and started feeding:



He is far too deep in the shade to spend the whole of his life where he is now but I might be able to follow him into the winter, if he survives that long.

Guy

Padfield wrote:Yes, this season's emperor cats will all be named after South Park characters.

Are you quite sure - remember, you will have to tell us who killed Kenny

Excellent pictures of warrensis, Guy, glad you got them. I spent the day with Apollos and Silvery Argus - a wonderful part of the world (still no luck with Cynthia!)

BWs,

William

I thought of that, Mike. Yes, one of my cats (if I find enough) will have to be called Kenny, and if he dies I'll have to report, 'They killed Kenny! The b*******!' But maybe - just maybe - Kenny will survive to the end ...

Thanks William. I'm glad you had a good day in Zermatt - I hope we can share a trip another year.

This afternoon I headed off to the Rhône Valley to see if the cardinals were back on show yet. I arrived much later than intended and expected to see nothing but as it turned out a couple of females were still nectaring. These photos were taken at about 17h30:







The other female had evidently been chased by a bird as both hindwings had a large chunk missing:



This remains probably the rarest resident butterfly in Switzerland and we were at probably the only place in the country where it is possible to guarantee seeing one. We were completely alone the whole time - and in the four years since I found the site (the July-August site), I have never bumped into anyone except by arrangement. This is a big difference between Switzerland and the UK!

Guy

It's great that you have a reliable site for this iconic butterfly, Guy.

Cardinals continue to elude me, and I'd pay a decent fee to see them feasting on buddleia like you do.

It's so great to see the different Butterflies you post Guy especially when we don't get the chance to see such BF's over here and the scenery shot's are fantastic. Goldie

David M wrote:Cardinals continue to elude me, and I'd pay a decent fee to see them feasting on buddleia like you do.

My only fee is a pint of beer and a solemn vow of secrecy, David. But Easyjet, the Swiss railways and most hôtels/hostels are not so cheap ...

I'll be in the UK for a week shortly, Goldie, and then I will take just as much pleasure in the British species as I do in the butterflies out here! Who knows, maybe I'll get a clouded yellow or long-tailed blue while I'm there ...

Day 7 for my two remaining eggs:





They are both perceptibly yellower than they were - it is not just a trick of the light or camera. Things are going on in there ...

And don't forget, if Pete and I are right, that coloured band comprises the cells that will come together at the top to make the caterpillar's head capsule.

Cartman is eating and growing:





He is 6 days old.

Guy



(Today is Swiss National Day)

Padfield wrote:Things are going on in there ...

There are indeed, and I've watched such eggs through a lens and whatever is inside them occasionally moves, noticeably, like some alien about to wreak havoc on the world!

Definitely worth more study; great stuff - keep those awesome images coming

Cheers,

- Pete

Padfield wrote:...But Easyjet, the Swiss railways and most hôtels/hostels are not so cheap ...

Freudian typo?

You really ARE more Swiss these days!

Thanks Pete! Yes, plenty more images to come, I hope!

I'm afraid that was my computer, David! Windows 10 has a system-level autocorrect that on my computer refuses to turn off. I've tried many times - but it just comes back on again immediately. It's very annoying, capitalising all over the place and turning my English spellings into French ones (my language settings and keyboard are French, obviously). Even when I'm writing in French the capitalisation is annoying.

I didn't notice the hôtel but won't correct it now.

I forgot to post the two adult butterflies I photographed this morning - a white admiral (one of many still drifting around the woods) and a woodland Brown (also common still).





Guy

Blink and you miss it ...

Yesterday, both emperor eggs showed some kind of structure within, including distinct reddish bits:





By this evening, when I went down to the woods after an afternoon up the mountain, the vague structures had formed themselves into caterpillars:





Both those pictures were taken with flash, as the light was fading and they were in shade.



Guy

It's a few years since I last visited my hermit site in the Jura so I thought we'd pop along today, in the hope of finding a mating or courting pair.

We arrived on site by about 10h30 but it was half an hour before we saw even one hermit, and they remained very thin on the ground after that. All were males and all very fresh, suggesting perhaps that like everything else they are simply very late this year. I hope so. Anyway, I got a few photos, but not really the ones I wanted. A breeze made photographing them on swaying flower heads very difficult.











The habitat was shared with a family of red-backed shrikes ...





... and red kites were often to be seen in the distant skies, their tails showing they were currently moulting:



I didn't photograph many butterflies. The other species I had gone for was map, but all the nettles seemed to have been cleared, the bramble flower was over and no maps were in evidence.

Here is a silver-washed fritillary ...



... and here a common blue on Minnie's backpack, with Minnie watching on:



In general, very few butterflies were about. The most significant species were great banded grayling, turquoise blue, pale clouded yellow and silver-spotted skipper.

Guy

You may not have got very many images Guy but they are still great

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks Wurzel. Your enthusiasm is always appreciated!

Last night a great storm broke, with torrential rain and lightning. This morning, Cartman was nowhere to be seen. The skies were still grey and it was beginning to rain again, so I didn't spend a great time looking for him - it will be easier tomorrow, when much brighter weather is expected. It wouldn't surprise me if he has gone quite some distance, as his leaves were in deep shade and rather manky. Or, one of those pesky spiders might have got him.

The other two eggs were still unhatched. When I reached them, the first seemed to have dissolved or collapsed in the rain:



That was just before I checked on Cartman. By the time I returned, some ten minutes later, the egg was erect again:



I think the little person Inside was just getting restless and moving around, like Minnie in her backpack when I have been cycling for an hour. Perhaps if I had waited I would have seen him pop out, but about then the heavens opened and it wasn't fair on Minnie or my camera to hang around. I had no opportunity later in the day to return.

The other egg was at a similar stage:



I was going to leave home at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning to try for female Erebia nivalis, but with all the rain in the last two days, as well as a changed forecast for the afternoon, I might leave that until Monday now. I'll check on the emperor cats instead at the crack of dawn.

Guy

It's a good job I didn't wait around yesterday for squishy egg to hatch, as it still hadn't hatched this morning, though it looked perfectly healthy:



The other egg must have hatched this morning, as Kenny (for it is he ) was still eating up his egg:



Cartman is nowhere to be found. I think he has perished.

Later in the morning I headed off to cardinal land. There, I saw probably a dozen males and no females - these are not usually in evidence at nectar until mid-afternoon. That said, I did see one individual in the vineyards, where they lay, as I cycled up and that one could well have been a female.

As my last cardinal post was all females, here are some males, beginning with a fine individual that spent some time posing on thistle heads:





This is a different individual, not far away:



Not all were in such good nick. This one had probably encountered the sharp end of a bird:



Cardinals were not the only fritillary around. This is a Queen of Spain:



Knapweed, heath and high brown were also flying at that site, as well as purple emperor. I think it was a male I saw but it was deep in the shade of a sallow and I couldn't get a picture. As it flew out it crossed paths with a cardinal. I don't know how many people have seen cardinal and purple emperor in the same field of vision ...

After the cardinals I moved further along the valley to check on the August brood of rosy grizzled skippers. I saw several. This one offered good views of the unmistakable underside:



Other species here included spotted fritillary ...



... and my first dryads of the year:



My bike had sprung a slow puncture so I had left it at the station for this part of the trip. We walked back along the river, happy with a good day's butterflying.



Guy

Padfield wrote:The other egg must have hatched this morning, as Kenny (for it is he ) was still eating up his egg:

That's a very special moment, and beautifully captured; a sight I've yet to see

Cheers,

- Pete

Thanks Pete. In fact, they do not rush their first meal and if you check in on an egg frequently enough you are very likely to witness this. It is certainly not a case of 'blink and you miss it'. Altogether I think I've watched four different purple emperor caterpillars eating their eggs - and a couple of white admiral cats too.

Kenny had moved leaves by this afternoon, when I popped down to see them, and Stan's Mum had been born.

Kenny seemed to get restless when I was near so I took these photos from a little distance:





This is Stan's Mum:



She is on the same leaf as her egg:



Cartman was still impossible to locate.

As we walked home, I spotted a female purple emperor striking some shady sallow. Minnie had already gone ahead but I stopped and waited. After a while she emerged and sat on a hazel leaf above the sallow:



This is the context:



I waited patiently for her to fly on, which she eventually did - and Minnie came back too, wherever she had got to. A quick search of the sallow revealed no eggs but I didn't spend long in case she should return to lay some more. We carried on walking and didn't see her again.

Guy