Padfield

[Wurzel]

37 species That's only 12 away from my entire tally for 2016 Mouthwatering stuff Guy

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

When we visited Digne a few years ago we were very surprised to find camels grazing beside the road - it turned out that there was a circus in town. We made sure we conducted our butterfly-watching some miles away, in case they let their lions roam around in the same way.

I guess that's a possibility, Matsukaze , but there was no evidence of any travelling circus folk in the vicinity. I'll keep a look out for them on future trips. If I see them regularly I may have to name them.

37 species That's only 12 away from my entire tally for 2016 Mouthwatering stuff Guy

It's not numbers that count, Wurzel - it's quality time spent with the butterflies!

A meet up somewhere would be fantastic. (bet you have a good day today if you are able to get out there!!)

Let's try - keep in touch.

In fact, I had to be in a meeting in Montreux until after 13h00 today, so a long butterfly trip was off the agenda. I took the train straight from Montreux to the Rhône Valley (yes, Minnie was at the meeting too) still undecided how far to go, but the decision was taken for me by a signal failure, which delayed the train by over half an hour. With time now pressing, I jumped off at Martigny.

There, I saw my first chequered blue of the year - but only one. Very strange. It zoomed past me without stopping, caught up in a strong breeze, and I couldn't record the sighting with a photo. We then took a long walk through the vineyards, picking up our first little blue of the year on the way, before stopping for about an hour at a muddy spot where a few other blues were gathered. These weren't the great collections of high summer - just a dozen or two individuals enjoying the end of the day. They included common blues (technically, my first of the year, as I recorded the Spanish ones as celina), green-underside blues, holly blues, turquoise blues and Provençal short-tailed blues. Also puddling were dingy skippers, wood whites, scarce swallowtail and the occasional passing Queen of Spain (these prefer flowers to mud).


(the mud patch)


(little blue)


(green-underside blue)


(another)


(holly blue)


(first real common blue of the year)


(Provençal short-tailed blue)


(another, with a clear drop at the end of its abdomen)


(is this waste elimination, like urine?)

Guy

[Wurzel]

'It's not numbers that count, Wurzel - it's quality time spent with the butterflies! ' That's easy for you to say Guy when you're rolling in butterflies
Interesting shot of the 'elimination'...I'm not too sure about the physiology of butterflies but I'm guessing that they probably don't have a method of storing too much of the nectar they take in so when they take on too much I presume they have to remove the excess. Is this different to 'frass'?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

It's not numbers that count, Wurzel - it's quality time spent with the butterflies!

Spot on! You expect greater numbers on the continent, so it's important to make the most of what time you have available.

We in the UK can probably notch off almost as much as is about in an hour or so if we visit the right place (certainly at this time of year). That's not the case on mainland Europe, as greater efforts need to be made to see the extent of variety on the wing at any one time.

I note that many of your days out in the field are from early till late, Guy. That's a rarity in the UK, unless you happen to be visiting multiple locations with decent distances in between.

[bugboy]

Interesting shot of the 'elimination'...I'm not too sure about the physiology of butterflies but I'm guessing that they probably don't have a method of storing too much of the nectar they take in so when they take on too much I presume they have to remove the excess. Is this different to 'frass'?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

My thinking on this is that its excess water from taking in minerals from the mud.

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel, David and Buggy. I haven't had time to do any research on the elimination thing but I suspect, as suggested, water is the principle eliminate.

It has snowed heavily here in the last couple of days. These pictures are from our morning walk today:





Unsurprisingly, I haven't seen any butterflies. But today I did have time to look for Timmy and Mr Mackey. Although much of the snow had melted by the afternoon, their sallows were still weighed down and it was difficult to locate the larvae. They were still there, I'm glad to report.

This is Timmy, taken with flash because of the poor light:





And without flash:



The context:



And Mr Mackey, now at head height and more easily photographable (he used to be well above head height):







Guy

[David M]

Wow. A few of us have seen snowfall here lately, but nothing like that. But for the leaves on the trees it could easily be a December flashback!

No doubt in a week you'll be in the mid-seventies Fahrenheit?

[Padfield]

I hope you're right, David!

I cycled down the hill at about 09h30 this morning and when I reached the bottom my hands were numb with cold. It didn't feel much warmer when I arrived at my first site, shortly after 11h00 and for almost an hour the only butterflies I saw were speckled woods and a few orange tips. But it was sunny and it did warm up. Eventually I saw my first target species, Nickerl's fritillary:





The next new species for the year was Oberthür's grizzled skipper, which turned out to be quite common:





One of the reasons I had chosen this site was for Dukes of Burgundy, which seem to have been on the wing in the UK for some time now. I saw a single female:



I also saw a single chequered skipper, another first for the year:



There were not great numbers of anything around. Here are a few pictures of a selection of the other species:


(Glanville fritillary)


(pearl-bordered fritillary)


(orange tip)


(female orange tip)


(male orange tip trying his luck but being rejected)


(dingy skipper)


(green-underside blue)


(swallowtail)


(scarce swallowtail)


(one of the meadows where we saw Oberthür's grizzlies and others)

I met up with Matt Rowlings for a beer at the end of the day. He reported that there were no camels where I saw them last weekend ...

Guy

[Wurzel]

Stunning shots as per usual Guy - is your Duchess an aberrant or is that variation the regional 'form/race'? Is seems to have an extra set of orange chequers on the hind wing and is much more 'orange' compared to those we see in the UK?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Hi Wurzel. The females are generally larger and brighter in the south of their range but you are right - she does look particularly so. She is the spitting image of the individual labelled 'form gracilens' in Leraut, so I should probably call her that. Thanks for alerting me!

Guy

[trevor]

The word that came to mind when I saw your post, above, was WOW !!.

[Padfield]

Glad to give you a wow moment, Trevor!

I worked at home this morning but couldn't resist nipping out briefly in the afternoon, as today is the last day of April and my year-list stood, as of daybreak today, at 59 species. Despite what I said about it not being a numbers game I thought 60 would be better. I felt sure I could add a short-tailed blue, so zoomed off to my nearest 'tails' site, where short-tailed, Provençal short-tailed and long-tailed can all be seen together on a good August day.

For a while it looked as if my plan had been foiled. A thorough search of the site turned up several Provençal short-tailed blues (alcetas) but no short-tailed (argiades). Here is a female alcetas, intent on laying in flowerheads of some medick plant:







And here is a male alcetas - the closest I could get to an underside shot of him:



Other blues flying were common and Chapman's:


(common)



Both swallowtails were in the meadow too:





Species no. 60 turned up anyway in the form of sooty copper, with males and females both on the wing:


(male)


(male)


(female)

Finally, just as I was about to head off home, a single, female argiades breezed through, stopping a moment for a token photo before zooming off again and over a hedge. And what a beautiful young lady she was, too - the bluest I think I have ever seen:



So, on 61, rather than my intended Babylonian perfect number of 60, I cycled back to the bus and home again.

Guy

[essexbuzzard]

Congratulations on reaching 61 species-more than the British list-by the end of April. I think.

[Padfield]

Congratulations on reaching 61 species-more than the British list-by the end of April. I think.

Thanks Buzzard - I'll take your congrats at face value!

I've had very little time recently to hunt for iris cats, other than popping out occasionally to check on Mr Mackey and Timmy. After school tonight, although the light was fading, I set off to do the same, but was delighted to find a further three cats, Wendy, Stan and Mr Garrison. Here are my current five (Kyle has gone AWOL - and as he was so high up a now very leafy tree I don't know if he is alive or dead). The poor light means these are not very brilliant pictures, but they do give an idea of the stage the caterpillars are now at:

Timmy





Mr Mackey



Wendy


(third instar - soon to shed her skin, judging by her posture here)

Stan



This picture of Stan and the surrounding leaves shows the characteristic feeding signs that give away the locations of these little people:



Mr Garrison



Stan is the most advanced, closely followed by Mr Mackey. I would expect them to shed their skins and enter 5th instar within a week, depending on the weather. 5th instar lasts 17-18 days, going by my previous records. Pupation takes 3-4 more days and the pupal stage lasts about two weeks. That means these caterpillars are heading for a mid-June emergence, if they make it all the way through. Wendy is at a much more normal stage. Last year, the wintering caterpillars I was following entered 4th instar on about 7th May.

Finally, never walk under an elm without checking for white-letter hairstreak cats!




(flash and full zoom)

Guy

[Kip]

just caught up, enjoyed doing so!.... I suspect Nickerl's may be finished by my early June trip, given your photo!!

[Padfield]

Thanks, Paul. I think that was an early Nickerl's but I make no predictions. All I know is you'll see great stuff when you come, however fast or slow the season progresses. That's the beauty of the mountains ...

Guy

[Padfield]

I saw all five iris cats on my walk today. Wendy is still laid up for transition to fourth instar:



The light enabled me to get a slightly better shot of Mr Mackey:



Timmy was feeding:



I didn't have time for an extensive camilla cat search. Here is one, which seems, from the disjointed look of its head, to be on the point of a skin change too:



It has been cloudy and cold recently, and will be cloudy all weekend, but the sun shone all day today (bad timing!). Brimstones, orange tips, wood whites, peacocks, speckled woods and pearl-bordered fritillaries were flying throughout the woods.

Guy

[David M]

Finally, never walk under an elm without checking for white-letter hairstreak cats!

If only we had sufficient elm trees to exercise that advice, Guy! ☹

[Padfield]

There is tragedy there, David - you are right. But I thought wych elm at least had survived well in the UK. It certainly has here, and it is on wych elm that I find my white-letter hairstreak caterpillars. Today I found plenty, principally on two trees. Here is a selection of photos, mainly to show the kind of places one sees them. Their visibility is artificially enhanced by the fact I used flash to photograph them (it was a grey, drizzly day). They are much more cryptic to the naked eye.


(hidden in dense but obviously nibbled foliage)


(out in the open, on an intact leaf, but near nibbled leaves)


(laid up inconspicuously near the petiole)


(similarly positioned)


(again, this caterpillar was on an intact leaf but near nibbled leaves - they move around a lot)


(as above)


(this one had moved to a fresh, uneaten spray)

It was great to see so many white-letter hairstreaks - and I saw and photographed many more - but it was also good to see my purple emperor cats. Sadly, Timmy has either been eaten or moved up the tree, but all the others were still there. Stan is laid up for ecdysis, so will enter 5th instar very soon indeed now:



In my experience, this is exceptionally early. If he survives, he will definitely pupate in May and therefore fly by mid-June.

Guy

[Padfield]

No change in the status of the purple emperors today - Stan and Wendy are still laid up for ecdysis.

I did take a few more white-letter hairstreak photos. Here is a close-up of one of them (the head is at the top of the picture):



Here is a different individual, in context:



That picture was taken with flash. This is actually quite a good way of spotting them - they stick out sore thumbs in a flash photo. Here is the same caterpillar as it appeared to the naked eye:



Much less conspicuous.

Like the emperors, these cats are heading for a June, rather than a July, emergence.

Guy