www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

millerd wrote:For me, that Spotted Fritillary is just beautiful. An unbeatable image.

Agreed.

Lovely shot.

Hungary - day 6

Thanks - once again - for the kind comments! Unfortunately, the somewhat-randomly-selected photos don't really give the full picture, and the full report will take a while; there's just so much to see here and not enough time!

Anyway - today was our last full day, flying back tomorrow afternoon. We'll have some time in the morning for butterflying, but this will be the last "summary post" from Hungary, and I hope you enjoyed the briefest of glimpses into this unspoiled part of the world.

Today was spent revisiting some local and favourite sites - mainly to get shots of things we've not had a chance to study in detail, as well as search areas close by to these sites. Within 5 minutes of getting out of the minivan, we scored with a Dryad (a new species for the trip) and a female Meleager's Blue (blue form) that I've been wanting to find ever since I saw a photo of this spectacular insect in one of my earliest butterfly books - with its amazing scalloped hindwings that are so pronounced in the female. Guy kindly showed me the spectacular all-brown steeveni form of the female last year in Switzerland, but, I have to say, this was something else! Realising a childhood dream is always very special, and sitting watching this insect alone for 30 minutes really made the trip for me.
We then moved on to another site and one of the party found a sap run in an oak tree that was attracting a lot of attention from beetles, hornets and, of course, butterflies! Both Great Banded Grayling and Woodland Grayling were ever present, and provided many opportunities to get open-winged shots, which are not always easy to come by! A still and video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLsD3NDeDlA[/video]

And finally, back at Farm Lator, another walk up the path next to our lodgings revealed, much to our surprise, a male Brown Hairstreak! Seeing this critter (one of our latest species back home) fly alongside 2nd brood Duke of Burgundy (one of our earliest species) sounded bonkers then and it feels bonkers now, as I write this. I really should tally up the number of British species seen, because it would be significant!
And finally, a photo of our brilliant guide, Rob de Jong - here with the massive longhorn beetle Cerambyx cerdo below an oak bough. Rob is a Nikon user, but nobody's perfect
And should anyone want to relive our exploits, then just visit http://www.farmlator.hu/ and get yourselves booked in! I have to say, this is one of the best European trips I've been on - and the lodgings and food (cooked by Rob's wife, Barbera) are just perfect!

Cheers,

- Pete

More fantastic pictures and write-up, Pete. I'm glad you've got your blue Meleager's females!!

I'd love to see stills of the undersides of those woodland graylings, alongside the rock graylings you posted earlier. Were they definitively identified or was there some speculation in the ID? I'm building a picture in my head of how to separate woodland and rock but it's good to get illustrations from as wide a range as possible.

Guy

That website is tempting me a great deal, Pete.

Safe journey back home tomorrow and thanks for the report.

I'm just sooooo envious! Thanks for sharing your wonderful photos and trip reports (I think!).

padfield wrote:I'd love to see stills of the undersides of those woodland graylings, alongside the rock graylings you posted earlier. Were they definitively identified or was there some speculation in the ID? I'm building a picture in my head of how to separate woodland and rock but it's good to get illustrations from as wide a range as possible.

Hi Guy - sounds superb! The initial sightings of Woodland Grayling were confirmed by Rob (the first and second images below). Both individuals were comparable with Great Banded Grayling (in size) and seen in heavily wooded areas (i.e. woodland for at least 10k). However, I'm not sure if size or locality are good diagnostics. And I definitely don't want to dissect anything to gain conclusive evidence to distinguish between Woodland and Rock Grayling!

Unfortunately, Farm Lator is right in the centre of where the two species overlap. What I would say is that the more-recent video I posted (on the sap run) contains individuals that are noticeably smaller than the initial individuals we saw and are, therefore, potentially Rock Grayling. I'll ping Rob for his thoughts - especially since he has specialists staying at Farm Lator every year! The latter 2 photos are at the intersection of heavily wooded areas and rocky outcrop. I made the (stupid) assumption that these are also Woodland Grayling - but will check with Rob. The last image below is an individual from the sap run.

I think the terms "woodland" and "rock" are definitely misleading! You'd definitely be doing the "Lepster world" a favour were you to consolidate reliable information on these two difficult-to-distinguish species (and I eagerly await Bozano's coverage of these two!).
Cheers,

- Pete

Longstock Event and ...

Along with many other BC members, I supported Hampshire/IOW BC's event at the Waitrose Nursery in Longstock yesterday - our 3rd year at this venue. We had a great turnout of volunteers, but the weather was against us and, as a result, we have very few punters turn up. Gary and Lisa also kindly supported a UK Butterflies "tent". But I do share the sentiment so ably demonstrated yesterday when it comes to conserving the critters we all love so much (through raising awareness at events such as these) that we must never, ever, give up. I saw my first (and very tatty) Small Tortoiseshell for the year today - which seemed to be some kind of omen!
And today, in the fine weather (and having performed my duties, such as cutting the lawn!), I decided to visit the few Small Blue larvae that I've been monitoring locally (being inspired by Vince's exploits!). Unfortunately, 2 of the 3 seem to have disappeared - I hope they've simply gone "walkabout" - especially since it took a few hours to find them in the first place. Despite what some say - I find them very difficult to find, even though they're now feeding on the outside of the Kidney Vetch seedheads; simply looking at the seedhead from a different angle means you lose them! Anyway - a couple of photos below. I managed to find one earlier this week moving around (first photo below), but they generally feed, "arse up" (sorry, "head down") on a seedhead!
Ever the optimist,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote:.......... I decided to visit the few Small Blue larvae that I've been monitoring locally (being inspired by Vince's exploits!)...... I find them very difficult to find, even though they're now feeding on the outside of the Kidney Vetch seedheads.......... I managed to find one earlier this week moving around (first photo below), but they generally feed, "arse up" (sorry, "head down") on a seedhead!

Great stuff, Pete
Good images of Small Blue larvae are few and far between. Hope to see them in the Species Album soon...........

Cheers,
Vince

Cotswolds Large Blue Reintroduction

I've been looking forward to today for some time - I got to spend the majority of the day with Dave Simcox and his assistant, Sarah Meredith (Collard Hill warden a couple of years ago), who are currently in deepest Cotswold territory reintroducing the Large Blue to a couple of sites. This was the first time I've ever seen such a project up close, let alone one associated with one of the most difficult species to rear (for obvious reasons!). I also learned one hell of a lot!

I spent the first few hours in their rented cottage, where the donor stock is also being reared through. Source colonies include Collard Hill and Green Down, and the young larvae are reared through on Wild Thyme and Wild Marjoram (where larvae feed on the flowers in the first 3 instars) - both of which are used as larval foodplants in Britain. A lot of very interesting data has been collected regarding the synchronisation of the emergence of adults with the flowering of these foodplants, with Wild Marjoram flowering around two weeks later than Wild Thyme on average. Given that all colonies originate from the same stock (taken from Öland in Sweden) it has taken only 20 generations for different colonies (using different larval foodplants) to adapt to this difference.

After emerging from the egg, a Large Blue larva will feed deep within the flowerhead and are next to impossible to find. Flowerheads (from donor sites) containing eggs are collected and are left intact until larvae emerge from within the flowerhead and start to feed on the outside of the flowerhead. At this point, they are transferred to individual boxes, given that Large Blue larvae are cannibalistic in early instars. Photos of Dave and Sarah below are of them going through their daily systematic routine of looking for larvae to transfer - together with some photos of larvae pre-transfer.
After changing into the 4th instar, the larva literally flicks itself off the foodplant and onto the ground where, in the wild, it would be "adopted" by a host ant that takes it back to the ant nest. This is a crucial time in its development and David and Sarah have a systematic approach for finding those larvae that are about to change into the 4th instar and those that have. These are collected up each day (and possibly twice a day) before being taken out to the reintroduction sites.

At one of the sites we visited we met up with some local "guardians" as well as rangers from Natural England. Dave gave an interesting overview of what he was about to do - before creating a "scrape" in the ground into which a 4th instar Large Blue larva was placed. The reason for creating the scrape is to both assist with visibility of the larva (on bare earth) to ensure it had been "laid down" correctly, but the disturbance also attracts the attention of the Myrmica sabuleti red ant on which the Large Blue depends.
Larvae are only a few millimeters in length - as shown in the shots below. The first is an ant that decided to walk right over a Large Blue larva before continuing on its merry way! The second is one of several ants that surrounded the larva before "milking" it (unfortunately, no good photos of this!).
Although I didn't get to see an ant adopting a larva (this is a very rare sight indeed!), I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dave and Sarah for their generosity in letting me into their world at such a busy time in their project. "Top" people whose work and results are influencing conservation projects around the world. Most definitely the highlight of my butterfly year.

Cheers,

- Pete

Amazing stuff, Pete. Very few people get to see that - you are privileged indeed.

Guy

Pete Eeles wrote:Cotswolds Large Blue Reintroduction

<snip>
Although I didn't get to see an ant adopting a larva (this is a very rare sight indeed!), I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dave and Sarah for their generosity in letting me into their world at such a busy time in their project. "Top" people whose work and results are influencing conservation projects around the world. Most definitely the highlight of my butterfly year.

Cheers,

- Pete

Brilliant report Pete thanks for sharing.

Bill

Hi Pete,

A great report and a privilege to share the experience.

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

An absolutly fascinating account.............and a nice day out

Cheers,

Vince

Thx all. It was, indeed, an absolute privilege. Wish you could all have been there!

Cheers,

- Pete

Hi Pete,

I really enjoyed reading your report, fascinating stuff, many thanks for sharing

Neil F.

I too wish we could have been there-the story of the Large Blue caterpillar is amazing,and one i never tire of hearing about.
But for now,thanks for this fascinating report.

That's excellent, Pete. Thanks for sharing those images as well as posting the commentary.

Bentley Wood and Stockbridge Down

I couldn't resist any longer. With all of the sightings of Purple Emperor, I headed off to Bentley Wood arriving rather late at around 10am (so late that I thought that most of the "action" would be over!). Making my way to the south side of the wood I got sightings of 3 male PE flying around the canopy, including one clashing pair. I eventually bumped into an old acquaintance, Mark Swann, and his friend Peter, who showed me some great photos of a grounded male. After 10 minutes or so, and having seen a couple of male PEs flying around the canopy, a female flew out of a nearby sallow and I finally got to see my first ever ovipositing Purple Emperor as she laid 7 or 8 eggs over the next 10 minutes. Surprisingly, all sallows were in full sun, but were magnificent specimens and no doubt offering the amount of shade that this species likes. Unfortunately, no ova shots since they were all laid quite high up. I must admit, the term "striking the tree" that is often used to describe the action of the female entering a sallow (typically the crown) seems to be misplaced; what I saw was the female delicately flying in and around the sallow branches as she hunted out a suitable egg-laying spot. I managed to get some distant shots of her as she teased us by sitting high in a sallow for 15 minutes and I thought that was it for the day (given that it was now 1230).

As I arrived back at the car, as often seems to happen, I saw the characteristic spiraling flight of a Purple Emperor coming down to the ground. What surprised me, though, was that this was another female! And this time I managed to get some shots (and a video). The amount of orange on the wings of this pristine individual was really quite striking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuzZA6HtXEw[/video]

I decided to pop into Stockbridge Down on the way home, where Chalkhill Blues numbers are building up quite nicely. Several Dark Green Fritillary were also around, but mostly worn - together with several pristine Small Copper defending their territories. The highlight, for someone obsessed with studying immature stages, was seeing several female Small Skipper ovipositing. The way in which they land on a grass stem and then shimmy down, before crawling back up the stem probing for a suitable sheath in which to lay is, well, hilarious. I decided, on one occasion, to prise one of the sheaths apart to take a look at the eggs - photo below. The sheath was really quite tightly folded and it took me a while to open it sufficiently to get a shot (with the sheath held in place with a couple of paper clips!); how a small butterfly can manage to oviposit here is beyond me!
All in all - another excellent day

Cheers,

- Pete

Oooo she's nice! Congratulations. I'm hoping for something similar tomorrow, as I'm heading to a secret wood in Northants.
Neil

Terrific Skipper eggs Pete . They are very difficult to photograph well.
I watched a Small Skipper ovipositing a few days ago. She made a spiral decent of the stem, just like a pole-dancer........
Really great behaviour to observe.

Cheers,

Vince