Padfield

[Andrew555]

Wonderful pictures Guy. I too can't help being seduced by the Camberwell Beauty.

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel, David and Andrew.

Another 'hasty' post to celebrate finding my first two purple emperor caterpillars of the year this morning!

Meet Willow and Faith:





I also saw the first pearl-bordered fritillary of the year - an early sighting, surprisingly:



It didn't hang around for decent pictures.

Guy

[Wurzel]

Lovely Pearl Guy - I can't wait to start looking for my own

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Meet Willow and Faith

Forgive me for my ignorance, Guy, but what is the 'theme' for 2018 as regards nomenclature?

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel. The 'April fritillary' always brings summer elegance to the woods. This is quite early for my local patch.

Hi David. The 2017-8 cast are all characters from the Buffyverse. Last summer/autumn I followed Buffy, Giles, Angel, Spike, Dawn and Glory towards hibernation but all met one or other kind of grizzly end. I had hopes that Giles was still alive, as he disappeared at just the time he should have gone into hibernation. He has not reappeared this spring, however.

Willow and Faith are on a small tree I checked many times last year, as it is on my regular dog walk. I don't know how I missed them. Last year was an early year and the eggs hatched mostly in July. That makes the present cats about 9 months old.

Guy

[David M]

Hi David. The 2017-8 cast are all characters from the Buffyverse. Last summer/autumn I followed Buffy, Giles, Angel, Spike, Dawn and Glory towards hibernation but all met one or other kind of grizzly end. I had hopes that Giles was still alive, as he disappeared at just the time he should have gone into hibernation. He has not reappeared this spring, however.

Willow and Faith are on a small tree I checked many times last year, as it is on my regular dog walk. I don't know how I missed them. Last year was an early year and the eggs hatched mostly in July. That makes the present cats about 9 months old.

LOL! I should have known.

As ever, good luck with your endeavours to keep track of them, Guy, and I'll look forward to further instalments as the year unfolds.

[Padfield]

I'll keep you posted, David!

Yesterday was sunny all day again, though a strong wind prevented easy photography, and it is clear things have moved along in the week since I last got to the valley. At my first site, two or three male Dukes were holding fort on a bank:



Orange tips were absolutely everywhere. I can never resist taking a shot of these, even when exciting stuff is emerging all around:



Here is a dingy skipper:



Other species new for the year at that site were Nickerl's fritillary and Provençal short-tailed blue.

Further along the valley, the first rosy grizzled skippers were flying:



I snatched a brief shot of this de Prunner's ringlet:



It didn't hang around too long there, though, as the bactrians came to check out Minnie:



They were only being gentle and curious, but I didn't want her accidentally getting under one of their huge hoofs! I'm getting used to seeing them now, though they still look anomalous.



In the evening I went to check on Willow and Faith. They were nowhere to be seen on the branch. By chance, I soon spotted them both again - or presumed them - not just on another branch but a branch leading from an adjacent sapling. They have crawled through the foliage and twigs to a sunnier part of the complex.

This is Willow (I'm calling her that - I certainly can't tell which is which after the move):



And again, with flash:



Faith was higher up:



Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

Re Camberwell Beauty - if I may comment on your thread Guy - it is the ultimate experience to see them just out of hibernation when they tend to stay in one spot for a week or two. There are various spots in eastern Var where they can sometimes/usually be seen, although I didn't manage to see even one last year.

However, a couple of days ago I did see one - probably a male from its behaviour - in a spot where I reckon to have a 50% chance. They can be very powerful flyers when needed but post-hibernation they seem to be content to float about 3m above the ground with only the occasional wingbeat. We watched this one for about an hour, gliding so slowly that you can see them clearly. It circled just above my head maybe thinking to land there as it is possible I look like a gnarled old fence post from above (and not too different from below).

It landed on the ground from time to time with wings closed and on one occasion, after a while with wings closed, it opened fully for about ten seconds. I didn't manage to get the camera on it, but the image is still imprinted on my mind.

I have just one question: I only see hibernators in April. Where do they go after that, because I never see a second generation in Var?

Roger

[Padfield]

Hi Roger. It just so happens I took a little footage on my phone yesterday of a beauty doing just what you describe, though in this instance a little closer to the ground:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trtynwWsKVI[/video]

(the embedded video doesn't seem to work - so click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trtynwWsKVI)

That's in slow motion, to help make the moment last ...

In answer to your question, Camberwell beauties can be seen at their favourite sites in Valais well into June most years, though by then they are looking very battle-scarred. I have no evidence they go anywhere else in spring. Perhaps our Swiss beauties have evolved to stagger their emergence more than their southern cousins, knowing that either of April or May might be completely written off by the weather. The summer generation emerges in July and my impression is that individuals either go into hibernation immediately or disperse to look for new sites. I say that because in July I don't see them at the breeding sites but rather cruising through mountain passes or bombing across meadows. In Spain, I've seen a Camberwell beauty at 2500m. It is these summer wanderers that turn up as vagrants on UK shores - though from more northerly breeding sites, obviously.

This photo was taken on 8th June 2013 (I could have chosen pretty well any year for a June photo - there's nothing special about this one) at the same breeding site the photos above were taken:



Guy

[Padfield]

This has been the second warmest April since records began, and the butterflies are rapidly playing catch-up. Today saw my first Adonis blue of the year, at a nearby meadow in Vaud:



At the same site, the first sooty coppers were on the wing. This is a female:



In Valais, I found chequered blues were suddenly common:





Both those were taken with flash, into the sun - hence the slightly odd colours in the first picture.

In the west of the valley, where I was today, the chequered blues are very dark. This is a typical male, showing little blue:



Other newbies for the year were red-underwing skipper, wall and southern small white. Here is a snatched photo of a red-underwing skipper:



This is a male southern small white. There is a theory this might be the next addition to the British list, so it's worth paying attention to its distinctive features:


(Note the evenly dense hindwing scaling and the lack of a fork in v.7 of the forewing.)


(When the wings open, note how far down the outer margin the black apical mark extends.)

Guy

[essexbuzzard]

It would be great to add it to the British list although, as it is one of the Cabbage whites, it might not be welcomed by all! Interesting you say it’s been a warm April over there. The opposite is the case in East Anglia! Great pictures again, Guy.

[Padfield]

I don't think mannii is a threat to cabbages, Buzzard - for the moment, anyway. It's foodplants are various candytuft species.

The other evening, when I went to check on Willow and Faith, I spotted this leaf damage near the top of a tree:



It was too dark to make anything out but I knew it had to be a purple emperor so checked again today, in the daylight. Sure enough - there she was! I have named her Drusilla:



There is a chance she is really Angel. I last photographed Angel on 13th September last year and as that was too early for hibernation presumed, when he then disappeared, that he was dead. But this spring I see all the branches he was on then are dead. It is possible he knew this and headed higher up the tree already last September. I will never know. My cats don't answer to their names.

Willow and Faith were still there, though Faith had moved again. They are both just under an inch long and Faith looks almost ready to shed her skin again ... I don't think she can be - it is far too early in the year to enter 5th instar.



This is Willow. Their bush was waving in the wind, hence the poor pictures:



Guy

[Padfield]

I was right about Faith - she was preparing for a skin change and is now laid up for it:



That means I was wrong about her instar. She must have been third instar, soon to graduate into fourth. But that does make her huge!

Willow was already on the move when I arrived at the bush:



She was heading for a favourite feeding leaf but got wind of me shortly after getting there and went into the alarm posture:



I started photographing Faith and Willow relaxed. Within a minute or two she was feeding avidly:





Earlier on the walk I found a new iris cat - Cordelia. She was in exactly the wrong place to get a photo but I did confirm she was there by pulling the branch down and having a look. This is the evidence that drew me to her (she is at the end of that leaf):



Drusilla was still there, so for the time being I have four iris cats.

This betulae egg seems to have hatched, though the hole is not right in the middle. I couldn't find the caterpillar:



Finally, does anyone know what this caterpillar is, found on the underside of elm a couple of days ago? I thought it was an early instar w-album cat while I was photographing it but it isn't right for that:



Guy

[Andrew555]

You sure have some lovely butterflies appearing now Guy. I'm particularly taken with the Sooty Copper.
I'll be reading your cat reports with interest as well.

Cheers

[Wurzel]

I've been checking all of my Small Whites shots Guy as per your ID guide but all have that pesky little vein I've said it before (and probably say it again) but those Chequered Blues are striking looking Butterflies

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Fantastic range of butterflies, Guy, including your mannii. It would be nice to see the UK get new resident species though I suspect few would know if these started turning up amongst the rapae.

[Padfield]

Thanks, Andrew. Sooty copper is widespread and generally common on the continent but it is a very interesting little butterfly. Both the male and the female show great variation, some related to altitude.

Keep checking, Wurzel! You've got to be in to win!

Same comment to David - though it's likely the first people to find it in the UK will be those living a little further east than you ...

A grey day in Switzerland today, so a good day for cats ...



Locally, small tortoiseshell cats were abundant:



There should be a good emergence later this month.

This white-letter hairstreak cat was on a non-flowering elm and on the upperside of the leaf. A real Jonathan Livingston Hairstreak:







This is Willow ...



... and this her neighbour Faith, laid up for ecdysis. She is over an inch long. I am genuinely confused. I don't see how she can be so big and graduating from 3rd to 4th instar, yet nor can she be graduating into 5th instar on 2nd May:



Finally, my first shot of Cordelia. She's in a ridiculous place for photos so I hope she moves soon!



It's difficult to say, but I think she is 3rd instar.

Guy

[David M]

Same comment to David - though it's likely the first people to find it in the UK will be those living a little further east than you ...

Indeed. I note that mannii is absent from the overwhelming majority of northern France so one suspects that any colonial invasion will be from the east!

Super early stages images again, Guy. I sometimes feel your quest for these larvae gives you more satisfaction than anything else!

[trevor]

Your Purple Emperor cats. are plumping up nicely.
Fortunately the PE. is one of the ' spectaculars ' that can be found reasonably
easily over here ( at least in West Sussex ). Unlike the Large Tortoiseshell, or
the Camberwell Beauty, which in your part of the world it is possible to be
quite ' matter of fact ' about !.
Only a lucky few will ever have such an encounter over here.

Frustration builds !. Keep up the good work, Guy,
Trevor.

[Padfield]

Hi David. I have my information on the potential arrival of mannii in the UK from a third party, but in general it is moving north by adapting to new species of candytuft and taking advantage of the increasing popularity of these plants as ornamentals. It is therefore a kind of semi-natural drift. And yes - hunting larvae is completely addictive. It is a science and an art and something you just get better and better at the more you do.

Hi Trevor. I still have hope the large tortoieshell will return to the UK. It's just got to get that foothold, which it doesn't seem to have done yet, really. Camberwell beauties will probably never breed in blighty.

Guy