www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I've yet to see a White LH Jamie, so I hope you get to see the egg's when they finally turn into Cat's etc,
I keep looking for them every year with no luck, hope fully this year I'll be lucky. I'll be following your posts with interest Goldie

Goldie M wrote:I've yet to see a White LH Jamie, so I hope you get to see the egg's when they finally turn into Cat's etc,
I keep looking for them every year with no luck, hope fully this year I'll be lucky. I'll be following your posts with interest Goldie

Hi Goldie, Thank you for your warm wishes, I have to admit that I have now seen a White-letter Hairstreak caterpillar.
Is it an adult White-letter Hairstreak you haven't seen? Some distance but as White-letter Hairstreak species champion for the Sussex branch of Butterfly Conservation I'm doing a guided walk this year in Brighton. Just wanted to let you know just in case you want to consider it.

Here are the details of my White-letter Hairstreak walk - http://butterfly-conservation.org/244-1 ... treak.html

Continued.........

White-letter Hairstreak 2016 (Site 1)

3rd March 2016:

I returned to the same site, at the time I was inspired by Pauline to look for and save any possible eggs on fallen twigs.
I noted the following for that day:
Huntington elm (Ulmus x hollandica 'Vegeta') - part of a twig was found on the ground as caused by yesterdays strong winds/storm (2nd March). Note how the egg (below) has been laid on the scar between this and last years growth. Old growth is of a brown colouration, meeting this years growth, a dark red colour in comparison. The Scar and egg sits 7.5 cm back from the very tip of the twig (perhaps an average for this species of elm, based on yearly growth). The egg measures 1mm in diameter. I can only hope the caterpillar hatched and moved onto a different branch with opening flower buds. The egg case looks more like it's been cracked open by impact when it fell rather than the actual caterpillar emerging, however the latter might of been the case beforehand, hopefully!

Photos of this egg found on the fallen twig are picture below, now named ''Egg 2''.

Egg 2, illustrating various angles: To be continued ..........

Excellent field observations, Jamie, as ever. Keep up the good work and I look forward to hearing more! Most of us live in a White-letter Hairstreak-free zone, so your postings are of particular interest.

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote:Excellent field observations, Jamie, as ever. Keep up the good work and I look forward to hearing more! Most of us live in a White-letter Hairstreak-free zone, so your postings are of particular interest.

Cheers,

- Pete

Thank you very much Pete, most appreciated! As long as I can find them I'll keep posting about them
All the best,
Jamie

Hi! Jamie, I find your posts very interesting, it's the Butterfly it's self I've not seen we do have WLH's here in the North and I look each year on the Lanc's Conservation sighting's and travel to where they've been seen but they've still eluded me Next time I go to Gait Barrow I'm hoping the ranger will be there so I can ask him where to locate them, may be I'll be lucky this time
I'd love to join your tour to look for them Jamie unfortunately I'm down near Brighton in early June and hoping to return in August for a couple of days to find the Brown HS, another BF I've not seen yet, in fact the only HS I've seen is the Green HS so you can understand my interest in them. Goldie

Goldie M wrote:Hi! Jamie, I find your posts very interesting, it's the Butterfly it's self I've not seen we do have WLH's here in the North and I look each year on the Lanc's Conservation sighting's and travel to where they've been seen but they've still eluded me Next time I go to Gait Barrow I'm hoping the ranger will be there so I can ask him where to locate them, may be I'll be lucky this time
I'd love to join your tour to look for them Jamie unfortunately I'm down near Brighton in early June and hoping to return in August for a couple of days to find the Brown HS, another BF I've not seen yet, in fact the only HS I've seen is the Green HS so you can understand my interest in them. Goldie

Hi Goldie, Thank you very much I wish you all the best, I really hope you see some White-letter Hairstreaks this year. If you send me a PM when your visiting Brighton or come this way during June and August, I'll let you know if White-letter Hairstreak and Purple Hairstreak are about, if some have emerged early or still hanging on at the end of their flight period I would be happy to help you see them.
All the best, Jamie

Continued.........

White-letter Hairstreak 2016 (Site 1)

6th March 2016: ''Egg 1" Revisited.

10 day after first discovering the egg.
The flowers remained largely dormant until the 11th March 2016, upon which they began the process of opening:
Both female and male reproductive parts visible -

Continued.........

White-letter Hairstreak 2016 (Site 1)

22th March 2016: ''Egg 1" Revisited.

What I began to realise is that whilst you observe the egg, your also taking in information about the development and reproductive order of the Elm tree (Huntingdon Elm) at the same time.

Elm flowers:
The stamens continued to develop, the anthers began to darken from a rich pink colour to a dark pinkish-brown, from what I can tell the connectives began to open and peel apart revealing the white/light cream coloured pollen grains (male). I became all to aware of the pollen as I brushed past some flowers and the pollen exploded everywhere (well not everywhere, just onto me).

Huntingdon Elm flowers, open showing pollen: The female part of the flower is the style, elm has great style. In the picture above their development is behind that of the male, with the stigmas only just visible, the style is a rich pink coloured structure covered in light pink ''hairs''. Female parts include the stigma, style and ovary.

In the photo above, pollen (male) can be seen covering the stigma and outer surface of the style ("stigmatic surface"), having connecting ''hairs'' allows a greater chance for the female to collect pollen and fall pregnant, later producing seeds. The pollen is taken in and diverted to the ovary, where the ovary produces fruit and the attaching ovules produce the seeds.

Continued.........

White-letter Hairstreak 2016 (Site 1)

25th March 2016: ''Egg 1" Revisited.

The completely blurred elm flowers make for a soft and beautiful background: Styles (female) were showing well, when I studied the flowers.

Continued.........

White-letter Hairstreak 2016 (Site 1)

26th March 2016: ''Egg 1" Revisited.

Had enough of the egg? Well so did the caterpillar inside ....... Success? It hatched!

However............ the weather!
That same day (26 March) I found the hatched egg, I witnessed bad weather, very strong winds and rain was produced as part of another storm system!
I thought, ''It's not sensible for the caterpillar to have emerged in this awful weather, being so small it has no chance''
Hopefully it hatched after my previous visit (25 March) when calm and pleasant weather was noted.
I can't be sure if it hatched evening of 25 March or morning of 26 March!

''Egg 1'' Conclusion

White-letter Hairstreak 2016 (Site 1)

30th March 2016: ''Egg 1" Revisited.

On a visit four day after it's apparent emergence I search for the caterpillar and any signs that it had burrowed into the flower buds. I sadly failed to find any signs of it's presence. Whilst at the tree I did take another photo of the egg, upon emergence the area surrounding the micropyle, visibly a clouded white area, also breaks away when the caterpillar hatches.

Hatched, White-letter Hairstreak egg, greater magnification:

Finding ''Egg 2''

White-letter Hairstreak 2016 (Site 2)

8th March 2016: ''Egg 2"

Searching at a second site I came across another egg, this was the result of searching multiple Elm trees.

Egg 2: Like the first egg, this was laid on the scar, between growth.

15th March 2016: ''Egg 2" Revisited - A week later the development of the flowers became obvious.

26th March 2016: ''Egg 2" Revisited - Looking closer you can make out the cell like structure that lines the bottom surface of the egg.

28/29th March 2016: ''Egg 2" Revisited - Looking closer you can make out the structures (cloudy white tufts) that speckle the outer surface of the egg.

These really are fantastic wild observations Jamie! Your dedication is really paying off. Hopefully it will be another great year for the White-letter Hairstreaks.

Best regards

James

Agreed. Your devotion to all things 'Hairstreak' is admirable, Jamie. I look forward to further instalments.

Butterflysaurus rex wrote:These really are fantastic wild observations Jamie! Your dedication is really paying off. Hopefully it will be another great year for the White-letter Hairstreaks.

Best regards

James

Thank you very much James! Just for clarification for anyone visiting my personal diary, these White-letter Hairstreak observations are taken completely in the wild, although it feels odd saying that as the trees are located in residential areas. Much appreciated, thank you James for the very kind comments. I really hope so, it would be great if at some point during their flight period we could meet up. I'll email you very soon
All the best, Jamie

David M wrote:Agreed. Your devotion to all things 'Hairstreak' is admirable, Jamie. I look forward to further instalments.

Thank you David, much appreciated! It seems the Hairstreaks are very much in control of what I do these days! I wouldn't have it any other way, I'm learning so much. I promise that future posts regarding the White-letter Hairstreak should be very exciting/interesting! Sadly the next installment won't be of good news.

''Egg 2'' Follow-up

White-letter Hairstreak 2016 (Site 2)

''Egg 2": The following days after 28/29 March 2016 I saw a difference in the appearance of ''Egg 2''. Noting one evening that the egg appeared dark in colouration, the following morning I returned and the egg appeared OK, but slightly different. However after repeated visits and looking today (12 May 2016) it has been concluded that the egg failed, the cause is most likely down to disease based on the poor weather it was put up against. Although I didn't have my camera today I will return to capture what it looks like, just to cover every eventuality. Far from healthy it appears a clouded grey colour, losing most of it's sheen, presenting an overall dull appearance.

Hi! Jamie, hope the egg's okay I'll be down there from the 10th of June to the 17th which I think may be too soon for WLH's, I could be back there in August though looking for Brown HS's so I'll certainly send you a post, I'm hoping to pin WLH down here so I can track them each year with out having to travel miles to Photograph them, Goldie

Some of my more interesting observations from May/June:

Male Wood White and Egg photographed the day I met up with Pauline:
Female Speckled Wood, playing dead:
Amazing to watch her tip onto her side and remain motionless for a minute or so.

A special kind of Blue:
I did my research, using this wonderful site to conclude that this Small Blue was ab. latecaerulea.
Contacting Mark Colvin for a second and better opinion he replied:
''That’s a beautiful Small Blue. I think you are correct with ab. latecaerulea (Verity, 1943). The only other named possibility that I know of, and I can’t find any images to confirm one way or the other, is ab. caerulescens (Tutt, 1908); the description for this ab. purely reads “pale blue scaling on the upperside”, but not to what extent. I would personally describe yours as: referable to ab. latecaerulea (Verity, 1943).''

The lovely thing about this sighting is that the site is clearly visible from my front door.

All the best,
Jamie