www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Oh, and I forgot to mention, a friend yesterday sent me a photo to id via Facebook that her children had found on Tuesday in Goring. It was a female Convolvulos hawkmoth, a real beauty.

Sunset over Chanctonbury Ring this evening.

Lovely sunsets, Susie

Cheers

Lee

Thanks, Lee

I've been mucking about with photoshop I saw a few speckled woods and small whites around Slinfold today.

home grown? would be a hell of a garden record for sussex. Lovely photo too

Chris

edit: doh. just saw the other thread viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5766

Lovely pic. So pleased you spotted it emerging in time!

Mike

What's the story behind the Swallowtail, Susie?

I bought some pupae on Saturday at the AES Exhibition. One of them hatched late last night, three more to go. Hopefully there'll be at least one female amongst them.

The one in the picture is living in my kitchen/diner at the moment and feeding on buddliea in a vase.

I was hoping we might see a picture.

Very nice.

Kind regards. Mark

I always say that I'm not going to buy anything there but I always end up with something.

Apart from the swallowtail here today there were also red admirals in the garden feeding on ripe grapes on the grape vine and small whites. A quick walk around warnham nr this morning produced quite a few dragonflies.

Your swallowtail has a very narrow submarginal band, with parallel sides. Did they sell it as British swallowtail or the continental subspecies?

Guy

Continental I think. TBH I dont actually remember, I think it just said Swallowtail and the caterpillars could be fed on fennel, so I assumed it was continental.

What type is it, Guy (fount of all knowledge that you are ) if you don't mind my asking?

Susie wrote:I bought some pupae on Saturday at the AES Exhibition. One of them hatched late last night, three more to go. Hopefully there'll be at least one female amongst them.

The one in the picture is living in my kitchen/diner at the moment and feeding on buddliea in a vase.

What are you going to do with them?

David M wrote:

Susie wrote:I bought some pupae on Saturday at the AES Exhibition. One of them hatched late last night, three more to go. Hopefully there'll be at least one female amongst them.

The one in the picture is living in my kitchen/diner at the moment and feeding on buddliea in a vase.

What are you going to do with them?

Show them the countryside, visit a few pubs, a bit of fine dining and a show ....

I'm thinking that I'll let them live in my kitchen for now and hopefully they will breed. I have fennel as a food plant and netted containers for later when the caterpillars are about if I am that lucky. I am sure it is not the same as being in the wild for them but that was never an option. At least here they have a large space to fly and it is light and airy. It could be worse.

Susie wrote:Continental I think.

I don't think it would go down too well if British Swallowtails were being sold to all and sundry at the AES. They have a certain levels of protection, and there's the 1981 Wildlife Acts...

Gibster.

What if they're all the same sex?

It looks like continental swallowtail to me, too, Susie, hence my question. Perhaps they're easier to rear than British swallowtails, taking a much wider range of foodplants. And, as Gibster says, it would perhaps be inappropriate to sell British swallowtails willy nilly at an event like that, though I know British swallowtails are quite widely bred.

Guy