www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Another photo of the superb Red Admiral seen today

HI Maximus,
You'll be in my Chrismas competition then! .Lovely Red Admiral,still seeing them around here too.

I'm definitely in your Christmas competition Trevor

Maximus,

A belated look at the personal diaries for me. Love the photos of the Orange Tip larvae/pupa. By far my favourite butterfly and it was nice to look at these unique images.

Good to see the Red Admirals still flying in mid November too.

Regards Kev

Thanks Kev, glad you liked the OT larvae/pupa photos. Orange-tips are a real favorite of mine also and Red Admirals in November are great.

Maximus,

I've had three or four Large Whites position themselves under the facias outside my windows. The remainder (about 25 or so) were still in first/second instar at the time, which is very late in the season. The foodplants had long since gone over and I noticed a number already starting to perish. I took the decision to house the remainder in my breeding net with good quantities of cabbage. Most are now in position to pupate. The breeding net was being positioned each day by the old foodplant, so they have a choice to escape up the front wall of the house should they choose. However they seem very comfortable where they are. With a bit of luck they will overwinter in the shed and hatch succesfully in late spring. I wouldn't normally elect to mess with nature, but I got rather attached to them and it's got to be better than letting them persish.

Regads Kev

Well done Mike, It's time some one actually rescued a Butterfly from a Spider, you've made my day and a great photo as well Goldie

Great shot of the Red Admirals Mike I finally got my November butterflies - a Red Admiral at work (got some shots on three different cameras but not my 'proper' one ) on Friday and one yesterday afternoon flying through Waitrose car park, looks like I'm in the competition too

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Kev, I believe that Large White numbers are well down this year, you've done the right thing

Thanks Goldie, and I'm really glad that the rescue made your day

Well done Wurzel, great that you got your November Red Admiral too

Mike

With no butterfly activity very likely at the present time I have been sorting through my photos taken in 2014. This is proving to be a very time consuming task, but at least I am begining to free-up some space on my hard drive!
Whilst going through the photos I've found a few which for one reason or another I didn't get round to posting in my PD.
Therefore I'll post a few them now , and as they say, they're in no particular order.



First up are some reared Purple Hairstreaks which were found on windblown Oak twigs/branches during the latter part of last winter.

They were released shortly after the photo was taken, where they were found. I was unable to replicate the 'pair shot' in the wild, as did someone else on this forum - Neil (nfreem), great shot.

Excellent images, Maximus. You absolutely did the right thing with your 'finds'.

Beautiful Purple Hairstreak pictures, I love their hairy eyes!

I'm in heaven = stunning Purple Hairstreak photos, which is my favourite species. I might be staring at them all day and probably not an exaggeration ! Thanks for sharing them.

Absolutely stunning shots of the Purps Mike - if only they'd hang around like that in the wild

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks David, I believe I did too.

Cheers bugboy, I see what you mean about their eyes.

I'm glad you like the shots Jamie, stare at them all you like and I'm not surprised they're your favourite species, stunning butterflies.

Cheers Wurzel, if only


Next up - Green-veined White.

Last Spring I dug up some Honesty plants from my mums garden and potted them up. No sooner had I placed the potted plants out in our garden when a female G-v White found them and laid a couple of eggs on a wilting leaf. Only one egg hatched and after the larval and pupal stages this beauty emerged. I posted a picture of her on my PD at the time but not this one, which I have found since. I also include a shot of the pupa shortly before the emergence of the adult butterfly and a shot of the empty pupal case.

Absolutely stunning Green-veined White - I've never enountered such a 'yellow' white as that
Have a great Christmas and a cracking New Year!

Wurzel

Cheers Wurzel, it's a second brood female which might account for the more yellow colouration.



In my recent Purple Hairstreak post I forgot to include the following photo. It shows a freshly emerged PH which has part of the larval case stuck behind its head, I can't remember if it fell off or not

I'd like to wish everyone on UKB a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a GREAT 2015.

Maximus wrote:Cheers Wurzel, it's a second brood female which might account for the more yellow colouration.

I have seen the nice yellow colour on both spring and summer brood examples but only when they are fresh, they soon fade to the more normal colour.

Great Purple Hairstreak photos Mike..and thanks for the mention in your earlier post about my PH double from Bernwood

Hope you have a great Christmas and New Year and here's looking forward to 2015,

Cheers,

Neil.

Cheers Neil, and yes on reflection I agree that they do fade to the normal white quite quickly.




Yesterday was our first trip to Noar Hill of 2015, our intention to look for Brown Hairstreak eggs. A timed one hour count along just one path on the reserve gave a total of 35 which included 5 doubles.
It was great to get out and nice to see that there appear to be plenty of BH eggs.

That is a great find Mike and it looks like a cartoon character - the eggs are the eyes, the side branch the nose and the little nubbin a tongue poking out the corner of the mouth...I'll get my coat

Have a goodun

Wurzel