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In the spring I saw and photographed a single large copper in a field outside Geneva. Today I went back there to see if the species was more numerous in the summer generation but saw none. Nevertheless, it was a good day.

Reverdin's blues were on their way out. I saw several females and a male, all looking very tired and geriatric but happy! Of them all, this one was in the best nick, still showing a little of the trademark orange:



Both species of short-tailed blue were flying, often in the same field. Here are first a short-tailed blue then a Provençal short-tailed blue:





I also saw a long-tailed blue, making the hat-trick, but it didn't stop, not being anywhere near any peas or bladder senna. Other blues included common, mazarine, little and chalkhill - the last out in good numbers but nothing like the plague proportions some of you are seeing in the UK this year.

Here is a brown argus:



It seems only yesterday the first dryads were flying. Now they are looking like yesterday's butterflies. This is a female:



Very few skippers were flying. I saw a few dingies and two Oberthür's grizzlies:



Heath was by far the commonest fritillary:



Finally, here are a couple of other bugs - a shieldbug (Dolycoris sp. - baccarum?) and a mantis:





I looked on the sloe for brown hairstreaks but had very little time as I had a rendezvous back in Huémoz in the early afternoon.

Guy

is that brown argus on a spiked speedwell? it's a lovely plant and butterfly.

Chris

ChrisC wrote:is that brown argus on a spiked speedwell?

I think it is, Chris. The site is very hot and dry, just the sort of place this plant loves. And I agree, brown arguses are super little butterflies - so neat and exquisitely marked.

Guy

DAY 6

Apart from the unholy head (which at least looks less disproportionate now), Big T is looking more and more like a purple emperor caterpillar.





His leaf is nibbled a little around the edges but is not yet showing the characteristic pattern of later in the autumn:



I estimate he is about 3mm long at the moment. When he has vacated that leaf I will measure the end carefully so these pictures can be marked up with a scale.

Guy

Still making good progress.

When you observe a lighter coloured swelling immediately behind the head, that will be the sign that it is fully fed in its first instar. The 'horns' will be in that swelling. It will then spend a day or so immobile at the leaf tip and stretch to stress the old skin and black head which will soon drop or be wiped off. Then the old skin slides down towards the back of the larva revealing a brand new skin ..

The 'horns' will be limp at first and not erect or facing forward until they soon become positioned and angled in that more familiar stance so typical of the second and later instar larva. It may be another day or so before it takes its next meal from the leaf.

Thank you again, CC.

The transition from 1st to 2nd instar is the only one I've never observed and photographed, so if he survives that long it will be very interesting. For his own sake, of course, I hope he survives all the way through ...

It was cloudy today so I decided to visit some of my old mushroom haunts. For fun, and because it's free, I took the télécabine to the top of the mountain and cycled down to the mushroom woods.

The beginning of the journey ...



... and the beautiful views from near the top:



In Switzerland the clouds are sometimes above you, sometimes below you and sometimes all around you.

This is the tiny village of Taveyanne. As I cycled down, and through the village, I remembered that I really do love living in this part of the world.



And the trip provided supper. There seemed to be a bumper crop of hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum), which are delicious and almost never magotted.





Somebody had been through before me and taken all the large ceps but there were plenty of baby ones around. I make a point of taking some and leaving some, with all species.



Baby bolets like that are also maggot-free.

The third species to fill the basket was Lactarius deliciosus, a very common mushroom here but one which the locals hardly touch at all.

Before:



After (served on turmeric rice and with a pint of Fuller's London Pride):



I should have my own vegan cookery show.

Guy

It looks very nice Guy. If we don't hear from you tomorrow I'll call the emergency services!

Please do, Nick! I'm pretty careful with mushrooms and avoid certain groups completely. I never eat any of the Amanita species, even though some are allegedly very good, and only touch two of the Clitocybe group, namely, geotropa - sweet, firm and never even slightly maggoted - and nebularis, which is very easy to identify, though nothing special to eat. Other Clitocybe are rather similar to each other and one or two species are deadly.


Clitocybe sp. in the woods today. Probably would have been a tasty addition to supper but might just have killed me.

Only once did I suffer consequences. I'd eaten a meal with about half a dozen species in it and that night I dreamt vividly and unpleasantly of just one of them, Leccinum scabrum. I woke up in the middle of the night and was violently and painfully ill till morning. I later discovered that friends I had encouraged to eat Leccinum scabrum had also been ill that year and I think there might have been a secondary fungus growing on it. The baby cep, in the picture above, might have a secondary fungus on it (it is very white) but it won't kill me if it has. There are relatively few lethal fungi.

Guy

I'm dog-sitting for a week, which means a walk to the woods every morning - so I should be able to follow Tiberius closely as he moves into his second instar.

This morning I found he had moved back to his birth leaf:



The white splodge is where his egg was.

He remains in deepest shade. This is the best photo I could get of him without moving his branch:



You can see he is already acquiring the characteristic saddle, or 'hands behind the back'. This is day 8 of the first instar. Since day 1 his body has lengthened and filled out but of course his head has remained the same size. This picture is from day 1:



I think he is about 5mm long now. I underestimated his length a few days ago.

For anyone interested in the larval stage of the purple emperor, there is an excellent précis of Matthew Oates's British Wildlife article on the subject here: http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/reports_ ... ldlife.php.

Guy

padfield wrote:his body has lengthened and filled out but of course his head has remained the same size.

I know how he feels

Glad the funghi didn't get you! I haven't heard the "hands behind the back" metaphor before - so thanks for that!

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote:I haven't heard the "hands behind the back" metaphor before - so thanks for that!

The description often fitted Aurelian, during his third instar especially:



I don't know what the saddle is for but during hibernation it turned red and seemed to contribute towards his camouflage on a joint in the twig:



Guy

DAYS 9 & 10

Repeated apologies for the dire quality of the images here: I am trying to get photos in the shade, with a compact, without touching any leaves or twigs AND with a dog panting at my heels wanting me to throw her ball...

On day 9 Tiberius had a kind of collar but no discernible swelling:



This morning there was a definite swelling. Even from a distance the area behind his head was visibly paler and protuding:



I might try and get a better photo of this later this afternoon, without the dog. According to CC, this swelling is the horns growing beneath the present skin. In a day or two he should shed this skin and start growing into his new one.

There are few species about in the woods at the moment. Dryads are common, as well as Provençal short-tailed blues, but the most abundant species is Scotch argus. Like most butterflies in today's searing heat, it was restricting itself to deep shade, but unlike most others it was nectaring with its wings fully spread.



Guy

DAY 10 cont'd

I did go back this afternoon but better photos were not really possible. Tiberius is lurking in the shade. Without touching or moving anything I was never going to get a decent picture.


(natural light)


(the same picture with the light edited a little to bring out more detail)


(another crop)

Guy

DAY 12

I really do hope Big T is at the end of his first instar now, as I am leaving for England soon and want to see him into the second instar before I go! He has continued to change appearance over the last couple of days and looks to be laid up for ecdysis:





I hope when I visit tomorrow morning there will be a small hornéd creature waiting for me (probably hiding on some totally different leaf).

Guy

DAY 13

The area behind the head has swollen and lightened and now stands out at a distance like a sore ... well, neck.

I'm intrigued the authorities give 10-12 days as the duration of the first instar because Tiberius has enjoyed perfect conditions since his birth, with consistently high temperatures, and is still waiting to lose his baby-face.





Guy

That larva is just about ready to change. The old head is simply an empty shell now. When the old skin splits just behind the head, it's not unusual for the empty shell to remain on the new head as the larva erects its 'horns'. Then looks odd with both heads in place. When skin is completely shed, the larva will wipe the old head off if it is still in place after the change.

Thanks again, CC.

I'll be down to the woods first thing tomorrow morning and hope he's done the deed by then. It's been a real privilege to see this first instar through from beginning to end - something I never dared hope for when I found just one egg this summer.

Guy

I admire your dedication, Guy. Tales of Aurelian kept my spirits up last winter and hopefully Tiberius will do likewise this year.

Thanks David! No promises, mind - Big T's fate is almost entirely out of my hands. I would only intervene in his life if I were in a position to prevent human interference, whether by the foresters or walkers.

Lottie, my canine house-guest, is leaving tomorrow morning and she suggested we take a final walk to the woods this evening in the hope of finding Tiberius in the process of changing. It was a little after 20h00 when we got there and the light was fading. I couldn't see him at all when I arrived and spent the next ten minutes carefully examining every leaf on his branch (without touching). At length I noticed he was still exactly where he has been for the last few days - freshly moulted and all but invisible. His head and skin were nowhere to be seen, suggesting he was promoted at about lunchtime, before the storms (wind and rain) of the early afternoon, which would have washed his old clothes away.

It was too dark for my camera to take shots in natural light:



In case he wanders off to spend his second instar somewhere inaccessible - or unlocatable - I took the rare step of using flash, just for one picture, so I had a record of a second instar larva:



There he is, changed, washed and showered. I will, of course, try to get better pictures during the day tomorrow - and then I'll report on him less obsessively. According to Matthew Oates, the second instar is a tame affair, with little movement, little feeding, relatively little growth and relatively low losses (see Lynn Fomison's excellent summary here:
http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/reports_ ... ldlife.php).

Guy

Brilliant! This is better than Springwatch! Top stuff sir

Cheers,

- Pete