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Glanville Fritillary - Favourite Photo of 2019

Week 6

Another week closer to the Social and with temperatures in single digits another week to spend looking back and reminiscing about butterfly days past.

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos as then it will be easier to keep track of things? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As in previous years details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome as would any accompanying stories and anecdotes or other observations of behaviour and interesting other points.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

My first ever trip to the Wrecclesham colony is where I got my fav shots this year. A mixture of sunny spells and cloud cover gave me the chance to get a good range of shots and made them easy to approach.

I had a look through my European images from this year and couldn't find a single one of this lovely species! Shame on me.

Thanks for reminding us how striking this rare UK resident is, BB.

I visited both of the sites where this species has been introduced - Wrecclesham and Hutchinsons Bank (though at the latter it might technically speaking be a re-introduction...).

I saw just the one at Hutchinsons Bank, down along the bottom path that runs parallel to Featherbed Lane. This is a spot where I have seen them before, cruising up and down and paying no heed whatsoever to the obstruction waving a camera at them. On 2nd June I met up with Wurzel and Philzoid at Wrecclesham, and we soon were joined by Ernie. Here there were a good number of fresh individuals (I think Ernie counted 19), and the weather involving sunny intervals was ideal. Choosing from the many shots taken was however very tricky. It would be terrific if this species was more widespread - part of my local patch for example has many areas of shallow poor soil with large clumps of plantain that persist year on year. However, I realise that the broader continuity of habitat simply does not exist to support the metapopulation structure required for the species to thrive on a long-term basis. (Something like that anyway! )

Dave

That second example is a beautiful, dark-coloured specimen, Dave. Were it not for the hindwing spots you could be fooled for a few moments into thinking it was a Heath Frit.

I was lucky enough to get quite a bit of contact with this species this year because of a small colony near my workplace. Here are 3 different subjects.
Mating pair 30th April: Egg hatching on Plantago lanceolata 13th May: Parasited cat 11th April: Chris

Glanville Fritillary

This was taken on a fantastic Sunday at Wrecclesham where hopefully the Glannie will continue to prosper and the fence will stay in a state of disrepair, fingers crossed on both fronts. It was my favourite as it’s my best stained glass effort to date with for this species and when I see it memories of cracking day in cracking company come tumbling back. I thought that I’d managed to get one earlier in the visit but I was distracted twofold; first by making a popular culture reference for comical affect and secondly by trying to film said Glannie on my iPod. Luckily this Glannie presented itself just as Philzoid and I were about to make tracks and proceeded to adopt my favourite pose.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

millerd wrote: ↑Tue Nov 19, 2019 9:48 pm I visited both of the sites where this species has been introduced - Wrecclesham and Hutchinsons Bank (though at the latter it might technically speaking be a re-introduction...).

I saw just the one at Hutchinsons Bank, down along the bottom path that runs parallel to Featherbed Lane. This is a spot where I have seen them before, cruising up and down and paying no heed whatsoever to the obstruction waving a camera at them.
Dave

The Glanvilles were early in 2019 with the First Brood out on 20th April, and by 22 May they would be near the end of their flight, the Second Brood appeared on 3rd August, and were strange seeing them fly with Brown Hairstreaks on the same day, and all 3 fritillaries that occur on the same day, Dark Green, Silver-Washed and Glanville. They were seen into mid-September.

Here are a few of my pictures,
20th April fresh male 1st Brood
15th May female knackered 1st Brood
5th August male Second Brood
23rd August female 2nd Brood

The 2nd Brood offspring web made it to hibernation size, and wandered off on the cutting bank to spin their hibernation web in October.

Doesn,t look like a "Knackered " individual to me Paul ,but an abberant individual …………………..and a nice one at that !
Merry Xmas ! Regards Allan.W.

Sorry mr.Spock ,mistook the above entry for "Testudo man" ………………………. Sorry about that !
Regards (and Merry Christmas !) Allan.W.