www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

We've had some strong southerly gales recently, which means that the areas on oak canopy where Purple hairstreaks lay eggs have been somewhat battered, dropping twigs and branches. I picked up nine twigs with Purple hairstreak eggs off the ground in a fairly short inspection of a local oakwood.
These eggs already contain tiny caterpillars which will overwinter in the egg and hatch in spring when the leaf buds start to burst. The ones on the fallen twigs will hatch and starve though as there will be no live buds to eat.

I rear and release a few rescued ones each year, which gives a fascinating insight into the lifecycle and a rare close up view of this tree-top species, and in this case there are no ethical concerns about sourcing eggs: you can only be helping the species as ones from fallen twigs wouldn't otherwise survive.

If anyone wants to try it, now is the time to look for them as the chances of finding them are a higher than usual after the strong southerlies.

There is a rearing guide here: https://butterfly-conservation.org/site ... iMnZkAba-Y

Thanks for posting these images, Chris. Could you check your Private Messages next time you log in please?


Vince

Beautiful images, Chris. I'd give it a go were it not for the fact that I'll be out of the country in the most critical phases of their development.

Yesterday I was gutted to find that a lovely old mature Oak just South of my village has succumbed to one of the Autumn/Winter storms. Not sure how long it has been down, but decided I should try to rescue some of the doomed Purple Hairstreak eggs it housed. I now have 22 . I have tried (unsuccessfully!) to grow the odd PH egg from wind-blown twigs before, but now have a better chance... I'll be following Chris' info VERY carefully to see if I can get some through to adulthood.

Wow, good luck Trevor.

Whenever I've had decent numbers of eggs like that I tend to end up with a crate full of plastic bottles holding cut oak twigs in water!

I think the key is to have faith that there are tiny caterpillars tucked away here and there and keep refreshing the twigs with new ones (new twigs touching old ones), even if you don't have evidence of their presence. Old dried twigs can be discarded once they are very dead, but be aware that caterpillars still make nests on them and rest there, camouflaged, so worth inspecting thoroughly before discarding!

Then once they are bigger it is easier to actually keep track of them, rather than having to trust that they are in there somewhere.

Thanks Chris
I'll never have a better chance, so fingers firmly crossed!

Thanks to Chris' advice, I am now the Obstetrician responsible for looking after 8 Purple Hairstreak pupae arising from the eggs rescued from the fallen Oak detailed above. I believe 5 are male and 3 female. Fingers crossed they emerge and inflate their wings as they should. I hope to release them back around the nearest standing mature oak to the dead one

I collected a bunch of fallen oak twigs earlier in the month, hoping to pick up some Purple Hairstreak larvae. Instead I got this formidable beast - Twin-spotted Quaker moth, Anorthoa munda.

The final rewards of my rescue attempt - Worth every minute. Thanks to Chris for the advice

Excellent result Trev - well done on a successful project!