www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Hi all,
After my attempts to photograph the Grizzled Skippers at Mill Hill (West Sussex) on Saturday were thwarted by an over-friendly spaniel and the weather - at one point I was virtually pinned to the slopes by a particularly malevolent hail storm - Sunday was considerably better. The numbers are building quite rapidly and as they buzzed around in the late afternoon sunshine, a pair of peregrines performing a 'food drop' overhead provided a nice bonus.
Neil

Wonderful butterfly, and lovely pictures!

Guy

Thanks Guy,
Now that Pete has given me fool-proof instructions (I just passed the test!) on how to append photos, I hope to add stuff on a regular basis now. I'm off to a wood in East Sussex soon, where I'm hoping to get a shot of the aberrant form taras. I know you get it on your patch - lovely little critter!
Neil

Are there places in England where taras is sufficiently frequent you can go there hoping realistically to get it? I didnt know that. I see one or two a year, mostly in my garden.

I take dozens of grizzled skipper pictures every year because this is such a variable butterfly and almost every one seems to be different. These five are all from my garden, taken in 2007. They look like five different species!



(ab. intermedia)



(that's my house in the background)

Guy

padfield wrote:
(that's my house in the background)

Me jealous?...never...

Martin wrote:Me jealous?...never...

Come and pay me a visit, Martin!

Guy

Hi Guy,
Yes, there are one or two places where this usually rare aberration crops up on a regular basis. This is because it appears to be genetically influenced, unlike some aberrations which are environmentally influenced and more random in their appearance. Extreme temperature changes while in the pupal state can cause the latter, and some breeders have historically subjected their stock to temperature shock, in the hope of producing aberrant forms. Forms like taras are produced by a 'recessive gene', which will be knocking about in most populations. However, the 'dominant gene' (responsible for the 'normal' form) will always mask it, so you need two adult butterflies, both with the 'recessive gene', in order to produce a taras or intermedia. In one or two places the 'recessive gene' is sufficiently common within an isolated population (gene pool), to keep popping up on a fairly regular basis. Dreaded statistics play a major part. It appears that you have this situation around your house - which is rather lucky for you!
Neil

padfield wrote:

Martin wrote:Me jealous?...never...

Come and pay me a visit, Martin!

Guy

Be careful what you wish for

Seriously though, if I can work it in with work we will meet before the end of July...either at your house or the south of France

Martin.

Neil: I imagine that grizzled skipper populations, this being a very sedentary butterfly, do have particularly characteristic local gene pools. It is possible that all my insects are the direct descendants of a very few ancestors - I have been particularly assiduous in managing the land for butterflies since I began renting the chalet about 7 years ago (which actually means doing almost nothing - just timing the annual scythe right) and I am proud to say the numbers of most species have increased. If there has been a lot of inbreeding then recessive genes obviously have a greater chance of being expressed than in populations with wider ancestral roots.

There is just one species that seems to have declined in my garden while I have been here - the Duke of Burgundy. I didn't see any at all last year. However, this species is seeing a general decline in Switzerland, for reasons that escape me. It still flies in some of the local meadows, but in low numbers. I'll keep a special eye out for it in 2008 in the garden.

Martin: I look forward to it! More pairs of eyes means more great finds!

Guy

Hi Guy,
Yes, I think that's pretty much the case with your local Grizzled Skipper population. Duke of Burgundy as a garden butterfly too - outrageous! Along with the Purple Emperor, a firm favourite of mine. Unfortunately the species is really struggling here as well. Saw my first Sussex Duke 'tomorrow' in 2007, but I think it will be another two weeks this year in view of the weather.
Neil

I wonder if it would be possible to have Duke of Burgundy in the garden in England? Gardens could provide the right habitat structure for it - a scrub/grassland mosaic, which is what many gardens basically are - presumably it is missing the foodplant being grown in the right conditions, or some similar structural requirement which could be replicated.

What claims are made for the most unusual garden butterflies in Britain? Anyone with Purple Emperor?

My best are Wall Brown and Clouded Yellow here (Cambridgeshire) and at earlier abodes, Grayling (Gloucestershire, Norfolk), Purple Hairstreak (Sussex)

Jack

29th June 2007, Hampshire and Isle of Wight sightings page:
Cheers,

- Pete

That's fantastic, Pete! For a coprophagous creature like a purple emperor, landing on a soap dispenser must be the ultimate in revulsion!!

Guy

A reference to Benjamin Britten and coprophagia on the UKB website... what a star you are sir!

Felix.

Felix wrote:A reference to Benjamin Britten and coprophagia on the UKB website... what a star you are sir!

Guy

Just for a moment I thought we had gone all 'highbrow', until Guy dropped the coprophagia 'bombshell'! Matsukaze's point about gardening for Dukes had me thinking. In it's scrubby grassland habitat association, the key point for the species is the provision of cowslips in the correct growth form for oviposition; namely partially shaded, fleshy plants with semi-erect leaves. 'Any old cowslip' just will not do! It is similarly choosy about the form and microhabitat of primrose in it's last remaining woodland colonies. If you could provide a sizeable, warm, sheltered (they HATE wind) garden with plenty of the above, I suppose it's theoretically possible to get them going for a while. Bit sad though - like tigers in a zoo. I know of one person that has had both Dukes and Emperors in his garden! Living in a nature reserve, surrounded by partially coppiced woodland does help!
Neil

jackharr wrote:What claims are made for the most unusual garden butterflies in Britain? Anyone with Purple Emperor?

My best are Wall Brown and Clouded Yellow here (Cambridgeshire) and at earlier abodes, Grayling (Gloucestershire, Norfolk), Purple Hairstreak (Sussex)

Jack

I got Purple Hairstreak on the oak in my front garden last year, and Brown hairstreak in the back garden. No PEs yet, but I know they are out there in the woods ....

Here in Cambridgeshire there are few sites with Grizzlies.....a disused railway at a place called (prophetically) Over, about 8 miles out of Cambridge was the most dependable site and had been managed by BC volunteers over a number of years to reach that state. However, it stood in the way of progress - with a (mis-) Guided Bus scheme being driven right through the colony! Of course, the planners trumpeted the fact that they had created an area nearby for the butterflies to use (anyone speak Grizzly to direct them to their new homes?); when last viewed it looked like a bomb-site on top of the hill, with bare slopes and damp hollows. Over time it may become a suitable habitat; by then of course it may be too late! Let us hope a few survive the construction in the original railway cutting; JackHarr pointed out that if they did hang-on, it may provide a corridor for them to spread.

Here's one from last year
NickB