Whites

[wavelea1]

So it's not just me.
According to the One Show tonight (they seem to be focussing on butterflies each night this week) the poor weather doing so much damage to many species seems to be promoting the Whites.
Recent Blogs have indicated a large number of them in gardens and my experience is of more Brimstones around than I have seen for this time of year than ever before.

Do any of the brains out there have an explanation or is it just that this family of species like damp weather? Although I haven't seen a Clouded Yellow this year!

Wavelea1

[thepostieles]

yes wavelea, ive found theres loads of large and small whites about this year, havent seen any brimstones though, but not much buckthorn about this part of cheshire

[Padfield]

I didn't see the programme - sounds interesting.

Yesterday I went out butterflying and it was raining when I reached my first site (having been cloudy all morning). Within seconds of the rain stopping a wall brown flew. The second butterfly I saw was a green-veined white, closely followed by a small white. For a while, while it was overcast and rather cold, whites were the only thing I could see. Then a grayling appeared and some more Satyrids. When the day finally hotted up the blues became more abundant.

Whites do seem to be rather more temperature-tolerant than other species, in my experience. Their colour means they won't change temperature quickly, as white not only absorbs heat less readily than black but also radiates it less readily. So the Satyrids lose heat quickly when the day gets cold even though they can fly in gloomy, warm weather. In the mountains, the Erebia species suddenly dive right down into the grass and disappear completely (it's difficult to find them even when you look) when the temperature gets too low, even though cloud itself doesn't seem to bother them. Perhaps whites can hang around longer before the temperature gets to them...

I expect someone else has a better, biological answer - that's just the physics teacher in me talking!

Guy

[Shirley Roulston]

White butterflies are everywhere in my garden in North Wales, the little blighters are also attacking my cabbages in my polytunnel, they are pairing up every few minutes!!, they love the buddlia, even when its cool they are about. I suppose my garden is sheltered when out of it, the wind is cold so they have come from across the village and are sticking to my garden. I did wonder why the Blue Tits were in the polytunnel, must be the catapillars. That's nature I suppose.