www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I braved sub-zero temperatures in the Rhône Valley today to hunt for hairstreak eggs.

Here is a brown hairstreak:



Some eggs are hard to find, but others stand out a mile:



Some are almost impossible to photograph because they are so tightly wedged in forks:



This is a sprig of oak with a purple hairstreak egg:



There are two purple hairstreak eggs in this picture:



And in this:



A last purple hairstreak:



I have no idea what this egg is - any suggestions? It is on blackthorn.




Finally, does anyone know what these are, also on blackthorn?



Guy

Wonderful to see.... I've been out locally & not found anything at all. .. apart from one WLH ova in Wensleydale

PS Guy... we lost Daisy this week...short illness

I'm truly sorry about Daisy.

I remember you posting WLH eggs in the past. You must have PH up north too ...

I find it quite hard on the eyes after an hour or two looking for these tiny blobs!!

Guy

Yep, you understand how it feels wrt dog, I know.

I've taken over the WLH co-ordination for Yorks.... data is fascinating... over the past 10 years counts slowly built up over 6 years then crashed in 07, & are just beginning to recover... now back to Y2000 status... a long way to go to get back to 2006. We do have PH as well, indeed they (did) fly in the Oak at the bottom of the garden, but my impression is their numbers track those of the WLH, ie well down just now.

Wonder what our harsh winter will do? ( discussed in other threads) - we will see, no doubt.

Over riding feeling is one of just what our species have to do to cling to their foothold, at least at this lattude, without all our human influences!!!

Paul, interesting you should mention a crash in 2007. I first started looking for this butterfly that year, and managed to find a few larvae in the spring, and plenty of signs of feeding damage on the seed discs. Nothing the last two springs, though a few moth and Comma larvae on the elm leaves.

Yep

I had no feel for it until I saw the data.... just so happened I had started lookng in 2006.... no idea whether the data I have is repeatable across the UK though.. I suspect not.

I can't contribute to the discussion on recent trends in the UK because I've been out of the country for too long. In my youth they were recovering (successfully) from Dutch elm disease but I also know they are periodically subject to crippling parasitic infections and in some years a great many eggs are apparently affected.

I did go out looking for WLH eggs this morning but suddenly discovered I couldn't identify wych elm in the snow, when there were no leaves to be found. In the summer I found several young wych elm trees/bushes growing by the path but I didn't note exactly where. I have had the same problem with honeysuckle, looking for white admiral hibernacula - I simply can't identify the bush, among the dozens of other bushes present. HOWEVER, I did check out a few oaks while walking home and found this purple hairstreak egg lurking not 200m from my house:





This was good news because I've never seen the adults around here (I only moved in a year ago, though). For this species, which lays consistently in easily accessible and predictable places (south side of young oaks, isolated or on edge of woods, at accessible heights) I think winter egg hunting must be a very good way of finding where it flies.

Guy

I've had feedback on the fluted ova, which I'm told is likely to be Brick, but I haven't tried to find images thereof yet.

Thanks, Paul. According to UK Moths, this moth feeds on elm and poplar, not blackthorn. Neither of these plants occurs in the immediate vicinity of the blackthorn stand where the egg was. However, each related species on UK Moths does seem to take a different host plant, and all seem to emerge in the autumn (appropriate for overwintering eggs), so perhaps I'll browse through related species in the books until I find one that uses blackthorn.

Guy

It's a strange old world.
I was looking at Guy's excellent Brown Hairstreak ova photographs this morning whilst listening the Archers.
Good old Linda Snell was trying to drum up help in doing a (you guessed it) count of Brown Hairstreak eggs around Ambridge.
I really need to get a life....................

Strange old world indeed... Let us know how the BH egg hunt around Ambridge goes.

I wonder if UK Butterflies could make it onto the Archers. Do we know who the county recorder for Borsetshire is?

Guy