www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with a birder I met who hailed from the Isle of Wight. He knew his butterflies and confirmed that Glanville Fritillaries are doing extremely well with super-abundance at the hotspot of Wheelers Bay, many spilling over into the seaside public gardens at Ventnor. This isn’t new information.

However, what he did add when I talked about colonies on the mainland is that while he knew about the one just across the water from the island, he said there had been one on the Dorset coast (no mention of locality) for some time. He didn’t know of the introduced colony at Sand Point, Weston-super-Mare, nor at Wreccklesham but intriguingly mentioned one in Gloucestershire (“somewhere in the Cotswolds” was all he knew but said that the butterflies had been seen there in 2011).

Surely this can have nothing to do with the hundreds of Glanville Fritillary larvae I naughtily released at Caudle Green (SO946102) in spring 1976? I saw adults there in 1976 and a few again the following year but none thereafter.

Jack

Hi! Jack , I'm going to the Dorset coast mid May to June, I'll try to find out where they've been seen , on the other hand if anyone knows, let me Know, Goldie M

I suspect my informant was slightly confused and maybe he thought that Hordle Cliff, Milford-on-Sea is in Dorset but it is actually in Hampshire. GFs used to occur at Hordle (so I understand) but I believe it was a short-lived (natural) colony that has now probably died out.

Jack

Hi Jack
I went to Hordle Cliffs in 2008 but not a sign. I think I saw it confirmed sometime in 2009 that the last sightings had been 2 or 3 in 2007. From what I've been told, the Glanville's need fresh disturbance of ground (usually from coastal erosion) to do well. The Hordle colony was always very small, based on a small patch of suitable ground, and wasn't being topped up by new colonists from the Isle of Wight. I guess it was almost inevitable it would fail in the longer term, sadly.
Paul

Did anyone pop in at Wrecclesham at the end of the summer to look for larval nests?

Dave