Pete Eeles

[David M]

Superb detective work, Pete. Good people normally get their rewards!

[Neil Freeman]

Fascinating report Pete and superb photo of the larva. Just goes to show the dedication and patience that goes in to obtaining some of your images of early stages. Brilliant stuff

Cheers,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Great stuff Pete - that is a cracking little streak of fuzz. Do the hairs have insulating properties or are they for camo or to put off predators?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Pete Eeles]

Great stuff Pete - that is a cracking little streak of fuzz. Do the hairs have insulating properties or are they for camo or to put off predators?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks all! I'm not sure what value the hairs add, Wurzel.

Tour of Asean

I've spent the last 2 weeks travelling around Asia (for work) - from Manila in the Philippines, to Singapore, to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, missing out on all of the action at home! However, I did have one weekend in Singapore and managed to visit the superb Botanic Gardens there - and saw a few butterflies. However, the rain in Singapore seems to be "binary"; it's either on, or off. And when it's on, it's at full pelt - no wimpy drizzle in this part of the world. Suffice to say, I was at the far end of the gardens (away from the Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) system) when the heavens opened and got absolutely soaked - not that you'd really feel it that much in the heat! Some photos below.

Botanic gardens

Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus) form alcippoides

Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus) form alcippoides, in spider's web - subsequently released!

Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus) larva

Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus) larva

Plains Cupid (Chilades pandava)

Common Rose (Pachliopta aristolochiae) inflating wings

Chocolate Pansy (Junonia hedonia ida)

Marina Bay Sands in Singapore

Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pauline]

Just seen your report and photos of the NBA larva Pete. Absolutely stunning! I am impressed by your perseverance and persistence and having started to look for larva myself recently I can appreciate first hand just how hard it is. It is also reassuring that there are others who share this particular madness

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks Pauline!

Greenham Common

Ah - it's good to be home and back to local sites. The trio of Green Hairstreak, Dingy Skipper and Grizzled Skipper, often found flying together, put on a show this morning at Greenham Common, despite the overcast conditions for the most part!

Cheers,

- Pete

[William]

Superb Green Hairstreak, Pete

BWs,

William

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks William!

Noar Hill and Greenham Common

I paid my first visit of the year to Noar Hill in largely-overcast conditions, but with plenty of butterfly activity nonetheless, with over 20 Dukes (and Duchesses) seen, including a mating pair that I saw couple after zero courtship! As well as a few Dingy Skippers I was pleasantly surprised to see my first (male) Common Blue of the year.

Duke

Duchess

Duchess

I also popped into Greenham Common on the way home and, with the cloud cover increasing, spent some time watching the Grizzled and Dingy Skippers going to roost on the various seed heads.

Dingy Skipper (male)

Cheers,

- Pete

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Pete,
That Green Hairstreak on bluebell is fantastic. One of the best images I've seen this year.
BWs, Neil

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks Neil - appreciated!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Goldie M]

I love the Dingy Skipper Pete, it's a real little acrobat Goldie

[Wurzel]

That is a sublime shot of the Greenstreak

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Pete,

I love the Green Hairstreak on the bluebell. Also the photos of the Duchess on the cowslip, particularly the underside image. Lovely

Cheers,

Neil

[trevor]

Thanks Pete, your comment is valued.

Best wishes,
TREVOR.

[Pete Eeles]

Thanks Goldie, Wurzel, Neil!

24 hour butterflying

I took an early morning walk yesterday, and came across 2 Orange-tip eggs laid side-by-side, presumably from the same female. Given that the larvae are cannibalistic, I thought this was worth reporting. I've no idea why a female would intentionally do this!

Orange-tip ova

I then set off for work and, due to work commitments yesterday and today, stayed over at the Holiday Inn next to Magdalen Hill Down. Of course, I made the most of visiting the down as butterflies were going to roost - especially the Brown Argus; a species that MHD is famous for.

Brown Argus

Brown Argus

Following an evening meal, and after the sun had gone down, I headed over to Stockbridge Down, arriving at 9:30pm. I hadn't searched for nocturnal larvae for many a year (the last time was (successfully) looking for Chalk Hill Blue larvae with Tim Norriss in 2004 - 11 years ago!). This time I was looking for Satyrid larvae and was not disappointed since, over the course of the next hour, I found in excess of 60 larvae, almost all Marbled White, with a few Meadow Brown thrown in. The Marbled White larva comes in 2 forms - brown and green, and it is the green form that is very difficult to separate from Meadow Brown. However, the colour of the head capsule (brown in Marbled White, green in Meadow Brown) and hair length (short in Marbled White, long in Meadow Brown) are diagnostic. Thanks to Guy Padfield, Vince Massimo and Mark Colvin for helping with the diagnoses!

Marbled White (brown form)

Marbled White (green form)

Meadow Brown

Of course, being alone at a remote site in the middle of the night is not to be recommended, for obvious reasons. But since I know the site well, and had a good amount of portable light (I have several LED strips which are just amazing!), I felt safe. Apart, that is, from the one instance when a deer decided to show its head from around the side of a bush (probably wondering what was going on) which scared the bejeezus out of me! Of course, this now means that butterflying is no longer confined to daylight hours, adding yet another dimension to an already-enthalling hobby

Cheers,

- Pete

[Wurzel]

I'd never thought about looking for butterflies/larvae at night, an interesting idea, now did you get such images you must of had a great flash rig

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Pete Eeles]

you must of had a great flash rig

Actually, no flash - which surprised me! The level of light from a strip of LEDs, held quite close to the larva, was sufficient to get the exposure time down to less than 2 seconds, while using a tripod-mounted camera and remote shutter release.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Butterflysaurus rex]

I expect the locals thought a UFO had landed Pete!

All the best

James

[IAC]

Hi Pete...sorry to butt into your diary...thought you would appreciate, perhaps the very fellow you traveled so far to see in the spring in larval state now spreading his wings on the Berwickshire coast today.


Iain

[Pete Eeles]

The past month has been rather hectic for me, with little opportunity to provide updates, so here's a mega-update which would normally be spread over at least 5 entries!

Bentley Wood
On 12th May I popped into the Eastern Clearing at Bentley Wood to see how the Pearl-bordered Fritillary were doing. At least a dozen males and half a dozen females were seen, with three females ovipositing in one small area that was drenched in sunlight. I'm always fascinated at how many fritillaries are able to "sniff out" the violets that are the larval foodplant before depositing an egg, often on the underside of nearby bracken rather than the food plant itself.

Pearl-bordered Fritillary - female

Pearl-bordered Fritillary - ovum

Bentley Wood

Stockbridge Down
On 17th May I revisited Stockbridge Down after dark, once again looking for Satyrid larvae, and this time in the company of Mark Colvin who kindly took some photos of yours truly! We found a few Meadow Brown larvae and, once again, over 50 Marbled White larvae were found, with a roughly 50/50 mix of green and brown form of the larvae.

Yours truly! Photo (c) Mark Colvin

Marbled White - larva

Marbled White - larva

Home
I deliberately left a good number of Garlic Mustard plants grow in the garden this year (or, more correctly, my wife has let me!) and several females (based on the age of the eggs I've found) have found them. Larvae are present in almost all instars and the patterning on the head, when seen close up, still amazes me!

Orange-tip - larva

Orange-tip - larva

I've also searched for nocturnal larvae closer to home and found an area where several Meadow Brown larvae were present and, while looking into a grass tussock where one larva had fallen, came across my first ever Meadow Brown pupa which really is beautifully-patterned and, based on other images I've seen, always seems to pupate with the larval skin left at the end of the pupa.

Meadow Brown - pupa

Noar Hill
I revisited Noar Hill on 2nd June, making a point of looking for Duke of Burgundy ova in an area that is used year after year by ovipositing females. I found several single eggs, and a few pairs. One pair was very close to hatching, where the hairs of the enclosed larvae were clearly visible through the eggshell. The highlight, however, was finding a pair where one of the larvae had already emerged. Setting up the camera gear, and concocting a makeshift windbreak, I sat for at least 2 hours before, eventually, the second larva emerged; a real privilege to experience!

Duke of Burgundy

Duke of Burgundy

Duke of Burgundy

Duke of Burgundy

Duke of Burgundy

Duke of Burgundy

Dorset - Durlston Country Park, Ballard Down, Corfe Castle
I had a meeting at Butterfly Conservation HQ (where I'm helping them with one of the IT projects) on 3rd June and decided to make the most of being in prime Lulworth Skipper territory. I first visited Durlston Country Park and, with good numbers of Common Blue seen in the car park, was hopeful of finding my target. However, the wind had other ideas and the closer I got to the sea, the windier it got. In fact, finding a sheltered spot anywhere was quite a challenge! And so I decided to move to Ballard Down, just the other side of Swanage. The site was more sheltered and several Adonis Blue were seen, but no Lulworths.

Durlston Country Park

On the way to BC HQ, I stopped off at Corfe Castle and there, right in the car park, I found at least 20 Lulworth Skippers (all male) and here, as everywhere, the wind made any photography extremely difficult. However, seeing the freshly-emerged Skippers (judging by their general condition) was a delight!

Corfe Castle

Lulworth Skipper - male

Lulworth Skipper - male

Lulworth Skipper - male

Lulworth Skipper - male

Craigavon Lakes, Northern Ireland
I travelled to Dublin on 4th June and had some time to visit Craigavon Lakes in Northern Ireland, a 90 minute drive from Dublin. The weather wasn't brilliant, but I did bump into "Peter and Danielle" who are conducting a mark-release-recapture (MRR) study of Cryptic Wood White. Of the 30 or so butterflies I saw, I didn't find a single marked-up adult, which would have been nice! However, I did find good numbers of males, especially, and half a dozen females, as well as a mating pair. I also managed to get some shots of the habitat, something I've been doing at every site I've visited so far this year in preparation for the addition of habitat information on UKB this coming winter.

Craigavon Lakes

Cryptic Wood White - male

Cryptic Wood White

Cryptic Wood White - female

Cryptic Wood White - female

The Burren, Ireland
The following day I was able to get to the Burren, but the wind was horrendous! I did find a few Dingy Skipper ssp. baynesi, but there was no way any photo was going to get taken in this Atlantic-facing habitat! However, I did manage to get a shot of a Wood White from this area - something that might prove useful should any analysis of Wood Whites from different parts of the British Isles be worthy of interest at some point! However, I did get some shots of the spectacular and unique landscape - I'm always amazed at just how rich the flora here is, growing in between the limestone slabs that characterise this part of the world.

The Burren

The Burren

Lough Bunny, The Burren

Wood White - male

Cheers,

- Pete