Dingy and Grizzled Skippers seen 6th April at Hutchinsons Bank, also a fully grown Glanville Caterpillar marching off to pupate, things early this year, but it is a warm site.

Is this going to become a 'typical' haunt for this species or is a one off this year? What the hell here are a few more :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Have a goodun Wurzel It has been seen in this forest 4 years running, so it seems to be breeding and established in a wide area, there are enough Males and Fem...

Strangely enough we saw our first one of the day at 9.00am on the other side of the road, sunny itself in a small clearing( W3W tint.refreshed.indicate) Amazing to see these beautiful butterflies, had 3 for the day and watching them fly was a real joy, lifers for us. Yes we heard of that early sigh...

We had the first one down on the track after 1pm, 1.16pm on this log, signaled all the others who had been looking from 11.30am with no luck, then good sightings until 3.30pm ish. Good to bump into you all again. The Group photo at peak with 2 together and a comma 1.58pm DSC07872s.JPG DSC08096s.JPG

A curious Small Blue which I think might have been a bilateral gynandromorph (you can see the difference in size and shape of the wings, near side male, far side female) however it never opened it's wings for conformation so it will have to stay as a maybe :? Small Blue, Hutchinson's Bank.JPG I thi...

Two Pictures of Small Blues taken 10th May 2024 at Chapel Bank NR in Surrey
Lower numbers this year and in 2 broods rather than the 17 weeks without a break as usual
6 Weeks 2 week gap then 5 weeks in 1s and 2s and a total of 66, down from 1400 in 2019

Yes Monarchs love tuberosa, but you have to watch adults dont get trapped in the flowers, as with all in the genus and relatives grab hold of insects legs.

The Autumn issue of BC devon shows a caterpillar of Marsh Fritillary on Plantain too, so it seems they are using it, also the adult pictures from Cotley Hill show them resting on Plantain, so again lots availiable if the Devils-Bit runs out there too, due to population size.

The previous Surrey Butterfly county recorder has now gone, and been replaced within Surrey Butterfly Conservation, the previous one was discredited although papers by him are still around, but should only be taken for their comic value.

HoneySuckle, used in the wild, and Snowberry and Teasle also listed. It seem to have the widest foodplant list of our 3 true Fritillaries, now all the others are Heliconids.

First Nature, Wildlife Insight, and i think its in Margaret Brooks book, although my copy is not to hand. The Marsh at Hutch do not like the Devil's Bit, and prefer other Scabious, Knapweeds and Plantains, larvae moved from the middle of the path and put on Devils Bit, wander stright off, back to th...

Hutchinsons Bank is a very warm site too, with temps upto 10 degrees warmer than the surrounding area when the sun is out, the banks face South West at an angle of about 30 degrees to 40 degrees in the cutting.

Shared Webs with Glanvilles will not happen on many other sites, and the larvaes temptation to group is very strong, sometimes nearby webs will merge in the spring in the sunning stage.

Yes they were definately Marsh Larvae that merged into a Glanville Web, Plantain is listed as an alternative foodplant "In Britain and Ireland the main larval foodplant of the Marsh Fritillary is Devil's-bit Scabious, Succisa pratensis, with various plantains (Plantago spp) also used occasional...

A few from the persistant population at Hutchinsons Bank, they are using Small Scabious, Field Scabious and Plantain as larval foodplants.

Was a good year for Large Tortoiseshells, infact on my transect ended the year 2 all with Small Tortoisehell, but the 2nd St was week 26 so nearly had double the number of LTs. DSC05469s.JPG DSC05538s.JPG DSC05558s.JPG The 4th year in a row we have had records, but the first time i managed to photog...

The Glanville Fritillary had a good year at Hutchinsons and Chapel Bank, with 54 larval webs over the winter it was going to be, here are a few shots of mine taken in the busy time of the year for the site

Some Duke photos taken from the 18th April at Chapel Bank Surrey

Brown Hairstreak have continued their spread into Kent, ive been mapping this since 2019. Had to extend the map again. Here are a few Brown Hairstreak pictures one at Farleigh Dean Crescent, where i was trying to find one for a visitor, and found this one 10 minutes before he had to go, and one on t...

There have been a few sightings recently, and they normally arrive early August so would be tatty by now.