Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Cheers Trevor 'V Bomber' is a spot on description
Cheers Goldie Not long now - Bob, Bobette and Bobina are all still tucked up...
Cheers David You're right it is a shame that they're night-flying, but it makes them all the nicer when you find one in daylight.
Cheers Philzoid Of course I don't mind you posting those cracking shots, once I'd got over the jealousy that is I'd only just discovered the brown form of the moth as my Moths App had finally updated and then you've got a photo
Cheers Mr Spock This one obviously hadn't read up on itself as it was flying around mid morning

March 2016

Hopefully this will be the month when it all starts happening...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

It's all happening here Wurzel only it's not Butterflies it's Snow Goldie

[Wurzel]

Sorry to hear that Goldie Mind you it might mean that any last minute pathogens get knocked on the head and so you'll get to see more butterflies eventually

The Hairstreaks

36 Green Hairstreak, 03-05-2015 Duke Site

Quite a bit later this year than last (about three weeks) but I may have left my first visit until later in their flight time than I intended which may account for this. My first sighting was an individual with quite a bit of wear on the wings and even a few tears and nicks so it had been so knocking about for a bit. It was great to see them at the same site in the ‘usual place’ – check me out a few years ago this species was causing me to tear my hair out and now I have a ‘usual’ site.

They seem to have had a reasonable year, noting earth shattering but possibly not a backwards move. My Duke site threw up a good smattering across all of my visits as did my Marshie site on the single visit I made there. Unfortunately though I didn’t get to Martin Down this year and Larkhill didn’t have any either but Laverstock did – which was a new site for me to encounter the Greenstreak. That being said I’m not too sure if this is a regular site for this species as I saw my single Greenstreak here at the end of July which suggests that it could have been a transient individual that was hanging on past its ‘end date’. Still the end of July is pretty good going for a Greenstreak although it was so worn perhaps Grey streak would have been more appropriate?

37 Brown Hairstreak, 03-08 Shipton Bellinger

Almost a week earlier this year and reports from elsewhere would suggest that Brostreaks did okay in 2016. For me it was a bit up and down. After some phenomenal luck with a beautiful male early in their flight subsequent weeks away in Wales and Czech Republic meant that I almost missed the females at Shipton. There were reports from the previous days of at least 100 females all coming down and egglaying. We had to settle for brief sightings of Brostreaks but one female was nice enough to come down for some close up shots of possibly the most gorgeous coloured UK Butterfly. After that I was limited to the odd sighting and eventually two trips when I didn’t see a single Brostreak so perhaps they’d just gotten on and finished early as the weather took a real turn for the worst in the later part of August. So it is difficult to judge how well they did. Brilliantly judging by what others were saying but perhaps not so well from personal experience? I’ll go with what others were saying...

38 Purple Hairstreak, 11-07-2015 Bentley Wood

Very slightly later this year, about 5 days, but this was mainly because I didn’t get to Bentley Wood until slightly later. From my own experience although things still seem dire Purple Hairstreak wise there was a slight upturn in their fortunes. Last year I saw a most a couple of Purps at Bentley whereas this year there were at least a dozen or so along the main track, with a couple here and there further on in the wood towards Donkey Copse so definitely looking ever so slightly better. From a personal perspective a disappointing year as I missed out, again, on a photo of this species. However I am getting closer as I watched one drift down from the top of an Oak tree, it was looking like it was going to land and then someone coming along the path seemed to spook it so it flipped away from the leaf and floated back up into the canopy. I was gutted, especially as this chap was the same one that had spooked a grounded Emperor earlier. Oh well it will make getting a photo all the more sweeter when i eventually capture an image of a Purp.

39 White-letter Hairstreak, 11-07-2015 Bentley Wood

This species emerged much later this year but this later sighting could have been because I wasn’t actually looking. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit but I didn’t set out to see any Whitters this year. As I wasn’t going to be visiting the well known site where they come down frequently they were well off my radar. The only reason that I did see one was because I just happened to be in Bentley, things were going well for Emperors and so I wandered up to the Memorial and after a wee bit of neck craning there were the tell tale LBJ’s flitting out from the top of the (Wytch)Elms. I can’t really make an accurate judgement on how they did as I only ever see a few anyway but one thing that has concerned me is that the Elms this colony rely on are diseased an dying. Hopefully the surrounding suckers will be mature enough to offer the colony a suitable base.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Fantastic Wurzel, I love the open winged shots you don't often see them, hope fully I'll get to see some BHS this Summer. Goldie

[NickMorgan]

Lovely pictures Wurzel.

[Philzoid]

I agree with your comments about the scarcity of Purple Hairstreak Wurzel. In the hairstreak table I would say they’ve been relegated to 3rd (possibly fourth) behind Green and Brown (and white-letter) . I have not been seen them locally at all this last couple of years, yet 5 – 6 years ago they were common and certainly easy to get to see if not to photograph .

[Wurzel]

Cheers Goldie If you can get the timing right you're almost sure to get some Brostreaks - the golden time is from 11am to about 2-3pm
Cheers Nick for your kind comment
Cheers Philzoid Hopefully the Purps will bounce back like the Holly Blue and Small Tort have

Bristol Zoo - Part 1

It’s getting to that time of the year again – I’m progressing/almost finsihed with my ‘Tally’ posts, I’ve covered my Moths and everyone else is heading to Wisley for the Butterflies Under Glass. However I get to go to a different butterfly enclosure as each year I run the year 7 trip to Bristol Zoo. Once the pupils have seen the majority of the exhibits and have covered the work we need to do (adaptations and environments this year) they are allowed to look around in small groups. This allows some of the staff time for a coffee and me time in the butterfly house. Last year we left it until the summer to visit and so there were a few new species for me to acquaint myself with amongst the usual range.

First up the usual suspects...

Tiger long wing

Julia

Glasswing

Morpho

Paper Kite

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Lovely shots Wurzel, thanks for the advice, I plan to find them this year all being well. Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers Goldie Good luck with the Brostreaks.

Bristol Zoo - Part 2

The most common ‘newbie’ at Bristol this year (well really last year) was the Common Crow, Euploea core. This is a common lowland species from S Asia and Australia and is found in a wide range of habitats from tropical rainforests through to parks and gardens and even woodland near the beach. They often roost communally and so at dusk you can find 12 or so hanging from a twig and they also aestivate during the hotter parts of the year.

They have a steady , slow flight gliding with minimum effort as they seek out moisture, decomposing fruit and leguminous plants to imbibe from and are very bold when nectaring. Indeed when I was taking their photos they didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.

After a bit of research on the internet later all became clear as they are the ‘model’ in a Mullerian ring. The caterpillar feeds on noxious plants absorbing pyrrolizidine alkaloids. These are carried through to the adults making them distasteful to insectivorous birds. If a bird is desperate or inexperienced enough to try taking a Common Crow then the butterfly plays dead and exudes this noxious liquid and the nauseous bird lets go.
When I was visiting I was lucky enough so see almost the entire life cycle as there were eggs, caterpillars and the remains of pupal cases looking like miniature glass bottles.

I also witnessed the courtship behaviour. The males process the same alkaloids that offer them protection to produce pheromones to attract the females. They will glide slowly past the female and yellow brush like organs project from their abdomens to disperse the scent into the air to entice the female.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

That's fantastic Wurzel, what an amazing Butterfly, some of our BF's could do with a few of those Characteristics to survive here. Goldie

[Philzoid]

Excellent report and pictures Wurzel on the Common Crow. Funnily enough the only stage I've seen of this species is the pupa in the Benalmadena BH on my Spanish trip.

Phil

[David M]

If seeing tropical species in butterfly houses during the off-season is good enough for Guy Padfield, then it's good enough for all of us! I've done this myself and it provides a bit of a lift at a time when we cannot indulge ourselves outdoors due to inclement conditions.

Some interesting species there, Wurzel, and if I had somewhere local like this that I could 'dip into' during the winter then I'd be doing so two or three times a month!!

[MrSp0ck]

A few of us are lucky enough to have a Tropical Butterfly House in our own garden, but I only keep it going in the Spring, Summer and Autumn, as it is too difficult to keep the butterflies going through the winter.

We added a word Heliquarium to the language.

[Wurzel]

Cheers Goldie Mimicry is a fascinating thing.
Cheers Philzoid If I'd have known that I'd have asked to borrow your shots for the complete lifecycle.
Cheers David It's a once a year thing for me and barely 40 minutes if I'm lucky.
Cheers Mr Spock Sounds interesting - how many species do you have?

Bristol Zoo – Part 3

Another new species for me was the Mosaic or Dirce Beauty, Colobura dirce. When it came to identifying this species it was relatively easy as there are only 2 species to choose from in the Genus. Both are Neotropical favouring primary and secondary forest between 0-1400m and most frequently below 800m. They can also be found in orchards and shady forest. Colobura dirce does have two subspecies and ‘m guessing that this is the type and not wolcotti the Caribbean form.

I’m not sure if the adults are toxic but the young larva display an interesting behaviour to protect them from carnivorous ants. They produce frass chains from which they hang safe from the ants as the ants don’t like walking over it.

The pose shown below is fairly typical as the butterfly often perches, head down, about 2, up a tree where it imbibes sap and moisture from the cracks and crevices in the trunk, it may also imbibe from urine taking the salts. Once feeding it is reluctant to move but if not and it is disturbed it will evade predators and photographers by running around the tree trunk to the other side. I witnessed this once when a party of toddlers came racing in and spooked the butterfly. It was quite comical to watch it running round the trunk and is possibly the most pathetic predator evasion technique I’ve seen.

Near to the exit of the enclosure there are the rearing cases and it is interesting to see the pupal cases and the larva in various stages of development but a bit of a pain trying to get photographs through the glass. Inside were several adults that had recently emerged and hadn’t yet been released into the enclosure.
One looked like a massive Brimstone and turned out to be Anteos chlorinde, the White Angled Sulphur. This is a wide ranging American species seen throughout the year in the tropics and from August through to December in the northernmost part of its range (the Mexican subspecies nivifera). Not only is it wide ranging geographically but it is also found across most habitat types possibly because of its strong flight and migratory tendencies. Like the Brimstone of Europe it never settles with its wings open, relying on its cryptic shape and leaf veins to protect it.

The second butterfly visible through the looking glass as a real calico beauty. I finally nailed the identification down to Februa or Gray Cracker, Hamadryas februa, a neo-tropical species found in Central and South America in deciduous an subtropical woodland. They get their name because some of the Genus can produce a cracking sound when they take off. As the males open their wing hey cause spiny rods on the abdomen tip t brush against bristles on the anal spurs. Whether this is sued to trigger excitement in the females, deter other males or both is unclear.

In terms of photography they would seem to be real pains and so capturing this one on film before it could start showing ‘normal’ behaviour was quite lucky. They adopt a similar pose to the one in the shot; head down, wings wide apart and flat against the trunk but generally 10m up the tree. The males may come down to 2-3m but that’s still a bit of a pain for photography. If disturbed they’ll fly up high again but should return to their original resting place eventually via a series of ‘hops’ becoming increasingly lower each time

We have another visit planned for this year in July so hopefully I’ll see these species flying and behaving, not just sitting against the glass. Hopefully too they may have a few ‘new’ species as well...
Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Pauline]

Some smashing shots there Wurzel of exotic species. I'd be interested to know how big that White Angled Sulphur was? It looks quite impressive and remarkably similar to our Brimstone.

[Philzoid]

Great report and pictures Wurzel … and you’ve featured three species I’ve never seen at Wisely nor any other butterfly house for that matter .

Interesting to see a butterfly that has adopted the evasion tactics of a squirrel . Also, that cracker lives up to its name in looks alone

Phil

[Padfield]

Lovely pictures and an interesting write-up, Wurzel. I've yet to see the magnificent Anteos chlorinde in my local butterfly house (the Papiliorama) - nor have I seen Euploea core, though I've seen that commonly in India (where, as you describe, it hangs from trees in numbers with other Danaids). The Indian subspecies lacks the whitish apices. I have seen the closely related E. midamus in the Papiliorama, so watch out for that on your next trip. Both are mimicked by females of Hypolimnas bolina, another common butterfly house species. I've also seen both Colobura species in the Papiliorama - so it's worth examining those closely. They're obviously both on the breeding circuit.

Guy

[Wurzel]

Cheers Pauline The Sulphur ranges from 70-90mm wingspan, and I think the maximum Brimstone is in the mid 70s.
Cheers Phil The cracker is certainly named well!
Cheers Guy I'll have to keep my eyes open when I make my next visit in June, I might also take the girls to Butterfly World during the break as they're both still young enough to be interested in their 'uncool' dads hobby.

The Blues

40 Small Copper, 03-05-2015 Duke Site

If number of sites is anything to go by then possibly Small Copper didn’t have as a good a year this year as last? I saw my first one on exactly the same day as last year but at a different site. I missed out on them at both Larkhill and The Devenish this year so I’m not sure why this was – were their numbers down or was it just that I mistimed my visits and they coincided with the gaps between broods? Yet at my Duke site they were around in multiples? My gut feeling is that they had a slight downturn this year but nowhere to the extent or the depths of a few years hence.

41 Small Blue, 23-05-2015 Duke Site

When I started considering how this species had fared this year I was struggling to make my mind up at first. You see somehow this year I neglected to visit Martin Down and this is my ‘usual site’ for them so it was difficult to make a comparative decision. Despite this this I did encounter them at four sites, including Larkhill, so going by these sightings I feel they had a reasonable year. Also I found one at Durlston Head along the coastal path whilst I was looking for Lulworths and this was in early August. I was considering this as a possible second brood individual. They seemed to be about a week later emerging this year but I don’t think that extra week would have accounted for the fresh individual that I saw in August?

42 Silver-studded Blue, 03-07-2015 Slop Bog

I only saw this species at two sites this year, but then I only made three visits to Heathland sites so a 66% success rate is pretty good! They emerged at the first site, Slop Bog almost three weeks later this year. That is; I saw them for the first time in 2015 three weeks later than in 2014. When I managed to get there one evening there were almost as many females flying as males which suggested that they were well advanced into their flight period. From this site numbers didn’t seem as high as in previous years but again this could be because I’d missed the peak or due to the lateness of the day of my visit – many may have already gone to roost and I would have been left with the stragglers and dirty stop-outs!

At my second site it was a slightly different story and it felt like they were up on last year, though I always visit this site for my Graylings and so it’s always towards the end of the Silver Studs flight. So a later start to their season or my arriving at this site earlier could have accounted for this apparent increase in numbers. Overall I’d probably hedge that they did about the same this year as last.

43 Brown Argus, 09-05-2015 Duke Site

Possibly the shortest species to right up which doesn’t seem to do it justice really. Next year perhaps I’ll have something else on the B.A. Baracus of the butterfly world. I think this year I might have given them short shrift and neglected them somewhat as they always seem to appear when something more ‘showy’ does. Still they did throw a surprise my way – emerging earlier whilst all others seemed hunkered down and overall my feeling is that they did on a par with last year.

44 Common Blue, 18-05-2015 Laverstock

‘Common’ Blue indeed this year! It was definitely a good year for Common Blues as I saw them at a huge range of sites right across the season suggesting three broods and the June gap was hardly that either. In fact I don’t think that I’ve ever seen as many Common Blues at Larkhill. During June when they were peaking I could easily find 25+ in an area of 4m2. True this was early in the morning when they were just waking up but even taking this into consideration it as still a spectacular sight as I had to put down ‘+’ as there were so many that I managed to accurately count to 25 before a slight movement from one or two would put up even more and I’d lose count!

Having emerged at a similar time to last year (only three days later) I then encountered them at most sites that I visited including the little scrap of ground at the top of Ruw Goch and at the ‘hidden Cove’ back in Wales and most impressively in the Eastern Clearing of Bentley Wood. They were all over the place and very rarely did I encounter singletons. I also started to encounter slightly more of the more ‘Brown’ females. It got me wondering if this could this be some form of adaptation in order to protect the females from pestering behaviour from males? My idea runs like this: when the numbers are down it pays the females to be more conspicuous in order to be sure to be mated. But when the population increases females may get pestered having successfully mated and so there are more ‘cryptic’ Brown females present. Just a thought…it could just be due to temperatures during development?

45 Chalkhill Blue, 23-07-2015 Laverstock

Chalkhills were five days later this year but I don’t really think that is too significant. This is also one of those hard species to judge because of a lack of comparison. Normally trips to Martin Down and Stockbridge give me the inkling as to how this species fared but in 2015 I visited neither of these sites. Instead I found them at Laverstock and Broughton Down and as these were both first ventures I lacked a point of reference and also a general history of the site. Are Broughton or Laverstock well known for their populations of Chalk Hills? Have the sites held this species historically or was I witnessing a colonisation – who knows? What was heartening was that they seemed to be thriving at Laverstock which made up for the smaller numbers I witnessed at The Devenish. This decline at a site which I could make a comparison from might have worried me if not for the good numbers I saw at my ‘new’ sites and the fact that I turned up rather late at The Devenish.

46 Adonis Blue,07-06-2015 The Devenish

I first saw this species a fortnight later this year but once they started they soon picked up and really took off. If felt like this was a particularly good year for the Adonis Blue – I saw them at 5 or 6 different sites and all bar one were in multiples. This species offered me several personal highlights this year; I got some close ups that I was really happy with, I finally got an Adonis with the sky as the background and the best of all – I saw my first Larkhill Adonis.

47 Holly Blue, 08-04 Five Rivers

Over the last couple of years there has been much concern and discussion about the plight of the Holly Blue and how they follow a boom and bust cycle which is linked to the plight of their main parasite. When Holly Blues have a great year then the following season there is a greater likelihood that the parasites will find viable hosts. In subsequent years as the parasite becomes successful the numbers of the host decrease. So the boom and the bust cycles follow each other with one always lagging behind the other. Well this year there was a definite improvement in the fortunes of the Holly Blue and I started seeing them in a number of places rather than just the occasional glimpse of one. They were also a week earlier this season.

The main thing that I noticed this year was that I didn’t have to crane my neck to see them as on a number of occasions they behaved more like the Blue that they are rather than the Hairstreak that they seem to think that they are. In fact my first was on the Banks at Five Rivers and was flying low to the ground, skimming the grass tops and then it settled only a few cm off the ground. Another was skimming over the Pulmonaria in my old/sister in-laws garden and landed on the Bluebells there. Both of these types of behaviour I’ve not witnessed before.

48 Large Blue, 20-06-2105 Collard Hill

I saw my first Large Blue at roughly the same time this year at the same site – Collard Hill but could only make the one visit. Last year had been tough for the Large Blues at this site possibly due to an extended dry spell had which meant that the ground was rock hard. It was all a bit ‘Doom and Gloom’. Over the course of a day Philzoid and I saw only two individuals – both females, one freshly emerged and the other very flighty and eventually ovi-positing. It was great to see a new species but on the whole I left feeling slightly deflated.

This year was a different kettle of fish and there were many more on site. In fact over the four hours I spent on site I saw at least 7 different individuals if not more. One was very freshly emerged, another pair were in cop, another was an obvious female laying eggs which I also managed to get a shot of. There were also males and both sexes presented their open wings. To top it all off I possibly even got a photo of the host ant. This time I went away feeling much more satisfied and with a feeling that the Large Blue is still going strong.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Beautiful photos Wurzel, I love the close up shots and your photo of the pair of Large Blue Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers Goldie That was one of the benefits of the changeable weather - it meant that getting up close and personal was that much easier

Have a goodun

Wurzel