Pauline

[Pauline]

Thank you Wurzel - if by 'pathological' you mean the result of physical or mental stress (eg. environmental factors) as opposed to genetic variation, then this is of course a possibility but I don't know how one can tell?

'Singing the Blues ....'

Well, they are out! 3 Blues in 3 days . Thought I saw one yesterday but I couldn't be sure. Very brief visit as I was on my way to Sainsbury (Saffron likes rice with her supper and I'd run out )!

When are the Chalkhills due? Chalton's a very early site

[Maximus]

Lovely SSB shots, Pauline quite stunning to open your diary and see the pics Lovely Green Hairstreak shots at Noar earlier and beautiful Small Blues at Paulsgrove too. By the way I really enjoyed your Glanville emergence sequence of shots, lovely stuff Bit of a catch up

Mike

[bugboy]

I agree with Wurzel about the probable cause of the Small Blues aberrant colouration. Possibly some minor damage occurred a day or two from emergence, perhaps a slight knock at a crucial stage of scale development or even a change in light levels, perhaps a leaf that had been shielding the pupae from the sun moved allowing a shaft of strong sunlight to hit one side of the the pupae temporally. Genetic aberrations tend to end up symmetrical (except of course gynandromorphs). I'm sure there's people a lot more knowledgable about how these abs occur on here though

[Pauline]

Thank you so much Mike - I have never spent so much time watching a pupa as I did to get that Glanville emergence shot ! I am still shattered . No wonder I haven't bumped into you when you are visiting exotic places

That seems to make a lot of sense Buggy. One thing I was fairly sure of was that it wasn't just 'wear and tear'.

A tiny bit more time than yesterday so popped into Bramshott to find 1 had turned into 6, perhaps 8, but still no females. Quite breezy (which was pleasant in the extreme heat which I haven't become accustomed to yet ) and lots of biting insects A few more shots before I move on:

[Pauline]

I was quite overwhelmed by the moths in the trap over the weekend, both quantity and diversity, with many I have not seen before. The plastic thing (baffle?) had 24 moths on it - pug types and carpet types as well as a Pale Tussock but inside was like a treasure trove with half a dozen White Ermine being most prominent. I really don't know how Neil gets such stunning shots of these insects - there is obviously a secret I haven't discovered yet as I battle with the light and the moths' quivering behaviour and the focus as they blend so well into their background. Just for the record these are a handful with my attempts at identification:

Peppered Moth

White Ermine - such an elegant moth, don't you think?

Flame Shoulder

Rush Veneer????

Scorched Wing

True Lovers Knot

Perhaps a worn Little Thorn?

.... and a strange looking Ladybird which I assume is a Harlequin:

... and another White Ermine because they are gorgeous :

Some of the others I recognised included Brimstone, Pale Tussock, Marbled Brown, Common Pug, Common Marbled Carpet , Common Swift etc etc etc..........

[Greenie]

Hi Pauline ,

I think your ladybird could be an Eyed Ladybird - Anatis ocellata .

Cheers Greenie

[millerd]

Lovely to see the silver-studs, Pauline. Hopefully they'll be out in Surrey soon.

Dave

[Goldie M]

Great shots Pauline, I hope to get some of those SSB's shots when I'm down your way next week, have you still got some Glanville's Pauline Goldie

[trevor]

HI Pauline,
Lovely Silver Studded Blues, they are on my list this year as I missed them last year.
AND it will soon be time for the annual gathering at BB . by far my highlight of the season.
Trevor.

[bugboy]

Greeie is quite right, your ladybird is an Eyed Ladybird. The black and white pattern on the pronotum is quite distinctive. Looks like an ab as well, most of the spots are missing the black centres, although like a lot of ladybirds they are naturally rather variable. Also your 'Rush Veneer' looks like a Caddis Fly to me.

[Pauline]

Thank you for that ID Fred - much appreciated and a little relieved it isn't a Harlequin although it was quite large. I did try to look it up but I had no idea there were so many varieties.

I shall make sure you do Goldie

This is a very early site Dave But I don't think you'll have too much longer to wait - and you know it'll be worth it Looking forward to seeing your shots.

Why, thank you you Trevor - that's very kind of you. No doubt when I am sick and tired of walking up and down the Straits you will see me at BB

I don't know about an ab Buggy but it was the lack of the black centres that threw me when I looked up various Ladybirds, trying to identify it so thank you for that. I think you're right about the Caddis Fly too

Today I had a specific reason to visit Noar Hill - but more of that later. Apart from that I was open to anything I could find and the first thing was this little cat which I believe is a Brown-tail. The other creature (and I had to look back through Buggy's diary for this ID as I recalled he had posted one earlier ) is a Weevil (not a spider ). I wasn't sure if the cat would end up as a meal but he went on his way unscathed:

The next thing that caught my attention was a Small Blue. It is years since I have seen a Small Blue at Noar Hill but I had received reports from 3 different folk that they had been seen and one of them was a reliable butterflier who wouldn't have made a mistake. When I took the shot of the mating Dukes posted earlier, a couple mentioned to me that they had seen a Small Blue and this one was in the exact same area. I got close enough to see that it was a very fresh male, nectaring on Bird's Foot Trefoil but as I took the shot it flew off. Well, I cursed myself - the second shot I'd missed in a week, the other being a Painted Lady at Paulsgrove. Whilst looking for him, I came across a Common Blue that was just pumping up his wings and whilst I watched he expelled some meconium (brilliant white Goldie ) which can be seen on the pointed grass at the bottom of the shot:

I did indeed see him again as he flew past me chasing a moth, but again I lost him! In desperation, I took a shot of this - not something you will find often in my diary but as he was sitting upright ...... and may be appreciated by one or two

The number of Dukes has certainly diminished and it is tempting to say that many of the Dukes are looking worn and tired - worn they may be but still with enough energy to chase and spar. I also witnessed a couple of females egg-laying, one a strikingly beautiful bright orange but in stopping to take a shot of the egg she had just laid I lost her. All of the other eggs I had been monitoring have now disappeared, with no evidence that they have survived.

The Dukes weren't the only ones egg-laying. Green Hairstreak are still egg-laying at this site along with Common Blue. I watched this female then took a shot as she rested, admiring the brown upperside which seems to be becoming increasingly rare here with many females having varying degrees of blue on the upperside.

What I didn't expect to see was the bluest female I have ever encountered. She was stunning and my shots don't do her justice. She was difficult to photograph as she was incredibly active for most of the time and within a couple of minutes flew off. I could see her as she left flying quite high, fast and straight, in a very purposeful manner, until she disappeared:

[bailey1409]

Hi Pauline

Ref your last lot of moths, the Rush Veneer is a Caddis Fly and the Little Thorn is a Bordered White.

Cheers

Maurice

[Goldie M]

I like the up right photo Pauline, it makes a change from the ordinary, quite different
I haven't seen Small Blues for a few years now, I've just enjoyed other peoples
Your lucky to still be seeing Dukes Pauline, they faded a way here ages ago Ah! Well!! always another year Goldie

[Pauline]

Morning Maurice - thank you so much for the id. I have looked it up and it is obvious - once you know You must be psychic as I was just thinking about you earlier when I was at Noar Hill trying to take a photo of a Lacewing. You might remember that it was the first thing you got me to photograph so I thought I'd try again to see if I had improved over the years. Well, I haven't posted it so you can draw your own conclusions from that!

Thank you too Goldie - I do try to vary how I take photos and try different styles from time to time. I've tried to emulate Guy and William but the results were poor.

Just a quick update on a couple of the immatures this morning. A little while back, I noticed there were some Orange Tip eggs on the garlic mustard at the bottom of my lane by the edge of the road. Having reared them before I wasn't too interested in doing it again (so many other new things to do and learn about). However, I thought I would keep my eye on them as I have never found a pupa in the wild and I had hoped to monitor that part of the process. Not long after that the council I assume, cut it all down as it was affecting visibility for cars turning out onto the main road. I managed to find a couple of cats which are now on the plants in my garden. Unusually, there have been no eggs this year on 'my' plants, so I am hoping they will be OK (I am aware they are cannibalistic):

Just shedded its skin.

This week both my WA cats decided to pupate at exactly the same time, despite the fact one was noticeably larger than the other. Like the Emperor moths, I wonder if one will turn out to be male and the other female. I was up during the night checking them as I fear that a slug may have gotten on to the plant somehow. It is quite a large plant now in quite a large cage so finding the culprit is going to be difficult. In the past I have found that slugs are attracted to lettuce - I put some in the cage but no joy. I am tempted to 'prune' the stems holding the pupa and put them somewhere safe. I will need to think about what to do. In the meantime a few shots from recent days leading up to pupation:

[Goldie M]

Hi! Pauline, they say Orange Peel is quite good for slugs, it doesn't kill them but I've heard they don't like crossing it , never tried it myself ,I just bury slug Pellets in my pots The slugs go into the soil during the day so when they do surface at night they get a good dose Goldie

[Pauline]

I might give the orange peel a try Goldie but I'd be reluctant to use slug pellets as hedgehogs com into the garden and I'd hate the thought of them somehow getting hold of a poisoned slug.

Have you ever had one of those days when everything seems to conspire against you? Yesterday was one of those days! Tired of the heavy, thundery weather and being bitten to bits by every insect imaginable (even on my eyebrows and lips and scalp ) I decided that my short outing would be more coastal where I hoped it might feel a bit fresher. Driving down the A3 the rain started. Should I turn back before I got too far? Quite often, once past Butser Hill, for some reason the climate can be radically different so I pressed on. Arriving at Thorney Island I set off down the usual track only to find a large metal gate chained shut and a notice stating 'due to family bereavement this gate will remain locked for the forseeable future'. Great!! The alternative was to squeeze down the track on the outside of the fence but nettles and bare legs!!!! Still, nearly there and it was some compensation that I got quite close to a wild fox. The rain had stopped but it was still very humid. Nevertheless, I was looking forward to my walk, hoping that perhaps I might see some seals. At the end of the main track there was another large sign stating that the electronic security gate at the end of the track wasn't working so there was no access!! Having got this far I decided I might as well make the most of it and walk as far as I could. Last year there were a lot of butterflies along this track but although it was very warm it was also overcast. I decided to make the best of a bad job and turned my attention to the birds. These shots are all severely cropped as the subjects were quite a distance away:

I wondered whether this would be a male and female or parent and youngster.

I believe this is a Whitethroat. I'd like to say he is singing his heart out but I think it was an alarm call on account of me being there - the place was deserted presumably because all the gates were locked. I have no idea what this bird is - it looked a little like a Dunnock but clearly wasn't and flew into the reeds:

I spotted some sort of web on a Hawthorn. Closer examination showed that it had been inhabited by (presumably) some sort of moth larva as there were shed skins all over and inside it. The material felt more like parchment than web, tough, smooth, and shiny. I thought perhaps they may have been Brown-tails which had dispersed but that was only because I had seen one recently and are one of the (very) few I know of that use nests on Hawthorn

There were a lot of Damselflies about and I took the trouble to try to identify them but I think they are both common varieties:

Common Blue (male)

Beautiful colours and in close up what funny little faces they have

Actually, I only posted the close-up as I couldn't get the whole of the insect in focus as it was partly obscured by grasses and I was half way up a steep bank - as you can see:

Emerald female (I think).

Beautiful, photogenic swans on their nest completed my walk:

which was to end as disappointingly as it started. I decided to have an early lunch at one of my favourite local pubs but the management/chef has changed along with the quality and my favourite crab appeared as a pureed mess with no way of distinguishing white from brown meat.

There haven't been many occasions when I have been out without seeing one single butterfly. In fact, I believe it has only happened once before. I have seen butterflies in thunderstorms and in some unlikely places but today I couldn't even find a roosting Common Blue. I guess it was just a case of wrong place, wrong time

[Goldie M]

You don't paint a pretty picture for a holiday down your way Pauline and the midges love my Husband I have got preparation though( Midge spray) and I'll bring my Tee Tree Oil with me has well it's great for bites What a lousy day you had.
About the Slug pellets Pauline, I don't leave them on top of the soil because of the Birds, I cover them in soil so they can't be seen . Goldie

[bugboy]

Never mind Pauline, the way I see it, it's always better than being stuck in watching daytime TV !

Your mystery bird is difficult to ID with that fluff in its beak but it looks like it could be a Linnet and your Emerald Damselfly is in fact a young Blue-tailed Damselfly. It takes a few days for their colour to come through after emerging

[Pauline]

Hope you'll have changed your mind by the time you return Goldie

Daytime TV Buggy? I didn't even realise there was such a thing I chose not to have a TV for 15 years and got out of the habit of watching it! Seriously, thanks for those ID's, much appreciated.

A great day today in all respects. Just a few shots from this morning:

[Pauline]

I believe I have just found my first ever wild Green Hairstreak larva in the rain: