Padfield

[David M]

Interesting theory regarding rubi, Guy, although there have been some sightings, including from further north, so it surely can't be long.

You did well to get a male Orange Tip to pose like that in these warm conditions.

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel and David. Yes, I'd seen there are rubi about - and I usually saw them in Switzerland before the end of March - but last year they were very late on my patch in Suffolk.

I have so far failed to find the white-letter hairstreak caterpillar by day but I instantly locate it at night by UV. I took another photo tonight - of what I presume is the same caterpillar as before, as it is on the same branch. It has now lost all the red and is entirely green. It does, a little worryingly, seem to have some black patches at its tail end (on the right of the second picture below), which I hope are just dirt rather than evidence of parasitism or disease. It has certainly eaten a lot of elm leaf (but surprisingly, even though I have been looking during the day near eaten leaf I just can't find it).

This is three nights ago - the night it moulted from 2nd to 3rd instar:



This was taken tonight:



Here is a brimstone from the garden today:



And a comma:





Guy

[David M]

Those are fascinating images of the WLH larvae, Guy. In fact, your camera is just as adept with the very small things as it is with the larger stuff - the detail on the Brimstone & Comma is very clear & sharp. Who needs to spend £2k?

[Padfield]

Thanks David. I'm aware of the limitations of my camera but for versatility I'm very happy with it. As you say, I can take piccies of butterfly eggs and craters on the moon without changing any lenses ...

Another quick evening check up on the elm trees and three caterpillars quickly located - caterpillars I would almost certainly not have found in the day. They are still very small, though growing rapidly. This one shows the black head, which is often telescoped in and invisible:



This is the one I remarked on before, with strange black marks near the tail on the left. Viewed from above it does indeed look a little deformed, though it is feeding and growing apparently normally. I wonder if it had a close encounter with a tit's bill and somehow managed to escape ...



Hairstreak caterpillars wander around at will and there is no guarantee I will be able to relocate him when he graduates to 4th instar.

Guy

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Guy, great reports and photos recently.

Regarding Green Hairstreak emergence times, I notice every year that they are on the wing up in Cumbria a good couple of weeks before they are flying at my usual site much further south in Warwickshire. I wonder whether this is related to local micro climate or maybe even down to different larval foodplants, the Warwickshire colonies mostly use Birds-foot Trefoil. One of many mysteries in the world of butterflies.

Also interesting to see your earlier comments on the relative abundance of Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks and Commas this spring. Small Tortoiseshells are easily the most numerous here whereas Commas have been a bit thin on the ground.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Interesting shots of those Green Hairstreak larva Guy - the second one does look like its got a chunk missing out of it, a bit like there was a crease in it while it was inflating I was going to start looking for caterpillars this year (but Covid-19 happened) any ideas which ones would be a good starting species to 'get my eye in'?

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Padfield]

HI Neil. In general, I find butterflies very finely tuned to their host plants and I would guess that is the factor here. When I arrived back in the UK in August 2018, I immediately cycled around prospecting for good hairstreak sites. I had this one down as no. 1 on my list and checked it regularly through April 2019 - nothing. Green hairstreaks were being seen elsewhere in Suffolk and this is a hot, heathland site. But if they are using the broom, that is only just now coming into flower and won't be full for a week or two. By mid-May last year both the broom and the hairstreaks were on top form.

HI Wurzel. The real fun of caterpillars is being able to watch them grow up and learning to recognise the different instars and behaviours at different stages. For that reason, my advice would be to go for something local, that you can check up on regularly even in these restrictive times. Orange tip and brimstone are super easy - especially orange tip, as the eggs are so very easy to find and they take so many different foodplants. Hairstreaks are harder until you get your eye in - but if you have local colonies why not be ambitious and get your eye in? My experience is that you spend literally years looking for your first cat of some of these sexy species (purple emperor, white admiral, hairstreaks &c.) and then once you start finding them you know instinctively where and how to look and it all becomes easy. BadgerBob finds wall caterpillars the way most people find daisies, but I've never seen one! (a wall caterpillar, not a daisy). I can do the same thing with purple emperor cats, even spotting them at the tops of trees.

I found my first (this year) daytime white-letter hairstreak cat today, but only because I knew exactly where to look. I couldn't get good photos because there were people around and we're expected to keep moving, not to stand by a single tree getting photos. It was also rather windy. But I think this photo shows a third instar cat that has just about finished losing the pink/buff from near its tail - just a bit of dirty colour left:



When the oak leaves unfurl I'll be scanning them too with UV by night...

Guy

[Wurzel]

Cheers for the inf Guy I'll start keeping my eyes peeled when I'm out exercising as staying local is the only real option at the moment

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[millerd]

I really envy you your garden, Guy, particularly as it has elm trees and WLH caterpillars in it! Those night shots are amazing.

Cheers,

Dave

[David M]

You're doing spectacularly well with those larvae, Guy.

I guess with the relative paucity of adult species here compared to la Suisse your instincts are concentrated on the earlier stages?

[Padfield]

Good luck, Wurzel! I didn't need to tell you, of course, that the Bible for early stages is Pete's amazing book. All the info on each instar of every species is in there.

Hi Dave. I'm very lucky to have a good garden (though it's good for butterflies precisely because my parents have spent the last 50 years making it so). I must confess, though, that the hairstreak elms are in the meadow, 200m away. I take Minnie round the block last thing at night to do her business (she won't do it in the garden).

David, it is indeed hard being separated from my mountains and alpages. I've spent all my adult life in Switzerland, and much as I love Suffolk, Switzerland is my home. As for the butterflies - yes, given there are fewer species here I hope to explore more of them in greater depth, and in particular, the early stages. Lockdowns permitting, I hope to try the UV trick on purple hairstreaks (which do breed in our garden, but high up in inaccessible oaks) and green hairstreaks.

Some daytime pics today. First, a w-album cat that hasn't moved for a couple of days, so might be laid up for the moult to 4th instar:



Next, the one with the wonky tail:





He looks perfectly healthy in other respects and has eaten a huge amount of greenery. If he hangs around on the same twig I might be able to see what he looks like after his next moult, though in my experience 4th instar w-album cats zoom all over the tree and it's very difficult to pin down a particular individual. 3rd instar cats don't seem to wander far. On 22nd April 2018, in Switzerland, I located a 3rd instar cat very close to where I had secured his egg just over three weeks earlier (a rescued egg I had kept on its twig in the fridge over winter). The thread is where I bound the twig to the branch:





This was the egg on 30th March, when I returned it to the wild (on a branch with no other eggs):



Sadly, I missed the intervening stages because I was in the UK for my mother's funeral. The first instar would have been in those elm flowers as they unfurled. The second would have made the first move on to leaf food but hung around, and it seems the third instars hang around too. Then you lose them ...

Guy

[David M]

Are these cats likely to be given names as is your normal custom, Guy, or are they too difficult to track to be sure of each individual's identity?

[Padfield]

HI David. I've only named one of them so far - the one with the deformed tail. I called him Willy Wonka. However, I've been surprised by how easy it has been so far to relocate particular individuals. Even the fourth instar ones seem to be remaining on the same twig or branch at the moment.

This is a third instar cat laid up for the moult yesterday, photographed by day (harder to find but easier to photograph!):



You can see a lot of silk especially at the head end but also at the tail, where he has secured himself to the leaf (and the neighbouring leaf). He looks particularly fat and ready to pop!

And this was Willy Wonka yesterday - also laid up for the moult:



Here, you can see the silk at his tail end. He has been on that leaf every time I have looked since 12th April.

I relocated Willy Wonka tonight. He was on the same leaf but has now moulted and turned round, so his head end is at the shed skin. I took a couple of pictures very gingerly but speedily, using my iPhone as a light, so as not to disturb him. When I took the photos I wasn't sure if he had actually finished moulting and didn't want to cause problems:



In this picture, the tail end still looks wonky, though it might be an effect of position and shadow. I'll try and get better pictures tomorrow, now I know he is fully moulted.

Also tonight - and hardly a less awful picture - I photographed this rapidly growing fourth instar larva, busily engaged in eating:



And finally, a shot of typical w-album leaf damage, photographed yesterday:



In my previous experience, during the final instar (fourth), leaf damage is a good indication of where caterpillars were but not necessarily a guide to where they are!

I say finally, but I should close with this lovely male holly blue in our garden today:



Guy

EDIT:

Just been outside to see if the comet (Atlas) is photographable yet. It isn't - quite - being about mag 5.9, but will be soon. Nearby stars of mag 6+ were visible to the camera, but stars of course are pointlike, not diffuse, so much easier to pick up. Atlas is predicted to be an easy naked-eye comet by the time it reaches perihelion.

So instead of the comet, I photographed the magnificent constellation of Corona - the beautiful diadem in the sky I have gazed up at since I was a child. Never did I guess then what new meaning its name would acquire in 2020 ...

[Padfield]

I'm glad to report Willy Wonka seems to be in perfect nick today. The damage was only skin-deep:







The female holly blues in the garden are getting broody. This one was constantly checking out holly flowers, though she is not ready to lay yet:





This male seemed to think it a clever plan to hang out near the flowers, then casually sidle up and introduce himself when they drew a female ("Oh - you like it here too do you? I've always thought this was a great place ..." &c. &c. with holly blue chat-up lines):



This one just wanted to sun himself:



Guy

[Wurzel]

A cracking set of Holly Blue shots Guy have you been getting tips from Dave Miller

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Thanks Wurzel. I take tips wherever I can get them!

I forgot to add this picture of a female orange tip in the garden today. She reminded me of a little kid trying to lick the bottom of a yoghurt pot. There certainly must be some good nectar in there!



Guy

[David M]

Great larval shots again, Guy. You're doing ever so well keeping tabs on this one.

Your Holly Blues are stunning too. Both of those are in pretty good nick; the ones I've been seeing lately near me are starting to look a bit worn.

[millerd]

I enjoyed those Holly Blue shots too, Guy. They are fascinating to watch with all sorts of quirks of behaviour when you get to know them.

Cheers,

Dave

[Wurzel]

Great shot of the OT Sometimes it looks like they're about to actually climb in and disappear down the carpel

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Padfield]

Thanks David, Dave and Wurzel.

The holly blue egg I photographed on 21st April has been incrementally silked-over by a spider since then. Here are three shots, taken on 21st, 22nd and 24th:







I didn't take a photo today, though it was even more covered, because I was photographing the culprit, lurking just the other side of the flowers:





I don't interfere with nature (unless I witness great suffering) so I'll just keep monitoring and see what happens. Spiders have to eat.

Green hairstreaks are now out at two of my sites:





And small coppers are emerging too. This one was today, on the heath:



Other creatures seen recently were this maiden's blush moth (Cyclophora punctaria) ...



... and this dock bug (Coreus marginatus:



Finally, the moon and venus have been brilliant recently. Here they are yesterday (with Aldeberan also in the picture) ...



... and today:



The old moon is 'in the new moon's arms':



Guy