Camberwell Beauty overwinters in Essex?

[Buttyman Col]

Hello to those who know me and the many more who are lucky enough not to.
Regrettably not my sighting but a very fortunate Mr David Preston encountered one at Rainham Marshes RSPB reserve on Friday 19th.
See this link for further details and photo:-

http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/r ... tings.aspx

Tatty wing edges suggest this insect has seen some action. The big question is how did it come to be at Rainham in March?
Possible answers:-
Autumn 2010 immigrant that overwintered?
Hibernated on a boat on the continent which sailed over this spring and the Beauty awoke from it's long sleep?

I'm sure you good people can think of others and look forward to reading them.

Colin B (Derby)

And I may never grow up at all (sorry Rog - respect to Van The Man and all that)

[Padfield]

Is there plenty of sallow on the reserve? If so, I would favour the 2010 immigrant hypothesis. In my experience, Camberwell beauties hibernate near suitable breeding sites. I really can't imagine one flying into dockland and hibernating on a ferry... (but I guess some smaller vessel, moored up in a marina or somewhere near marshes, is a possibility).

The natural emergence time here in Switzerland is the end of March (23rd March last year, in the mountains, 20th March this year, in the valley).

Guy

[Susie]

I saw one about three years ago now which had over wintered in someone's garden here in Sussex. They are really beautiful butterflies.

[Rogerdodge]

Col
Great to hear from you again.
I guess it is time to change my signature. Van won't give a feck.

Must try to meet up this year. Fancy a long weekend in the lakes?

In the the dim and distant past I am sure I read about Large Torts being "imported" on felled wood from the continent.
Perhaps this also may explain some Camberwells?

[Essex Bertie]

Is there plenty of sallow on the reserve? If so, I would favour the 2010 immigrant hypothesis. In my experience, Camberwell beauties hibernate near suitable breeding sites. I really can't imagine one flying into dockland and hibernating on a ferry... (but I guess some smaller vessel, moored up in a marina or somewhere near marshes, is a possibility).

Yes, there is plenty of Sallow in the eastern corner of the marsh.
As for the 'booze cruise' theory, nothing much has wanted to dock in at Essex during the past 12 months, we just had a couple of autumn Clouded Yellows, one at Rainham Marshes. There were no Camberwell Beauty sightings in Cambridgeshire & Essex in 2010, and Norfolk's 4 came in the April to July period, so no strong clues there. But nice to register a UK 'first', it looks tatty enough not to be too sceptical.

Rob S

[FISHiEE]

I remember one being sighted end of march a few years back at some nature reserve in the Cardigan Bay area in South Wales the day before we visited it. Alas no sign of it while I was there

[Padfield]

I was browsing Butterfly Farmer by L. Hugh Newman yesterday (half my books are in England and half in CH). On pp. 150-151 he discusses the immigrant status of Camberwell beauties and relates how in 1935 he lived in Finland, close to the shore where timber ships picked up pit props for English mines. The timber had been felled and stacked the previous winter and dried through the summer. One morning he was watching the loading and describes seeing Camberwell beauties everywhere, in their scores. Apparently, they had crept into the wood stacks to hibernate. The men told him they were a great nuisance flying around the hold of the ship.

Newman goes on to observe that a map of the localities where 150 Camberwell beauties were taken in 1872 correlated with ports where Scandinavian timber ships arrived to unload - Tyneside, Hull, Harwich and London.

It's unlikely to be pit props today, but there may be some modern equivalent.

Newman notes that CBs are not natural wanderers and suggests that natural migration is not how they reach our shores. Against that, I have often observed CBs in high summer motoring through the mountains some distance from their known breeding areas. However, this could have been hilltopping. Once, in Spain, I did watch a CB at 2400m that seemed to be doing something like hilltopping.

More observations of this fascinating species needed!

Guy

[Rogerdodge]

Previously I wrote-

In the the dim and distant past I am sure I read about Large Torts being "imported" on felled wood from the continent.

Guy - I am pretty sure I read this book - perhaps when I was a teenager?
That must be where I remembered it from?
Is it is also possible that ship bourne individuals could come from the U.S. as well?
The only Camberwell I have ever seen was a Mourning Cloak in California.

[Padfield]

I wondered if that was your source, Roger. I don't think I've ever read the same thing about large tortoiseshells and the memory can play tricks.

Guy

[Essex Bertie]

I was browsing Butterfly Farmer by L. Hugh Newman yesterday (half my books are in England and half in CH). On pp. 150-151 he discusses the immigrant status of Camberwell beauties and relates how in 1935 he lived in Finland, close to the shore where timber ships picked up pit props for English mines. The timber had been felled and stacked the previous winter and dried through the summer. One morning he was watching the loading and describes seeing Camberwell beauties everywhere, in their scores. Apparently, they had crept into the wood stacks to hibernate.

Guy

Thanks Guy,
This ties in with a note I've received from Joe Firmin of the Essex Lepidoptera Panel. He has also heard of historical examples of hibernating 'stowaways' among timber stacks on Scandanavian timber supply ships. (Maybe from the same source?) There are certainly timber yards at Barking Creek a few miles up river from Rainham Marshes.

Rob