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Trev Sawyer wrote:Are you an ex-Cantabrigian then Guy? Which college I wonder?
PS: Can I play gooseberry when you come to visit Jack and Nick

Trev

I was at Pembroke, Trev, 1983-6. I then moved to Oriel, Oxford, which proved a much better base for butterflies, with black and brown hairstreaks within easy cycling distance! I guess you're a Tab too...

When I'm next in the UK for long enough I'll let you know and maybe we can fix something up - it would be great. It looks as though Cambridge will no longer be so convenient for Jack, if he's moving up north (Norfolk), but I'm sure some compromise can be arranged.

Guy

padfield wrote: I was at Pembroke, Trev, 1983-6. I then moved to Oriel, Oxford, which proved a much better base for butterflies, with black and brown hairstreaks within easy cycling distance! I guess you're a Tab too...

Only in that I have worked at the University's Biochemistry Department since leaving school in 1977 - So I was just across Tennis Court Road from you in your Cambridge days

Trev

Jack Harrison wrote:. Nick thought you might more properly have belonged in an earlier era: the late 19th century "mad" butterfly collector.
Jack

Renaissance man, I think I also said
(That mould you spoke of has been broken, as a precaution, I believe .... )
Be good to meet-up again; as I said before I still have a spare room 10 mins walk from the station. But can not offer such a vast range of local rarities as you
Those last series of shots brought back some of the places and butterflies LOTSW saw...
N

Good memories.

Down in the woods in late morning today my first purple emperor of the year made a brief appearance. He materialised as if out of nowhere, flying straight towards me at stomach height, flew past me, momently gleaming brilliant purple, did an aerobatic twist with one flick of a wing to check out my backpack on the ground, then cruised on along the ride. I didn't see him again. I think he was newly on the wing, and probably one of the very first of his kind in the woods this year, so he was staking out the whole area, seeing where to set up territory, where the master tree was and so forth.

A single male silver-washed fritillary was doing the same thing, but a little more conspicuously and repetitively, so I saw him a few times (though he didn't settle either).

The numbers of white admirals have been building up daily, so they are now seemingly ubiquitous. It was a very hot day and they spent most of their time in or near the shade:



Here is a woodland brown gazing a little bemusedly at a tree snail, perhaps wondering (as I do) how these apparently solitary, slow-moving creatures ever manage to meet and make babies:



High in their master tree I saw a few white-letter hairstreaks lifting up, twizzling and turning, then settling again. It's a tall tree and I could make out no detail at all of the butterflies, but the habit is unmistakeable. The master tree is a sycamore right next to a tall wych elm.

Finally, a shot of the farmland near me as I cycled back home again from the woods. There are a couple of marbled whites in the foreground and that orange and blue thingy is my bike, perched against a road post:



When I stopped to take the picture, both marbled whites were on the same flower head and it made a beautiful shot, but a car whooshed by and dislodged them.

Guy

I spent four hours today wandering around on a 45° incline looking for Erebia christi. Apart from one rather galling strong candidate, which I accidentally released and never saw again, I didn't see any - though there were plenty of Erebia around, including oeme, montana, alberganus, melampus and tyndarus. All of those are easily separable from christi in flight except for melampus, so I netted every melampus I could get to (it was, at its shallowest, a 45° slope, with shale and thorns, and very difficult to negotiate). The one I lost had a very bright orange flush under the forewing and looked pretty good, but I lost my balance as I was transferring it to an observation box... Water under the bridge, spilt milk &c. I will go back very soon!!

No real scenic shots today - it was far too difficult just staying upright - but here is a small sample of what was on the wing today:


This is alberganus (almond-eyed) - in the embrace of a spider.


And this is what passes for large blue in Switzerland! Large blues were very numerous today.


One of my favourite species - alpine grayling (Oeneis glacialis)


An Apollo caterpillar


Ravenous small tortoiseshell caterpillars!


This is subspecies eurydame of the purple-edged copper. It is quite different from the nominate subspecies, which flies near me in Vaud, lacking any purple and with narrower dark borders.


This is Darwin's heath, Coenonympha darwiniana, in its pure form, which you essentially have to go over the Simplon Pass to see. In the Rhône Valley to the west of Simplon it is difficult to find one like this, lacking any trace of gardetta. Well might the species be named after the father of evolution - it is seemingly in the process of active speciation. The relations between all members of this group (darwiniana, arcania, gardetta and leander) are poorly known but in areas of overlap the first three at least readily hybridise.


A female Escher's blue - my first of the year for this species. There were quite a lot on the wing but rarely within camera-shot.


Ever-present company in the Alps, the Apollo is one of the butterflies I would miss most if I moved back to the UK.

I am meeting Paul Wetton tomorrow morning, early! In a couple of days I'll see how he manages his 40kg of kit on that 45° slope, but tomorrow I shall be gentle and stick to relatively flat sites!!

Guy

The Apollo larva image is just spectacular, Guy! The sort of encounter I can only dream of!

Cheers,

- Pete

Who knows what encounters you'll have in a couple of weeks, Pete!

They are very smart caterpillars - and that one was big. I suspect he was near to pupation.

Guy

Pete - I just had a look on the Apollo page, to see if I should upload that piccie, and I see you have a photo of an Apollo caterpillar there! I presume it was reared in captivity...

Guy

padfield wrote:Pete - I just had a look on the Apollo page, to see if I should upload that piccie, and I see you have a photo of an Apollo caterpillar there! I presume it was reared in captivity...

Guy

Indeed - but please post yours since "wild" trumps "captive-bred" any day!

The individual I reared through made it to adulthood, before being returned to the chap from whence he came.

Cheers,

- Pete

padfield wrote:My latest batch of pupae hatched on Saturday:



That lot were bred in captivity.

You must be very proud of your students!

Very proud, Susie!

Just got back home after a day with Paul (Wetton) and Helen, followed by beer with the vicar. I see there are lots of interesting posts all over the site but I've only got time to put a few highlights of today up here and go to bed, for another 6.00am rise tomorrow!

I think Paul and Helen got a good flavour of a couple of sites, and we had some lucky breaks with some species.

This alpine argus (Albulina orbitula) couldn't be bothered to do anything at all in the heat of the day. If you stare at the picture for 30 seconds you'll get exactly the same effect as if you watch Paul's video of it:

.

Here is Paul down on the ground filming a slightly more active Asian fritillary (Hypodryas intermedia wolfensbergeri):



And here is Helen, imagining how yucky it must feel to have a beetle crawling all over your wings:



There's a Meleager's blue the other side of the path:



Here it is:



It was lovely to watch two female purple emperors flicking around and into a big, thick sallow tree - apparently laying eggs. Here is one of them:



I didn't expect Nickerl's fritillary to be on the wing still, but we saw two or three:



This is either large grizzled skipper or Oberthür's grizzled skipper. I have excellent pictures of ups and uns and still can't decide... Some individuals just don't fit in.



Great sooty satyr by a stream:



Silvery argus (Pseudaricia nicias):



Tomorrow is a higher trip and I'll probably be back late again, so another brief record of a few highlights will follow. Paul and Helen will do the definitive report of their trip when they get back.

Guy

I can just imagine how Paul W is enjoying it... Guy... what a BEAUTIFUL Silvery Argus... may I ask if it was at your Nickerl's site? If not, I know you won't give locations, so yes or no is fine. I cherish the thought of seeing that one for the first time, especially if it should be that fresh. Hope you all enjoyed the "high".. Kind regards.

Yes, it's a very special butterfly, Reverdin. It wasn't flying at the Nickerl's site, which is at a rather lower altitude. I was keen to get good Swiss pictures because the Spanish ones I have found in the Pyrenees have much broader borders:


(Val d'Aran, 2005)

Back late again today, and up at 5.30am tomorrow again, so just a quick post of a few highlights of today before an early night!

Here is a special edition mazarine blue:



Quite a striking beast! They don't turn out many in that factory.

This is a glandon blue:



It was Helen's birthday today. It was also this mountain clouded yellow's birth day - Paul found him drying his wings and they were still soft and pliable when this photo was taken:



This pair of Darwin's heaths were taken just inside the hybrid zone with alpine heath. The one on the left has much less well separated spots - the orange ring is not bordered internally - and has quite a lot of charcoal grey on the hindwing:



This one, pictured on Paul's hand, is from the pure Darwin's heath zone - completely ringed, separated spots and less charcoal:



Bed calls!

Guy

Superb - and just love the Mazarine ab.! Simply spectacular!

Cheers,

- Pete

Tomorrow is a rest day, when I'll be able to sleep in and then process all my pictures and update my diaries.

The last four days have been extremely hot and very full. Today I took Paul and Helen from the valley floor...



... up to the snowline:



That was one of at least four male Cynthia's fritillaries hilltopping in exactly the same place we found them hilltopping last year (LOTSWI). It was a testosterone-fuelled, male-only affair, with no sniff of a female, and all were hyperactive, zooming off after any passing skipper, little blue or shepherd's fritillary. But Paul did get some good video footage, I think, so we all went down the mountain happy!

Guy

That was my iconic butterfly of the trip - Cynthia, oh, Cynthia!
N

It's an iconic species, Nick! I thought that piccie might bring back a few fond memories of mountains and hangovers...

In fact, I've got rather a nice T-shirt with lovely Cynthia on it.

Guy

I didn't get quite as much done as I wanted today, and have only just finished writing up my diary on my own website. So I won't write more of a report of the last few days here.

I should pay tribute to Paul's and Helen's endurance, though! They both lugged huge weights up the mountains. Somehow, Paul managed to reach the heights with umpteen kilos of video camera and tripod and they both carried spare lens kits on their backs.



The last thing I photographed before we came down yesterday were these male Eros blues going to roost:



Bad weather prevailed today and is forecast for tomorrow, but on Friday the intrepid explorers are coming over to my part of the world (I live in Vaud - all the above stuff was in Valais) for the very different range of species we get here. I'll try and find time to put up a few pictures.

Guy

Spent another day with Paul and Helen, this time looking for Maculinea species in particular. We got back quite late, so again, here are just a few highlights for the diary.

At a local site, where I thought we had drawn a blank, Helen spotted this pair of dusky large blues holding hands:



The weather was not good, so that picture was taken with flash.

At another site, not far away, this pair of scarce large blues were also feeling romantic under the cloud:



Here is the same pair, with the female opening her wings:



From there we moved on to cranberry fritillaries. Here are first a male, then a female, then an underside:







The weather was still pretty ropey, and that last butterfly had decided to go to roost.

Back on the Maculinea trail, here is another dusky large blue at a different site, also under grim skies:



In a brief moment of sun, here is a scarce large blue laying her egg in greater burnet:



And the same individual again:



But not everything that sits on a greater burnet head is dusky or scarce large blue. This one is just a large blue (arion):



Here is a scarce large blue bidding for Hollywood stardom:



Other species lurking in the gloom today were Titania's fritillary:



Lesser marbled fritillary:



And purple-edged copper:



Finally, Paul spotted this spider bearing baby spiders on its back:



A good day, closed off with chips and beer in Gstaad.

Guy

Fabulous stuff, Guy!
I had some consolation yesterday, with HIM using me as a throne.....