Painted Lady influx!!!

[Lee Hurrell]

Hi Pete,

This may be a silly question, but would that be for each relevent location (i.e. Bucks for Bernwood Forest, Herts & Middlesex for Greenford etc?

If so, who looks after London?

I presume they will all need map references too.

Thanks

Lee

[Lee Hurrell]

I should add that I'm not yet a member of any BC regional groups and am unsure of the procedure and what would be required!

Cheers

Lee

[Pete Eeles]

Hi Lee,

I'd submit your sightings to the Surrey branch (which covers south west London too). There should be a sightings form on their website.

Not sure what form they'd need the sightings to be in - there should be contact details on their website if you need to ask.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Lee Hurrell]

Thanks Pete

[Gruditch]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8500619.stm

Not a mention of Painted Lady's, but I think this was the same group that done the talk at the AGM.

Regards Gruditch

[Gruditch]

Take a look on the Hants & IOW March sightings page,

http://www.hantsiow-butterflies.org.uk/sightings.htm

A Painted Lady seen in the New Forest on Friday, I'll be damned I wasn't expecting that.

Regards Gruditch

[Lee Hurrell]

Crikey.....

Do you think it was a hibernator or the first wave of the 2010 invasion (here's hoping )

Cheers

Lee

[Denise]

Just to say, I looked at the world weather earlier today, and it's raining in the Atlas mountains!
Here's keeping everything crossed for another bumper year!

It's great that at least one survived the English winter, or it could have fled the very wet weather that France has had.

Denise

[Lee Hurrell]

Why would rain in the Atlas be good for us (someone else commented on this the other day too...) - is it that the bad weather would trigger a bigger migration north?

Cheers

Lee

[Dave McCormick]

Didn't the rain in the atlas mountains help the plants grow and the caterpillars to feed up and this is why so many pupated last time?

[Pete Eeles]

Why would rain in the Atlas be good for us (someone else commented on this the other day too...) - is it that the bad weather would trigger a bigger migration north?

Cheers

Lee

It is believed that the annual migration stems from populations in north Africa. Good conditions there that encourage development (e.g. rainfall that promotes a lush growth of foodplant) results in a large emergence that then migrates north, breeding along the way. They eventually reach the British Isles.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

When I most recently asked my Moroccan student (about a week ago), she told me of the storms they were having back home but said the desert wasn't unusually green in the way it was last year, when that was all the old people were talking about in Marrakech. It will be very interesting to see what the south winds bring us this year!

Guy

[Lee Hurrell]

Thanks Pete and Guy, that makes sense!

By the way, my lodger has just come back from a long weekend near La Rochelle in France and reports a Painted Lady sighting and 'some whites' (I was training her up last year on ID's )

Cheers

Lee