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Large White - Favourite Photo of 2024

Week 9

A week of advent has passed us by already! I can just see the supermarkets setting up their Easter egg stands already . Why not take a break from wrapping pressies and prepping the sprouts to select this weeks Favourites. There are four this week…well it’s Christmas time after all…

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos as then it will be easier to keep track of things? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As in previous years details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome as would any accompanying stories and anecdotes or other observations of behaviour and interesting other points.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Large Whites were one of the winners in my part of Kent in 24' certainly more around than 23' heres a courting pair on the shingle at Dungeness ,she in classic rejection pose........him ever hopeful ! The other a nice female from Hothfield main Bog.

Allan.W. wrote: ↑Sun Dec 08, 2024 10:20 pmLarge Whites were one of the winners in my part of Kent in 24' certainly more around than 23'...

Nice capture, Allan. Surprised there were more this year than last. They were pretty scarce round my way all year.

Took till 10th May to see my first and this is from that day:

One of the very few species I photographed this year.

This from my Crawley garden.
Vince

I'd lots of Whites in the Garden in August, none stayed long enough to get open wing shots so I'd to be satisfied with the closed winged Shots , What a year!!! took this photo on 16th Goldie

I was at The Naze in North Essex on "White Day", the 15th of September to witness the 200+ each of Small and Large White immigrants. The first of my favourite photographs is a male from that day:
And a couple of days later they were also in good numbers at Benfleet Downs:

An under photographed butterfly for me this year. Out and about I didn't see to many early on in the season but numbers picked up significantly later in the year locally.

My broccoli in the kitchen garden became a great hit with both Large and Small White and I did manage to photo other stages of its life cycle.

This from the 2nd August showing multiple instar Had a lot of parasitoid wasps taking there toll on the caterpillars. And finally looking round greenhouse, sheds and eves of our cottage I found about a dozen pupa Julian

David Lazarus wrote: ↑Wed Dec 11, 2024 11:51 amI was at The Naze in North Essex on "White Day", the 15th of September to witness the 200+ each of Small and Large White immigrants...

I haven't seen that total of Large Whites all year in the UK!

Large White

This was taken at Bentley Wood during a fruitless search for Pearls. A worrying time was spent walking round and round the Eastern Clearing hoping to catch up with them with no joy in the end but luckily what would have been a bleak trip was salvaged by the cracking view of a Large White feasting on Bluebells, hence it almost instantly became my Favourite shot for this species.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Large Whites were thin on the ground for me until a trip to Oversley Wood in early July produced lots of them all around the site, including a couple of mating pairs.
Thereafter they would appear during most visits to my local sites but were still usually in small numbers.

Numbers were higher down on The Lizard in early August and again in Dorset in early September when the Red Valerian growing out of the walls at Lulworth Cove slowed them down for some photo opportunities.
Cheers,

Neil

Sporadic sightings through most of the season but then a mass immigration in September gave me several days worth of pictures to choose from. One of each sex from a day in Sussex and a mating pair (one of seven) down in Kent.

A poor spring for the species and an indifferent early summer, but a good showing of immigrants towards the end of the season. However, my standout encounter with the species was on my local patch on 3rd August, when I spotted a female flying low in the undergrowth around a hedge mustard plant. Here is the sequence.I went back a few days later to look for caterpillars, but unfortunately the path had been "tidied" by a tractor mower...

Dave

As is normally the case with Large Whites, the numbers tend to build up slowly throughout the season with each generation. In 2024 the late summer generation exploded into life from late August into early September.