Long-tailed Blue - Favourite Photo of 2024

[Wurzel]

Long-tailed Blue - Favourite Photo of 2024

Week 10

“Ohh oh we’re half way there…” and fast approaching the Solstice too; a little light in the darkness of mid-winter.

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

[David M]

Not a butterfly I pay much attention to when abroad. Here is one from Spain last summer:

[Andy02]

Another from Spain. This was in Tarifa in September

[millerd]

The way things had been going, I fully expected not to see a Long-tailed Blue in 2024. The usual reports from coastal stations in Kent and Sussex were sparse (or non-existent), so I was prepared for disappointment.

However, with some summery weather returning at the start of September I was out on my local patch on the third of the month. In one frequently productive sheltered corner very close to the link road between the M25 and Heathrow T5, something caught my eye. It was a very pale-looking butterfly, the size of a Common/Holly Blue or Small Heath (or an undersized Small White), but not flying like any of those. Luckily, the sun went in and the mystery insect elected to settle in front of me, wings closed. Even then I really struggled to identify it, so took a few shots and looked at the enlarged versions on the camera screen. Suddenly, it all became clear - I had been looking for spots, but instead there were the vestiges of stripes. There were no tails, or even the spots in the hindwing corners, but this was now unmistakably a Long-tailed Blue.

I waited for the sun to come out again, and sure enough the wings slowly opened to reveal a very worn male butterfly.

After a few more minutes warming up, it took to the air and rapidly disappeared. I later heard that another had been seen the same day not all that far distant over in Richmond Park, so maybe there had been a minor migration of the species (the next ten days included Painted Ladies, Clouded Yellows, Large Whites and a lot of Red Admirals, so migration was definitely a thing at the time).

Needless to say I was very pleased to have stumbled upon it - a first for my local patch in over fifteen years, and especially during a year when the species was very hard to find anywhere.

Dave

[Padfield]

That's a fantastic sighting, Dave. I was struck by the dearth of reports from the UK this year, but evidently they did get there !

In Switzerland, long-tailed blues are relatively sparse migrants. Nevertheless, every year they manage to find one particular field near a hilltop in the Rhône Valley, where there is a single bladder senna - one of their favourite foodplants. By August this year I still hadn't seen any long-tailed blues, so I took an afternoon trip to this hilltop and quickly saw dozens of highly active males. They were impossible to photograph because it was hot and they were fired up. If one stopped a brief moment, another would pass by and the first would launch up to attack it before the pair of them spiralled tens of metres into the sky. This is a good way of recognising the species. Other blues battle it out in the lower atmosphere, while long-tailed blues zoom up into the stratosphere.

Fortunately, there was at least one female at the site, who took refuge from all the testosterone in the deep grass. I took this picture of her :



Guy

[Allan.W.]

I had a couple of visits to the regular LTB site at Kingsdown Leas here in Kent .As usual an excellent showing of Pea plants ........and as usual .....much trampling !l So others had obviously been looking .I only heard of a couple of sightings at Kingsdown this year ,but never saw any imago myself..............I have a feeling that any that appeared ,and were seen were kept quiet . In one area some distance from the "Hotspot" areas on two very small Pea clumps ,I noticed ,first a spent eggshell ,and after some searching found a late instar Larva. (1 of 2)

[David M]

...In one area some distance from the "Hotspot" areas on two very small Pea clumps ,I noticed ,first a spent eggshell ,and after some searching found a late instar Larva.

Nice find, Allan.

[Allan.W.]

Thanks David,I was pleased and very surprised. Allan.W.

[Pete Eeles]

I had a couple of visits to the regular LTB site at Kingsdown Leas here in Kent .As usual an excellent showing of Pea plants ........and as usual .....much trampling !l So others had obviously been looking .I only heard of a couple of sightings at Kingsdown this year ,but never saw any imago myself..............I have a feeling that any that appeared ,and were seen were kept quiet . In one area some distance from the "Hotspot" areas on two very small Pea clumps ,I noticed ,first a spent eggshell ,and after some searching found a late instar Larva. (1 of 2)
P1120613.JPG

Excellent find, Allan! I found that looking for holes in the developing seed pods also works quite well ... certainly larger than an egg!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Allan.W.]

Thanks Pete !.............I got lucky ! Allan.W.

[Wurzel]

Long-tailed Blue

I still haven’t been lucky enough to find a UK based LTB but this year there were plenty to choose from in the towns around Montpellier. This one came from the very same city on one of several trips to the ‘Jardin de Plantes’. I chose it primarily as it was one of the most complete ones that I saw and photographed but also because the fringes seem to have taken on the subtlest orange tinge nicely mirroring the flower its’ feeding on.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Maximus]

From what I've read recently, Long-tailed Blues appear to have been a bit thin on the ground in the UK in 2024. I therefore didn't expect to bump into any on our travels. However, in September we were staying at a campsite near Alfold in Surrey. The estate had a lovely walled garden which we visited frequently as it lots of buddleia bushes and some nice stands of verbena. It also had some BLEP climbing up and over a wooden obelisk. Every time we walked around the garden we made sure to take a look at the BLEP just in case, but always drew a blank (as expected) apart from a couple of Small Whites nectaring on the blooms. Then on 19th September as we approached the BLEP during our usual circuit we noticed a small butterfly flitting around the top of the blooms, I took a quick shot and when I enlarged it on the camera there was no mistaking it was a Long-tailed Blue. It was very lively and didn't settle in the open and always settled with wings closed. I got two record shots before it flew off and disappeared, and, although we hung around it didn't return. We checked for eggs but found none, so perhaps this was a male attracted the larval food plant. So at least a few made it well inland in 2024 even though it wasn't really an LTB year.