I have never seen a Purple Emperor in the UK, but I have been fortunate enough to chance across them regularly, if infrequently, on holidays in Switzerland. The individual below was sighted during a holiday last July. Sarah was feeling unwell so I spent the day out alone, and took the opportunity to try something different, in this case walking up from the village of Lungern to the cable car station at Turren. This was one hell of a climb, as it turned out, in burning heat, but had lots of wildlife interest including butterflies. At the foot of the hill there were Wood Whites, Map, and SW Frits, on the climb many blues, skippers, ringlets and whites, and at the peak at Dundelegg Apollos and Swallowtails were present in numbers. On a previous visit to this mountainside I saw my only ever Camberwell Beauty.
I came across the PE in an area where the path emerged from the woods and ran along some hay meadows, about mid-way up. This was shortly after a slope that had the greatest density of wild strawberries and raspberries I have ever seen - very welcome sustenance. The PE flew a couple of circuits around me, before settling on the path to take up minerals, at which point I was able to get my camera out of my rucksack and grab a few shots. Zooming in the picture shows the forelegs are quite barbed – does anyone know what the reason for that is? Also, is this the first ever record of a butterfly using a walking stick?
Simon C
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