Abstract: This edition of Notes and Views provides a retrospective of interesting items posted on UK Butterflies and other media before 1st October 2014.
There were several reports of 2nd brood White Admiral (L. camilla) in September and were reported in Dorset, Essex, Suffolk and Isle of Wight on 15th September here by Richard Fox, in Surrey here by Richard Fox and in Sussex here by Bill Stone.
This type of parasitism typically leads to certain death but this particular larva was observed, seemingly alive and well. Mike observes that "I have watched the grubs emerging from larva several times now and it would appear that rather than eat their way out, they emerge through the spiracles along the larva's side, which it breathes through. The skin is therefore not punctured so, as long as there is no damage to the internal organs, perhaps survival is possible".
Pauline Richards visited the site of an unauthorised release of Map (A. levana) butterflies near Swanage in Dorset and took a sequence of photos showing a female laying the characteristic strings of eggs.
Peter Eeles visited Stockbridge Down and found 17 Small Skipper (T. sylvestris) eggs in a single grass sheath, which are believed to be at least 4 separate egg batches laid by different females.
The following is an extract from Neil Hulme's diary on the UK Butterflies website:
The big story of 2014, which is still developing, is the emergence of gorganus (Continental subspecies) Swallowtails on British soil, following an influx of these magnificent insects during the summer of 2013. The discovery of resultant larvae and pupae in Sussex gardens and further afield has been well documented ('Supplement Three to A Complete History of the Butterflies and Moths of Sussex', Pratt (2014); 'The Sussex Butterfly Report 2013', Colvin et al. (2014); UK Butterflies website) and we waited with bated breath to see if gorganus would emerge in Sussex for the first time since 1948; it did!
So far this year, Continental Swallowtails have been seen in Hampshire and along the Kent and East Sussex coasts, but most of the observations have focused on 9 pupae being monitored in a Chichester (West Sussex) garden, about half of which have now flown the coop, bringing the total of known adult specimens on the wing to about 10. In order to honour the privacy of the owners, access to these insects has been very restricted, leaving them tantalisingly out of reach. But common sense dictates that these butterflies must represent just 'the tip of the iceberg', and many more must be present in Southern England.
Yesterday afternoon (29th May) I made my third visit to a very promising looking area of semi-urban 'wasteland' (with a public right of way running across it), close to the superstores on the outskirts of Chichester. This was one of several areas around Chichester which I had earmarked using satellite imagery and then followed up on foot, confirming an abundance of food-plants in suitable habitat.
As with the Long-tailed Blues last year, it is a great feeling when a hunch (and a lot of groundwork) pays off, so I was positively euphoric when I spotted this giant within ten minutes of arriving, just as the sun started to break through the cloud. At present I have no way of knowing, and perhaps never will, whether this is one of the insects which has emerged from the monitored garden, which lies just over 1 Km away. My gut feeling is that it isn't, and that more will appear here and elsewhere.
The following is an extract from Vince Massimo's diary on the UK Butterflies website:
Last October I collected all of the remaining Small White larvae from my garden Nasturtium and reared them on. Had I not done this they would not have survived the approaching cooler conditions. All pupated towards the end of October 2013, but one started to show some brown discolouration at the beginning of April 2014. On 8th April a parasitic grub emerged from the butterfly chrysalis and pupated. An adult Tachinid fly emerged on 30th April, which has now been confirmed (by the Natural History Museum) as being Epicampocera succincta, a classical parasitoid of Pierid butterflies.
An incredible series of images of the Brimstone courtship was taken by Dave Browne. The images show the male being rejected by the female before they both "crashed into the undergrowth".
A series of images by Mike Skittrall, showing the emergence of a Brown Hairstreak (T. betulae) larva from its egg before moving to (and entering) a nearby Blackthorn bud.
William Langdon has photographed a pre-pupation Orange-tip (A. cardamines) larva that exhibits the structures associated with the development of the wings in the second and third thoracic segments.
The definition of this Red Admiral (V. atalanta) aberration is characterised by a white spot in the red bands on the forewings. Mike Flemming has researched some of the correspondence leading up to the description of this aberration and translations can be found here.
Pauline Richards made a very interesting observation in the Large Skipper (O. sylvanus) as follows: "Colour of antennae does not appear in reference manuals as determining sex of this species. However, looking at my photos it seems apparent that females have totally black tips to their antennae whilst males clearly have orange on the inside of the tip and black on the outside".
