Glanville Fritillary

I made a return visit to Hutchinson Bank today to see how the Glanville Fritillary colony was progressing. When I visited in 2014 the colony was only just becoming established and despite an extensive search I could only find one butterfly, a female. Today I saw somewhere in the region of fifteen to twenty of them. I am told that the transect is showing twenty four and that we have not yet reached the peak emergence.

This is the rarest of the UKs butterflies with only this colony and one on the Isle of Wight. It is on the northernmost edge of its territory and a bad winter, parasites, or other threats could see it become extinct in this country.

Attempts, by persons unknown, have been made to establish other colonies. These have been at Sand Point in Somerset, Avon Gorge, and Wrecclesham in Surrey, probably using stock imported from the continent. All these colonies seem to have died out, although they are not declared as such, until they have completed three clear years without sightings being made.

There have also been short lived colonies at Hurst Point and other locations on the Hampshire coast but these could well have been seeded by migration from the Isle of Wight.

The population of the Isle of Wight colony fluctuates wildly. This may be due to bad weather or perhaps the impact of parasites that exist alongside the colony. Parasites that at the moment do not appear to be present at Hutchinson Bank.


At the moment it looks like another bad year for the IoW with very few sightings being made so far. They should recover, weather, if that is the cause will improve and it is rare that a parasite wipes out its host completely. If anything should happen to it, at least we now have Hutchinson Bank as a back up holding UK stock.


Update: Good news - fifty plus Glanville Fritillaries reported on Compton Cliffs on the 29th May.


Are the Hutchinson Bank Butterflies real or "plastic"? Well the colony seems to be self sustaining with eggs, caterpillar, chrysalis and imago all being found at the site. However, there is a butterfly house and breeding program to provide a back up to the site. 

Evidence of natural breeding at the site is shown below.

With plenty of the caterpillars food plant on the site it looks as though next years generation are safely on their way.


See my blog of May 2014 to find the story behind the naming of the Glanville Fritillary butterfly.

and below my first Small Blue of the year

Small Blue

See a recent blog by the warden for the site, also a Martin, for some more great pictures and in particular for a shot of an aberration ab.wettei. It would be worth going back just for the chance to see one of these.

Small Pearl-bordered and Marsh Fritillaries

Butterflies are like birds, its nice if you can find them in your own patch. The trouble is that we had set ourselves a target of forty different species for the year and getting them all in Sussex was always going to be difficult. When one of our bankers, the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, failed to appear at Park Heath Corner we started to worry. Finally with reports coming in from Hampshire and Wiltshire of them starting to look past their best our nerve broke, we would have to go out of county.

We decided on a trip to Bentley Wood out near Salisbury and while we were there we thought we might as well carry on to Cotley Hill on the other side of Salisbury to pick up the Marsh Fritillary. My wife is pretty good about the birding but I was not looking forward to explaining why I needed to do a round trip of 230 miles to see a butterfly, particularly as my windscreen had not yet been replaced and I needed to borrow her car.

It was a good trip for the nerd in me, we got both butterflies and the year ticks. It was not so good for the photographer in me, the butterflies were past their best and the picture opportunities were limited, and it was even worse for the eco-friendly part of me but we we'll not go there today.

We parked up at Bentley Wood and within two minutes of leaving the car Dave had spotted our first Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

There were plenty of them about although most of them were starting to look a little worn. They were nectering on various plants mostly yellow but also on Brambles, the best option seemed to be to find some bramble flowers in a sheltered spot and wait for the butterflies to come to you.

We got some good pictures but somehow I have managed to come away without a closed wing shot.

There was a possibility of Marsh Fritillaries at Bentley Wood but we could not find them. However, whilst we were searching we came across this Dragonfly. It a Black-tailed Skimmer, either a female or a juvenile.

Black-tailed Skimmer

Flushed with our success we headed off to Cotley Hill to find the Marsh Fritillaries and our luck held when we spotted one as we walked onto the site. In fact there were dozens flying and they are a lazy butterfly, much easier to photograph than the Small Pearl-bordered. The only problem was that these had really gone over and most had faded or damaged wings. A bit disappointing but at least we came away with record shots.

Marsh Fritillary

Bramble seemed to be the favourite nectaring plant

Both sites we visited had a lot of butterflies flying and we had a good supporting cast, Large Skipper, Brimstone, Spotted Wood, Small Heath, Meadow Brown, Small White, Brown Argus, Small Blue, Common Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Dingy Skipper, Grizzled Skipper, Green Hairstreak, and a good assortment of day flying moths.

Brimstone

Brown Argus

Common Blue

Grizzled Skipper

Large Skipper

Meadow Brown

Six Spot Burnett

Small Heath

Small Tortoiseshell

Its a pity that the two main butterflies that we were after were a bit faded but we have solved the problem for next year, we will be going early when the two species start to emerge. It will turn what was a good day into a great day.

Old Lady in need of a Paint job

Well, I could have hoped for something a little fresher and a little brighter for my first Painted Lady of the year. They only have a two or three week life span as a butterfly so this one must have really had a difficult time in the couple of weeks that it's been flying. The good news is that it was last seen flying off into the sunset, so there is still some life in the old lady yet.

Rather worn Painted Lady

Having yet again been misled by the BBC weather forecast I picked Dave up and we headed up onto the downs to make the most of the unexpected sunshine. Kithurst Meadow gave us Small Blue, Common Blue, Brown Argus and a Small Tortoiseshell as well as a number of different day flying moths. Chantry hill had a similar selection but with the Painted Lady instead of the Tortoiseshell.

Small Blue

Common Blue Female

But it has no cell spot on the underside of the forewing

Separation of the female Common Blue and Brown Argos should be easy when you have the pictures in front of you but they never seem to fit the descriptors exactly. The logic for this one is that on the first picture it is female from the short body but if it was a female Brown Argos the orange lunes would not fade out before the tip of the fore wing. On the second picture the black spots on the rear wing follow the shape of the wing and do not have the characteristic colon shape that occurs on the Brown Argos. See http://www.glaucus.org.uk/BflyBlues03.html for more details. So it is a Common Blue female - but then it does not have the cell spot on the underside of the fore wing and the black mark on the upper fore wing is quite prominent suggesting it is an Argos - all very confusing.

I have nothing but admiration for those that can tell the difference as they flutter past but I suspect the occasional mistake does get made and I may have just added to that total.

We also had a nice Small Tortoiseshell

Small Tortoiseshell

and there were a lot of Cinnabar moths in the area .........

Cinnabar Moth

.... and to finish off a Large White which this year seems to be a very rare butterfly. This is the first that I have seen. A bit different from previous years when the Large White caterpillars managed to strip my prize crop of Cavolo Nero in just a couple of days.

Large White

Quite a successful afternoon but I did not manage to find a Small Copper which has now risen to the top of my wish list. A good excuse to go back for another go.

Wood White

There may not have been many opportunities for bird photography over the past couple of days but the butterflies have more than compensated.

As I was up at Iping Common looking for Tree Pipits and Woodlarks I decided to head over the border into Surrey to visit Botany Bay Wood in the hope of seeing Wood Whites. I did not attempt to count them but just along the main ride there must have been thirty to forty of them flying. I was also pleased to find that they are an easy butterfly to photograph. They do not seem to be concerned by a close approach or by the odd bit of gardening to give a better shot.

Wood White

Much darker markings on this one

There were also dozens of a little orange moth flying which I later identified as a Speckled Yellow Moth.

Speckled Yellow Moth

The rides also had lots of Brimstones and for a change they seemed to be settling to feed regularly giving plenty of picture opportunities.

Brimstone

On the way home I called in at Kithurst meadow. I already had lots of shots of the Duke of Burgundys but I wanted a Small Blue and I knew they had been seen there. I struggled to find one at first but then someone suggested that I look outside the meadow on the bank by the side of the road and sure enough there were two specimens out there.

Small Blue

Small Blue

I also found a Dingy Skipper. Not unusual  except that that this is the first shot I have taken of one with closed wings.

Dingy Skipper

And a Damselfly which I am reasonably confident in identifying as a Variable Damselfly which would be a first for me. I got it wrong, its an Azure Damselfly, wishful thinking on my part.

Variable Azure Damselfly

A couple of other Butterflies spotted the next day. The first is a Speckled Wood at Park Copse Pagham Harbour. Nothing unusual in the butterfly but the lighting is good.

Speckled Wood

And an Orange Tip taken just north of the Black Rabbit.

Orange Tip

The Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary is the next butterfly on the list.