Not that I'm aware of. Honesty has been around for centuries, but I'm pretty sure that there's no concrete evidence to support the classification of foodplants into primary, secondary, tertiary etc. and the corresponding success rates, unfortunately!
Honesty is frequently used as a foodplant, so all is well!
A cool day on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social False Apollo tour resulted in an impromptu photography workshop (20 minutes that turned into 2 hours thanks to all of the great guest questions!), with a Small Copper then appearing as things warmed up. A favourite species for the last 50 years!
Thanks for getting it, Paul - I hope it serves you well!
I am planning this year's butterfly trips using this excellent book..
This male Orange-tip wasn't taking 'no' for an answer, despite the female clearly rejecting him by raising her abdomen, as many species in the Pieridae family do! It was nice to see so many of them flying today, along with Holly Blue in numbers not encountered for several years!
Just back from another very successful @greenwingstours.bsky.social tour in Greece! I'm not sure why, but this photo of a Green-underside Blue seems to evoke something about the place that I just can't put into words ... answers on a postcard!
Another great day on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social False Apollo tour. Lots of lovely Grecian Copper, including an aberrant female with elongated spots. Finding the rare Krueper's Small White was the icing on the cake!
A fantastic start to the @greenwingstours.bsky.social False Apollo tour. Not only did we find adults, but also managed to locate a few batches of False Apollo eggs on its main foodplant, Aristolochia hirta.
Gosh - a Dingy Skipper forewing with a Chequered Skipper hindwing ... what a butterfly! I had to check that it wasn't April 1st!
Pearl-bordered fritillary caterpillars are coming along nicely in Devon. Spent the day at Haldon Forest, poking around pockets of violets along the broken edges of bracken litter @bcdevon.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social
Word of the day: pharate. This term describes a fully formed larva or adult when inside the cuticle of the previous developmental stage. Behold a pharate Purple Emperor caterpillar within its egg case and a pharate male Silver-studded Blue adult within its pupal case!
And the answers are: Swallowtail, Chequered Skipper, Wood White, Marsh Fritillary, Duke of Burgundy and Small Blue. Well done everyone!
Orange-tips are nearly upon us and, surprisingly, Green Hairstreaks were seen today in Cheshire! www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/viewto...
Final two!
This week's challenge is to identify the species whose pupae are represented here - one from each of the 6 butterfly families ... the final two in a reply to this post! I'll give it a few days before providing the answers!
And the answers are Swallowtail, Silver-spotted Skipper, Cryptic Wood White, Silver-washed Fritillary, Duke of Burgundy, Silver-studded Blue
And this week's challenge is to identify the species whose larvae are represented here - one from each of the 6 butterfly families ... the final two in a reply to this post!
📣 New paper 🎉 Proud to have helped with this nice study by @wlangdon12.bsky.social showing a trade-off between nutritional quality & microclimate of host plants for Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas). Here in England, they choose warmth over nutrition resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
And the answers are ... Swallowtail (Papilionidae), Dingy Skipper (Hesperiidae), Orange-tip (Pieridae), White Admiral (Nymphalidae), Duke of Burgundy (Riodinidae), Brown Hairstreak (Lycaenidae)
and the final two ... :)
Here's a random selection of butterfly eggs - 1 from each of the 6 families (Papilionidae, Hesperiidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae, Riodinidae, Lycaenidae). Having spent some time looking at them 'up close' I can only conclude that they are really quite beautiful! How many can you identify? Larvae next!
Our most recent review, by Harry E. Clarke, of Butterflies of the Western Palaearctic (volume 1) can now be found at www.dispar.org/reference.ph...
As well as seeing adult butterflies coming out of hibernation today (Peacock and Brimstone for me!), I also enjoyed finding several Marsh Fritillary larval webs, with larvae taking their first nibbles of Devil's-bit Scabious, & communally basking to raise their body temperature, which aids digestion
Still time to grab a spot on this superb trip. It makes for a lovely way to begin your spring butterfly watching campaign...
greenwings.co/our-holidays...
A donation from this and *all* our butterfly tours also goes to support the conservation work of @europebutterfly.bsky.social too.
False Apollo
Southern Festoon
Scarce Swallowtail
Grecian Copper
With temperatures on the rise, I'm looking forward to a 'spring break' in Northern Greece with @greenwingstours.bsky.social (greenwings.co/our-holidays...). Some photos from last year, a trip that led to Martin Partridge's interesting article on the False Apollo: www.sbbt.org.uk/latest-news/....
Here’s a Swallowtail larva exposing its ‘osmeterium’, an organ found in the 1st segment. Victorian entomologists remarked on its ‘pungent smell’, similar to rotting pineapple. Having found a bottle of pineapple juice left in my car (courtesy of a grandson) I can confirm that this is absolutely true!
A review by Pete Smith of the most recent book on European butterflies: Butterflies of Britain and Western Europe and their Caterpillars! www.dispar.org/reference.ph...
Nice find, Penny! Any of our hibernators (that overwinter as adults) might 'show themselves' in suitable conditions.