Friday, February 15, 2013

More Tosh!

Yet more tosh taking the name of the world's premier butterfly in vain - http://amblingbooks.com/books/view/the_riddle_of_the_purple_emperor. The Riddle of the Purple Emperor is a ripping yarn about a precious jewel in the days of the Indian Raj. Regrettably, I was bored by the end of the first page. The thing needs rewriting, into the ripping tale of an expedition into the depths of the New Forest during the great summer of 1893 in pursuit of Iole herself... Here's a quote from one of the entomological journals from that hot dry summer: 'I followed the bed of one of the streams in search of water to drink, and was disappointed in not finding enough to quench my thirst, not a pool being left, but I was repaid by the sight I witnessed: the said bed of the stream for more than a mile was literally crowded with butterflies...' They were mainly adippe, paphia and camilla, with a lot of hyperanthus, etc.

1 comment:

Derek Longhurst said...

Had a similar experience in Bulgaria last summer - a woodland streambed heaving with mainly paphia and adippe, but also sinapis and levana. Remarkable sight, but almost impossible to photograph effectively because of the high contrast between sunlit and shaded patches.