Delayed Start...

This last week has been fairly disastrous for Purple Emperors. Like the White Admiral, their numbers are greatly reduced by poor weather during the pupal stage. 

They are unlikely to emerge during this cool, showery / wet and windy weather. It may be that the season will start on Wednesday or, more likely, Thursday this week.  

The season could be quite a long one, nationally, as some larvae pupated early, before the weather collapsed, whilst some late ones are still pupating. The photos below are of a pupating larva (female) taken today in Savernake Forest -

She was pupating 4m up on the lower branch of a storm-damaged veteran sallow (100 years +). I found her as a late L2 larva on Sept 10th, as Alastair Cook reached his final century, against India at The Oval. She is unlikely to emerge before July 7th.  

In all honesty, I don't think this is going to be a great iris season, but so much depends on the weather over the next few weeks.