Unless the Platinum Jubilee generates the traditional foul & abusive jubilee weather we are set for a very early Purple Emperor flight season, and quite possibly an extremely good one.
I was going for a 1pm start on Thurs June 9th but the last week of May, a crucial period in determining our Midsummer butterflies' appearance, has been cool, especially at night. The 9th is still a distinct possibility but the weekend of the 11th-12th is now more likely. I'm going for 1pm on the 11th.
Neil Hulme is predicting the 15th, as "we're bound to get some poor weather" and Ben Greenaway is going for the 13th.
The official record for the earliest UK Purple Emperor is 10/6/1893, though in that exceptionally hot summer it was 'out in the New Forest by early June' - whatever that means. The modern record is 11/6/2017 and 11/6/2019.
Those records could well be broken this year.
However, each year we receive claims of very early Emperors from strange places by people who are not known to be official Emperorphiles. I'm sorry, but it is hard to accept such records. If there's a smidgen of doubt, don't claim it: genuine Emperor sightings leave you in no doubt whatsoever... (and this applies to me too).
Although much depends on weather during the pupation and pupal stages (more so than flight season weather) this summer could well see a distinctly large emergence - this could be an all-time great Purple Emperor year.
Meanwhile, here's Boris the Emperor caterpillar, taken the other day. He's full grown and ready to pupate, and he's in the sunless wastes of Gloucestershire. As has been written large on a bridge over the M4 at Bristol: Boris Is Helch -
For regular updates on Emperor affairs follow me on Twitter @MatthewOates76
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