Knepp Sunday June 14th

The wind did drop today and the sun shone unblemished until after mid-afternoon, when it became a trifle too cloudy.

There was no mass emergence today, just a doubling of sightings, from six yesterday to 12 today. And just the one male seen feeding down on the tracks.

But it is still very early days, as illustrated by this photo of a larva starting the process of pupation there this afternoon -

S/he is unlikely to emerge before July 7th. It may just be that there'll be a longer than usual emergence period this year, but we'll see...

It's still very early days everywhere. As far as I know only Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire have declared themselves in purpuratum so far.