Congratulations to the iris surveyors of Sussex. Below is a posting to the BC Sussex website by Michael Blencowe, declaring the 104th 2Km x 2Km tetrad Purple. This has all been achieved in just the last four seasons. A magnificent effort!"....And Johnson takes the century! At close of play yesterday Neil Hulme's impressive Emperor tally had taken us tantalisingly close to 100 tetrad (2km x 2km) squares in Sussex which contain a record of the Purple Emperor.
Paul Johnson has been helping with the atlas on the Sussex / Kent border near Tunbridge Wells and emailed in his 2013 records today. By his own admission Paul's been having a good season up there in his local patch and his records of Purple Emperor from the Hartfield / Eridge Green / Frant area have now added 5 new tetrads to our total - taking us past the 100 mark and beyond! Getting over 100 tetrads for such an elusive butterfly is quite an impressive feat - my goal was to try and get over 50 tetrads over the 2010-14 survey period. With a total of 1024 tetrads in Sussex this now means that your nearest tree has a 1 in 10 chance of having a Purple Emperor on top of it. Admittedly these odds are rather skewed to West Sussex which, it seems, is home to 80% of our Sussex Emperors. Thanks again to Paul for his records and for everyone who has contributed. The sun's still shining and the Emperor is still flying - can we get to 200 by the end of the weekend?"
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