Equally rare, if not even more so than the elusive iole, a recently eclosed A.ilia bilateral gynandromorph. I thought I would share some pictures for you all to see and enjoy. A fantastic and interesting beast.
Some interesting and unexpected findings. Firstly looking at the pupal case, the male opening is clustered to one side (section IX), while the female genital opening is still contiguios through section VIII.
Although generally considered to be equally split down the middle, when looking close up at the business end of the actual specimen, we see that the male does actually have a complete pair of claspers, but both of these are clustered on one side of the abdomen and I fail to find any sign of a female opening.
Looking close up at the vestigial front brushes (which can be used to sex non-sexually dimorphic Nymphalidae species), it is excellent to see the presence of the extra tarsal segment (with claw) on the female side.
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Thursday, September 7, 2017
NORFOLK EMPERORS
FROM FRANCIS FARROW
Around mid-July there was some exciting
news for Norfolk Naturalists with two sightings of Purple Emperor butterflies
in Sheringham Park. These impressive butterflies have not been seen in Norfolk
since they were resident in the early 1970s (apart from some recent infrequent
sightings). Further to the Sheringham Park sightings a third sighting was made
on Beeston Common, near Sheringham on 31st July. This site, which
lies within a mile of the coast, is a mixture of habitats including heathland
where the butterfly was seen.
Your dedicated website for the Purple
Emperor states in its introduction ‘This
is not an insect you will stumble upon, unless you are blessed with
extraordinary luck.’ I believe I was extremely lucky as I literally
stumbled upon a Purple Emperor on the ground.
This was a female, not the impressive
iridescent purple male. The butterfly was on a path less than two metres ahead of me imbibing mineral salts from the soil. This
was my first ever sighting and as I had missed out on an earlier Butterfly
Conservation excursion to Fermyn Wood in Northamptonshire I was particularly
happy to have found one on my local patch. Apart from moving around slightly
while still imbibing the butterfly remained with its wings closed for about 20
minutes. Then there were a few tentative movements of its wings before finally
the butterfly spread its wings, revealing its ‘eye-spots’, before taking off
and ascending to around 10 metres after which, it glided some eight metres down
to around three metres before flying off strongly to the south-west (the
direction in which Sheringham Park lies). This last act was a great thrill –
such an impressive insect.
One theory is that the recent Norfolk
sightings are casual migrants, individuals from re-introduced Suffolk colonies that
have done well in the last 10 years rather than deliberate releases of
captive-bred stock. Hopefully enough of
these large and beautiful butterflies will arrive and start their own colonies
in Norfolk woodlands.
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