Predictions for The 2018 Purple Emperor Season

We are set for an early and extremely good iris season.

The first males should start to emerge on June 16th at 'early' sites such as Bookham Common in Surrey, Great Chattenden Wood in Kent and Knepp Wildland in West Sussex, and a day or so later at moderately early sites such as Alice Holt Forest, Hants, and the Bicester woods in Oxon. The Wilts colonies are at least a week behind, and may only see modest numbers.

I may revise these predictions if the weather speeds things up or slows things down.

Unless the weather during June and early July is poor we are set for an unusually large emergence, as mortality was moderate during the autumn and unusually low during the winter (though the butterfly can suffer high losses in the pupal stage, and can get caught in the pupal stage if June is cool and wet).  

So, do the decent thing: resign from your job (Hulme and Oates have already done this), walk out on your partner, sell the children into slavery or worse, and cast yourselves into the full wonder of the 2018 Purple Emperor season. There is no alternative.

We are Purple, and proud of it...