Poor Weather Delay and State of Sallows News

Singletons of Silver-washed Fritillary and White Admiral have already been seen this year, in Sussex. However, the current poor weather should delay the start of the Emperor season. At this rate I think He will start on June 18th (which is what Neil Hulme has said all along). Emperors can get delayed for ages in the pupal stage by poor June weather.

Several observers have noted the poor state of sallows in various places. There are several causes: primarily, the impact of last year's drought and local infestations of small moth larvae, especially of the Mottled Umber. A large number of sallows are dying, though these are mainly the narrow-leaved varieties which are less favoured by the butterfly. More information is needed on this, please...  Where else are sallows badly affected? Let's share necessary information.

Here's a pic showing struggling sallows at Clappers field in Knepp Wildland, taken on May 17th. The broad-leaved sallows (behind and to the right) are fine, but the central narrow-leaveds are flowering profusely before dying.

  
Here's a Mottled Umber larva (det. Mark Parsons). They're highly variable, it seems with different colour forms prevailing locally.