Winter Ending...

  Purple Emperor larvae are now all out of hibernation and are lined up alongside swelling buds, ready and waiting to start feeding. 

  One of two have had their first bites out of loosening buds, but as a whole they are stuck in what I call the Departures Lounge, waiting for the sallow leaflets to expand sufficiently. 

  This is a frustrating time of year for them, not helped by cold nights. They wont make much, if any, progress this week, due to the forecast Arctic winds and cold nights. The sallows are progressing very slowly, and are taking an age to flower this year (leaves follow flowers...).   

 It is still too early to give a winter survival rate, we have to wait till they start feeding properly. However, I'm sure we can say that the survival rate is significantly higher than during the 2019-20 winter (unless mass predation occurs this week). 

  In West Sussex, Ben Greenaway seems to be set to record around 40% survival, compared to a mere 15% the previous winter. 

  In the N Wilts district, I seem to be set to record 50%, possibly 60% survival - but will have to wait until late April before I can locate a couple high up on sallows (spotted through binoculars, but now masked by sallow flowers). This is about as good as it gets.

  At this stage, we can say that 1) larvae are currently somewhat behind schedule but that 2) their spring numbers are relatively and pleasingly high, so 3) we could be set for a good emergence, probably from late June.  

Watch this space...

Here's some recent (early April) photos of larvae - 

Fans of my named larvae (see my Twitter account @MatthewOates76) will be pleased to learn that Boris, Donald, Andrea (Ledsom), Jacob and Margaret Hilda are all alive and well - indeed, Margaret has started to feed. But Ivanka, Nigel and Sir Nick got crunched. 

  PS Hau Loc shrimp paste is back on sale in the UK, post Brexit (the EU banned it as unfit for human consumption). This is by far the best brand of shrimp paste for iris. See https://asianfoodie.co.uk/dry-store/condiments. This is why we voted Leave...