I have now seen Purple Emperors in the wild for 23 consecutive days. My target is 30 Days Purple... and with this weather, I should reach it. Not bad for someone with severe osteoarthritis in both knees (the answer is do it by bike...).
Rather incredibly, males are still emerging at Knepp, over three weeks into the flight season there. And they're still coming down to feed on the tracks, teste this obliging male photographed this morning 100m from the main entrance -
On the debit side, numbers are not high at Knepp, though they are impressive just about everywhere else, and the butterfly is appearing in lots of new places.
Knepp seems to be set for an unusually long emergence period, and presumably flight season (unless we go into a serious and sustained heatwave which would shorten their lives). I think because some larvae pupated unusually early, around the weekend of May 20th-21st. Then the weather wound down for the Jubilee, and larval development slowed right down.
Also, a spate of sightings in silly places - like the middle of Horsham - suggests that last week's high winds dispersed many of Knepp's Emperors.
Elsewhere, the Emperor is steadily conquering Worcestershire, with an impressive number of sightings in Grafton Wood and Trench Wood in the Forest of Feckenham, and Tiddesley Wood near Pershore. Best, He has now been seen on the edge of Wyre Forest, which is serious terra nova.
Finally, just to illustrate that anything goes during the Purple Emperor season, and on this Blog -
TO THE WOODS, ALL OF YOU, THIS WEEKEND. GO! Clothing is not essential.
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