Sat July 9th at Knepp

The Purple Emperor has now been on the wing here for 24 days and should be on the wane, but it's at peak! 

I thought we might get an unusually protracted emergence this year... 

The male emergence is probably now complete, or almost so, but there must be many more females still to emerge.

Incredibly, of the 50-odd males I saw today only one was battered and only three looked worn and faded, the majority were in very good condition. All the females look great.

They're starting to feed a lot on fermenting oak sap - 

They get plastered on this and then behave very badly... ... ...

In the coming heatwave both sexes will be quiescent, even comatose, during the heat of the afternoon. Advise: don't bother working them between 2.30 and 5.30. Work the evening flight instead (today, 6.15-8pm). Activity is highly localised, in sheltered foliage bowls.   

Here's a female, shading. They do a lot of this on hot afternoons -

The Knepp Large Tortoiseshell saga continues. We have two females intermittently active in and around a scrubby hedgerow oak along the main hard track, about 6 minutes walk from the shop and centre, at TQ 147 206. They vanish for ages, then suddenly reappear. They are feeding on the oak branches, deep in-bush, not taking nectar and not basking in hot sun. 

Park in the Walkers Carpark at Dial Post, walk down the long slope, pick up the Purple Emperor Walk leaflet from the Shop / Go Down and walk on out. Go see some Emperors too, they're beginning to behave badly (one launched at a passing Spitfire today, albeit in a rather desultory manner). 

Here's a LT from this afternoon, they're not basking in this heat. They are even more unpredictable than Emperors - 

 I've got to pop home later tomorrow, my cat's missing me...