At Knepp, Purple Emperors are now becoming very localised and episodic, more and more restricted to the vicinity of veteran oaks that produce sap bleeds - but those bleeds switch on and off from day to day, and their utilisation is dictated by wind speed and direction.
Males are now scarce, though there are still some fresh-looking ones around.
Females are still relatively plentiful and in remarkably good condition, though they're less active than the males and less predictable.
The oak tree that produced a cluster of four sapping females yesterday only held a lone female this morning, and none during the afternoon - perhaps because of a change in wind speed and direction. Here she is -
I'm having a couple of days off from Emperoring, before returning to Knepp for the Grand Conclusion and to work my other nemesis, the Brown Hairstreak...
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