Welcome to the 2024 Purple Emperor season!
Two males were seen this afternoon at Knepp Wildland, W Sussex, by myself and six others. It turned out that the prediction I made on June 4th was only 26 hours out - not bad, considering how bloody awful the weather's been... This is not an easy season to predict.
My guess is that a few Sussex larvae managed to pupate in good weather around May 20th or 21st, or possibly during a spell of reasonable weather around May 24th or 25th. Then the weather got really nasty... Some of those 'early bird' larvae went on to produce adults now.
However, the bulk of the national emergence may be some time off, and it may be that there's an unusually protracted emergence this year.
We'll see... So much in the Purple world is speculation... I don't think most sites will start for a while yet, and it will be interesting to see when the next record comes in, and when the butterfly starts in the northern reaches of the Empire.
Sorry, I can't post a picture as the wretched thing wont let me...
PS Four males were seen here on Tues 18th, but it was too cloudy for much of the afternoon.
PPS I'm away from Knepp for a few days, High Browning on Exmoor...
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