Nowadays, the Purple Emperor flight season is preceded by the pupae torching season...
Emperor pupae, and pupating larvae, flouresce strongly under powerful UV torchlight, whilst suspended from leaf undersides. They can be spotted at 10m distance with the right torch (I use The UV Beast 365nm, but Alonefire SV43 365nm sounds great too). Most pupae are high up in sallow tops.
In addition to Neil Hulme & Kat Dahl's nine in an hour at Knepp last week, Mark Tutton & Dan Moles found at least seven pupae in Alice Holt Forest, Hants, last night. This further suggests a huge emergence this year, weather permitting... (time was when we'd be wowed by nine or even seven adults in an hour, anywhere).
I was pleased to find this new pupating larva in the upper Frome valley west of Cirencester, Glos, last night, spotted and photoed at 10m distance -
Good News! Knepp Castle Estate will once again be running it's Self-guided Purple Emperor walk this season, probably from June 16th to mid-July. I'll put details on this Blog when they're finalised, but basically the route will be the same as last year.
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