It took me several days to recover from the utterly stupendous Knepp Purple Emperor season. For a week I felt like Ben Stokes after back-to-back test matches (you need to know your cricket quite well to understand this, but it means extreme enknackerment...).
Today, I managed to make it to Savernake Forest, which regularly produces late sightings, in time to see my last of the year - a worn, frayed and woefully inactive male in the infamous Dead Beech Glade. At 3pm, as Joe Root reached his century at Old Trafford, he rose to the challenge of seeing off a Stock Dove. At that point I drew stumps. Here he is, small and dead centre, wings outspread -
BUT, given the advanced state of larvae - there are 3rd instar larvae in Sussex, already - there is a chance that a few 2nd brood adults will emerge in the early to mid- autumn, if the long hot summer continues. Watch this space, and burn the butterfly books (the Emperor's already burnt mine)...
Better still, it looks as though the 'egg lay' has been massive. I have been conducting standardised counts of autumn larvae in Savernake since 2009, and suspect that 2025 will prove to be the best year in a run of 17 years. Today, I was finding larvae at the rate of one per 11 minutes - that's mega. Most were 1st instars on leaf tips, like this -
This will be the autumn to look for new colonies, in new districts and new counties. Top of my personal hit list is the Forest of Dean. Bring on the autumn Dangle Leaf Season, and keep following this Blog - this Emperor year is far from done.
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