I believe I've told you about the last 3 years in Switzerland, when, each year, one of my larvae in captivity [out of about 20] developed rapidly, pupated and produced an imagine in sept/oct; astoundingly, this happened last year in the UK[but not in any of the previous years in the UK, 2003-2008] , when 2 out 4 larvae did this, although the development was slower than in Switzerland and the larvae perished [in november!] before pupating.

Of course, my conditions are slightly warmer than in nature because my sallow is sleeved in a net, so the wind chill factor is reduced, but not that much, surely? The sallows are always outside.

Anyway, the best comments I have had on this were from Giles Carron [sadly deceased] in 2000.

I think it makes very interestiung reading, and I want to share it with you

Dennis

Giles comments

Hi Dennis,

I would agree with Giles' comments. I think it is easy to under-estimate the degree of 'forcing' caused by retention of your larvae in sleeves. If Brown Hairstreak caterpillars are sleeved outdoors, even when kept in shady conditions, emergence times are approximately 2-3 weeks early. Larval growth rate in betulae is slow - it can be much more rapid (pro-rata considering ultimate size) in iris, and the degree of potential 'forcing' of the latter is probably greater. I've little doubt that the odd wild cat will grow super-fast (and usually perish), but these are the individuals that might assist an evolutionary switch to bivoltinism in the dim and distant future, should climatic and other conditions ever allow it. I'm sure that sleeving will encourage a much higher incidence of super-growth than is ever seen in the wild.

Best Wishes, Neil

All 37 present today. No losses so far this year, though 1 is rather shrunken and 2 others look unwell.

28 are by buds, 5 in scars / lesions, 2 in forks and 2 where green wood meets old brown wood (like WLH eggs). Dennis, these figures differ to what I guessed the other day.

23 are in heavy winter shade, receiving hardly any direct winter sun (or none). 7 receive some early morning winter sun. 6 are in dappled situations and 1 gets some afternoon sun. None is remotely in full sun. Those on sunny sprays are on the dark side of the twig.

22 are yellow-green in colour. 7 are grey. 3 are yellow-brown. 2 are yellow-green-brown. 2 are green. 1 is yellow-grey-green.

Crucially, they match the stem they are on, not the colour of ,y buid they're lined up against. Neil: my nice chestnut brown ones have changed colour! Yes, even in deep sleep they can change colour.

24 are 1-10cm from the spray tip, 7 are 11-20cm from tip, 2 are 21-30cm from tip, 3 are •5m from tip and 1 is 2m from tip.

First we sleep the winter
Then we dance the spring



Matthew

Just a reminder that there are a number of resources available for download on the website, including the collection of 2009 reports, Purple Again.

These are mostly .pdf documents, and can be found on the home page here:

www.thepurpleempire.com

eXtremeButterflying

An Extraordinary General Meeting of Extreme Butterflying took place on Sunday January 10^th 2010 in a Wiltshire wood, with 5” of lying snow, a maximum temperature of 0C, frequent snow flurries, and depressingly bad light.

Mr Hulme was in the chair. Mr Oates was 3m up in a sallow tree. Attendees wore ladies’ tights.

The minutes of the previous meeting were smoked. There were no matters arising.

The sole agenda item was to find and photograph hibernating larvae of Apatura iris, especially those capable of producing specimens of ab. iole.

Doings had to be restricted to the part of the wood adjacent to the main road, the side roads and lanes being utterly impassable. An attempt to drive to the prime iris area was thwarted by glacial conditions, the car spun into something nasty that had escaped from Antarctica and Mr Oates was forced to dig his vehicle out of a snow drift, obtaining some fine pupae of Smerinthus ocellata in the process.

Twelve iris larvae were observed, one of which was new to science. This was accidentally found by Mr Oates, whilst teasing down a branch already known to hold a larva. He had nearly squashed it. Had he done so, his life would have been forfeit.

Mr Hulme obtained some fine photographs, primarily of the uncommon grey colour form adopted by larvae hibernating on scars or lesions in bark, or in forks.

Only two specimens were photographed of the commonest colour form, the yellow-green form that predominates when larvae position themselves by sallow buds, the most frequent location chosen for hibernation. The rare brown colour form was not observed, due to the intervening presence of a large ice sheet.

At this point, darkness descended, torches were lit, and the police arrived, alerted by phone calls concerning men behaving oddly in a public place. The meeting then adjourned to the local constabulary. Mr Hulme is helping Wiltshire police with their inquiries. Mr Oates is missing: his last words were, ‘I’m just going out, I might be some time.’

Another Extraordinary General Meeting will be called.

IRIS STOPS FOR TEA

Gentlemen, Lady
I've just found a 3rd instar iris larva at the Clacket Lane service station on the southern M25 east bound / N side - which is set in ancient woodland. Usual tree - female caprea + matt soft mid green leaves. V pleased with myselves.... This is on the Surrey / Kent border.
Matthew

His Majesty

Hi Everyone, I'm in and an avid Majesty follower.Living close to Fermyn for the last thirty years has been great and it has been interesting to watch the complex grow in statur. As I said previously this year " his majesty" took salt from my leg (photo on my website martinizzardphotographic). You could say I have been touched by "his majesty"

The Bigger Picture

I'm intending to collate everyone's inputs into both the blog and the website, so that you can all have access to the reports in one document, as per last year's "One Purple Year".

SO - as the season draws to a close, could I ask that you post your reports and pictures, so that others may share. Add the date, if the material isn't current, and I'll sort everything into correct chronology.

If you haven't read last years' report, you can download it
here:

http://www.thepurpleempire.com/Images/Onepurplesummer.pdf

Derek