Feeding Starts!

I visited Knepp Wildlands yesterday, Sun 2nd.  Two of the three larvae I was following on one tree have got through the winter (the 3rd went missing-presume-crunched during Feb but may yet reappear).  The two have started feeding, probably on Thurs March 30th; and I spotted the silhouette of another larva high up on another leafing sallow.  

My captive larva has also begun feeding, and Brother Denis's boys in Aylesbury are on-leaf, ready to feed.

It is unusual for iris larvae to commence feeding this early.  And if this goes on the butterfly will be out in early June - unless May is foul, again...

Here's Knepp No 2 from yesterday - 

Here's him starting to feed on his second leaf - 

And here's the other larva, ready to move on to a leaf (he's already bitten into an opening leaf bud) - 

Here's a view out over one patch of the (vast acreage of) sallow lands, from a tree platform - 

Here's a couple of the Knepp Wildlands pigs, lazing away the first of summer's hours yesterday -

The pigs are quite important to the future of iris at Knepp, as their diggings (below) get colonised by sallow...

Sleepers Awake!

His Imperial Majesty, The Emperor of the Woods, The Monarch of all the Butterflies (etc.) awoke from hibernation yesterday afternoon, March 28th, and aligned himself up against an unfurling sallow leaf bud.  

The larvae are likely to start feeding very soon, which is early...  

Watch this space...

Apatura iris on Dennis's Patch...

Delighted to announce the accidental discovery of Apatura iris in the Bradenham Valley (NT) just west of High Wycombe, Bucks, on the edge of Park Wood. 

Today I paid a quick visit to the site in the valley where we've successfully reintroduced His Grace The Duke of Burgundy, casually looked at a spray of a nice-looking caprea-type coppiced sallow and instantly found His Imperial Majesty hibernating there. I've never done that before and very much doubt I'll ever do it again. It was pure serendipity. Here's the 'pillar - 

And here's the NT's Neil Harris pointing at the 'pillar's location, 2m up on the north side of a 4m tall coppiced bush on the wood edge - 

This is, of course, bang in the middle of Dennis's Patch...

 Party time!

2017 Kicks Off!

At least one of us was out in the Emperor's woods on New Year's Eve... I was in Savernake, with deer, tawny owls, a bat, Mottled Umber moths blundering about, shadows numberless, and church bells calling out from Marlborough. Then the fireworks took over.

Unfortunately, two of the three larvae I had marked out there have vanished (though they might have moved long distances - I need to return in daylight, as torchlight is inadequate). Larva No 9 remains, but had moved 6 cm during the mild December.

Yesterday, Jan 2nd, I checked the two larvae I have marked out in a sallow at Knepp Wildlands. Both had moved since my last visit on 27th November: one 20 cm, and the other a massive, record-breaking 2 m.  

Here's No 1 ('Raymond'):-

And here's No 2 ('Raymonda'), after a 2m sleep walk - 

She's the one with the skull marking behind her head, but it doesn't show well when she's curled round a twig scar.  

Hopefully, they'll both conk out properly now, sleep through the winter, and dream up the spring...

I've now seen iris in the wild, in one or more of its life stages, for 92 consecutive months. This is Obsession (at least I hope it is)...


The prospects for the 2017 Purple Emperor season are not great. Last year was just about the poorest season I've known (I think 1990 was worse), the egg-lay was low, and larval mortality (as measured) was again quite high during the autumn - but much depends on how well the larvae over-winter, and on spring, June and, especially, flight season weather.  

Prediction: My intuition tells me that the first 2017 iris will take to the air around high noon on 24th June. Be there!

Merry Christmas

For the second year running I am delighted to have Apatura ilia specimens eclosing at Christmas time. These adults are the 7th consecutive generation (without diapause), confirming that diapause in this species is certainly not obligatory and that they can be continually cultured (availability of fresh food plant allowing). I was also very happy to have paired this generation meaning that another generation may yet be achieved. Many seasonal greetings to you all.

Purple Emperor at Cliveden

We are delighted to report, albeit somewhat belatedly, that His Imperial Majesty, the Purple Emperor, was photographed this summer basking wantonly beside the very swimming pool at Cliveden (NT), near Slough, in which the late John Profumo CBE and Miss Christine Keeler once brazenly cavorted, to their ephemeral delight and the nation's eternal chagrin.  

In consequence, we are offering Miss Keeler a Vice Presidency of The People of Purple Persuasion, the Purple Emperor fellowship.  Here she is in purpuratum, if not entirely in flagrante delicto- 

It must be added that by His Imperial Majesty's moral standards Miss Keeler, and indeed the late Miss Mandy Rice-Davies, are paragons of virtue.

The Super Race - Death-eaters...

Here's further proof of the development of a new super race of iris at Knepp Wildlands, The Death-eaters...  Just look at the skull markings on this one -

Photoed on Sun Nov 27th 2016.