VISITING KNEPP

Arrangements for Purple Emperor visitors are the same as last year. I.e. there is a designated Purple Emperor Walk, marked out by purple ribbons and depicted on a PE Walk map (available from Fri June 18th). There is a small charge for this (I don't know what yet).

As last year, we have our own Purple Emperor Carpark. Drive all the way down the concrete track that leads to New Barn Farm, from the north-west end of Dial Post, and then drive through the automatic wooden five-bar gate at the end. The PE Carpark is on your immediate right. SatNav code is RH13 8NN. Please note that the track is carrying a lot of traffic and walkers, including many children. 

Please pay and pick up a walks leaflet from the Farm Shop in the Go Down (back out of the automatic gate and immediate right).

Please note that the butterfly has scarcely started yet (one brief male in four hours in perfect weather on Mon June 15th).


The designated route takes you through most of the best areas. It links in with other permissive paths, which you are most welcome to use. Please don't go off piste, as there's a lot of research going on and two film crews who are filming PEs (for the long-overdue big budget BBC special on British Wildlife).


Knepp is receiving a lot of visitors, who have come to see the nesting White Storks. They, and we, are being asked to keep to designated routes. The storks are nesting in an area only lightly used by Emperors (at 7 O'Clock along the White Route).

One repercussion of the visitor numbers is that any Emperor that descends to the ground is likely to get flushed up within minutes, or within seconds at weekends. If you want photos of Emperors on the ground, go to Fermyn Woods or Chiddingfold Forest.  

We are being asked not to park along the Countryman Lane verges, due to complaints from locals. If you do, then please take extra care not to block field and driveway entrances, 

 Enjoy your Emperors, they could be very good indeed this year!

We're Off!

The 2020 Purple Emperor season fluttered into being yesterday, on Saturday June 13th (it would have started a week back had the  weather not deteriorated).  

One, quite possibly two, was seen all too briefly at Knepp Wildland, and there was a possible, brief and distant sighting at Bookham Common (the umpire's finger, though, was not raised).  That was the prelude, rather than the real kick off.

The butterfly could come out with a bang, very soon. Numbers could still be high but the longer the insect spends in the pupal stage the fewer fly, and the pupal stage has been protracted by a cold ten days (during which time one out of four monitored wild pupae got crunched). Much depends on flight season weather.

Enjoy your Emperors...

Stuck at Traffic Lights!

Searched hard for Purple Emperors at Knepp today. Had several long sunny spells. None seen. Not out. Day and, especially, night temperatures are too low for pupal development (and the longer they spend as pupae the fewer fly, due to high levels of predation by unnamed predators).

Imminent. Next warm day... 

We're on our way...

Taken today at a 'late' colony site high up on the downs -  

The last larva to pupate here, a humongus female (if she eats another mouthful she'll do a Mr Creosote and explode...). She's not feeding, she's laying more silk - 'silking'.

I missed this pupa first time round, but got him on my second search. He was only a metre away from his feeding site.

Pupating larva, a metre away from his final feeding site.  

We shall all fly soon!


PS  LATEST NEWS: PE WAS NOT ON THE WING YESTERDAY, SUN 7TH: various people looked (at early sites such as Bookham Common and Knepp Wildland).

Slight Delay

I was searching hard at Knepp on Mon June 2nd and Tues June 3rd. No Purple Emperors were seen. It felt a little too early (the oaks hadn't darkened enough, though the sallows were ready), and the midsummer winged insects were only just beginning. I saw one early Purple Hairstreak, but no female Meadow Browns, just males. 

Neil Hulme and I feel that the 2020 Purple Emperor season will start on the next hot day, or the second hot day, when the current cool, cloudy spell ends. 

Numbers could be unusually high, as a result of the fine spring weather - but so much depends on flight season weather.

Dear June: don't collapse on us...

Very soon, then, the Lord of Misrule will erupt into Lockdown Brexit Britain, and create joyful chaos... No one does it better....

Here's a wild pupa, photographed near Knepp on Tuesday (from a wild larva followed by Ben Greenaway, thanks Ben). This was from a late-developing larva, in heavy shade.

Orange Alert!

The glorious 2020 Purple Emperor season is not far off at all...  Numbers could be extremely high...

We are now on Orange Alert, with Red Alert set to kick in from June 2nd.  

Most years we get some odd very early claims (there was one on facebook last week). These are probably a mix of misidentifications, bred & released specimens (which are usually undersized and early to emerge) and glorious fantasies. They are entirely the fault of the Purple Emperor, who specialises in generating chaos. As it sayeth in the Good Book: beware of false prophets, many will come in my name...

Watch this space...  

PS:  A male reported from the Edenbridge area, Kent, on - wait for it - May 26th! Make what you will of this record... It will be interesting to see when the next record comes in. 

KIck Off Predictions...

I am predicting that the first Purple Emperor of the 2020 season will be seen on June 7th, but I may bring it forward (to the 3rd). 

Neil Hulme is going for June 10th.  

One of us is invariably right.

Whatever, the second half of June is going to be the best time to look for the Emperor this year, lockdowns permitting. Don't leave it til mid-July, you'll be too late.   

My book His Imperial Majesty, a natural history of the Purple Emperor is being printed now and will be out on June 11th. The cheapest pre-publication offer is from NHBS. 

Read the introduction Adrift on the Wind and Chapter 7 How to look for Purple Emperors before you go out Emperoring. The rest can wait.  

Enjoy your Emperors, they're going to be utterly manic this year...  

Anyone dedicated to studying the Emperor is welcome to join the People of Purple Persuasion WhatsApp group. You need to have downloaded Whatsapp on to your mobile and then need to text me your number. Mine is 07771 971488. NB we are Extreme, as is the butterfly...  Also, this is not really a photographers app group.