State of Play

Things are getting early... at home, four out of 10 larvae are now in their 4th instar, and one of six in the wild is skin changing into that instar. This is usually the state of progress in early May. Follow me on Twitter at http:/twitter.com/NTMatthewOates

Larval Movement

Most larvae, both wild and domesticated, are now beginning to feed. The problem is that they align themselves to leaf buds rather randomly - some select early-opening buds, some select late buds, and some particularly dim ones select damaged or dead buds. Also, they occur on both early and late-leafing sallows. One domesticated larva is skin-changing, though three others haven't started to feed yet.

Here is a nice up-the-pettycoats view of Lot's Wife, taken in Wiltshire yesterday -

Video footage worth viewing

Great footage of iris larva here

Outrage!

Open letter to the Chairman of Butterfly Conservation, Sussex Branch, the Hon Neil Hulme MEP - Sir Whilst driving along the A272, ordained by our esteemed idol IRP Heslop as 'the backbone of the Purple Empire', I was outraged to see two large plastic butterflies on a house on the western outskirts of Billingshurst, West Sussex - of a type other than iris. Moreover, the offending objects were of that grossly inferior insect, the swallow-tail butterfly (which many of us consider a mere moth). This is by far the worst affront to Purple dignity I have ever experienced within the Empire, and is utterly intolerable. I, and fellow readers, demand that you instantly remedy this preposterous situation. We want the offending house raised to the ground and replaced by a stand of sallows, and the occupants responsible impaled on Nordik walking poles and used as bait during the forthcoming season. We await your account of the actions taken with interest. I remain, sir, determined to finish this excellent bottle of Medoc and start on the port. Yours etc

Today saw a mass movement of iris larvae from their overwintering sites to nearby buds, with a large amount of variance in terms of hardly-opened buds to those well on the way to putting forth foliage any day. Anyway - a comparison of various sites is shown below. T'will be interesting watching these critters develop.

Progress Report

In the wild, most surviving larvae have moved from their hibernating positions to align themselves next to a swelling bud. They're not very clever at picking the right bud, and often line up against a slow bud when there's a bursting bud nearby, or even next to a dead bud. Perhaps they're feeling sleepy, or are in no real hurry as they need to change colour first. The operative word here is 'surviving' as predation levels were exactly the same this winter as last. British tits have a lot to answer for, and Purple People should not tolerate tit boxes in Emperor woods.

Here's Lot's Wife, photoed yesterday, who's featured several times on this blog asleep in a scar on a stem - grey on grey.

Meanwhile, back at home, eight of my 10 captive larvae have moved up on to buds, leaving two still hibernating low down - but the sleeve is in quite a cool and shady spot. All look healthy (but they can shrivvel up suddenly at this time of year).

And Brother Neil and I saw two Large Tortoiseshell on the Isle of Wight last week... Now, that's a fine insect, worthy of sitting on the right hand side of His Imperial Majesty.

MOVIE BUTTERFLIES

Those of us old enough to have been around when the Samantha Eggar version of "The Collector" hit the streets will remember how every publisher ransacked their stock photo collections for butterfly pix. The Nymphalidae predominated, but a nice surprise to see Croceus there. It should, of course, have been Lasiocampidae, but you can't expect them to have worked that out.