The Suffolk Argus
Carpet, Brown Silver-line, Brimstone Moch, Waved Umber, Sloe Carpet, Iron Prominent, Pebble Prominent, Coxcomb Prominent, Lunar Marbled Brown, Pale Tussock, Orange Footman, Least Black Arches, Powdered Quaker, Clouded Drab, Hebrew Character, Silver Y, Spectacle. 31 species in total.
Joint Meeting with Butterfly ConservationGreen Hairstreak Survey at Rushmere Common and Bixley Open Space Tuesday 12th May 1998 by RichardStewart This was one of those rare meetings where everything fused together to produce some incredible and unexpected results. The thinking behind this survey came from last year when I found a few Green Hairstreaks in unexpected areas of the Common and wondered how many were missed by just searching the known areas. With 14 present at the start, a lovely sunny afternoon and the peak of the butterfly's flight period, we were able to cover all of the area-probably the first time this has ever been achieved for butterflies. The overall result of the small groups counting each sighting was:7 Large White, 5 Small white, 7 Green-veined White, 32 Orange Tip, 8 Holly Blue, 19 Small T orcoiseshell, 5 Peacock, 19 Small Heath. The last species was freshly emerged.
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November 1998
The 'big two' were 369 Small Copper and an incredible 345 Green Hairstreak. Most who have seen this lovely butterfly will know it is usually found in Suffolk in relatively small numbers. On this occasion it was everywhere, not just on the expected gorse and broom bushes but also feeding on the honeydew of hawthorn, elm oak, and sycamore. Small clumps of flowering rowan also produced good numbers-I counted 32 around one sunlit small group. The large numbers of Small Copper also made this a memorable meeting and other sightings included Jay, Miscle Thrushes, Magpies and calling Cuckoos, Blackcaps, Lesser Whicechroats and Nightingales. There was a good view of a Green Woodpecker at the edge of the Bixley play area, tucked away behind closer Mistie Thrushes. I just hope, with the houses now very close, chat this area can retain its rich variety of wildlife.
Encounter with a Death's Head Hawkrnoth By Audrey Morgan
Green Hairstreak
by DouglasHammersley
• Death's Head • Hawkmoth
On the warm morning of 3rd. September 1996 Olive Playle called with a commodious glass jar containing a large Death's Head Hawkmoth caterpillar. I had succeeded in rearing a Privet and Elephant Hawkmoth from caterpillar to moth and knew the creature wanted to pupate so I supplied it with a large flower pot and mixture of dryish sandy soil and bark chips. Ac first it roamed round the edge of the pot so I covered it with a net curtain and wire cake cooling rack which it succeeded in lifting until a weight was applied. Within half an hour the caterpillar had disappeared. In the afternoon two more caterpillars were found. They vanished speedily and it was quite a moving experience co watch chem. We looked for a possible food plant. All potato haulms had long gone but we found a Jasminium stephanense had been well chewed. The creatures had travelled twenty co thirty feet to the tarmacadam drive where they were found. The pot was kept in my unheated but frost-free dining room, with occasional spraying. One moth eventually appeared on 30th. June 1997.
Editor's note - this was myfirst Death's Head and both my wife and Steve Goddard saw it as well. Steve took severalphotos.
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