Spring2005
TheSuffolkArgus the wing edge in the laner species, longer and curving distinctly towards the abdomen in the former. Indeed, recognition of these characteristics subsequently saved much of the stooping, crouching and cursing normally associated with anempts to identify these particular butterflies. Although the large expanse of open chalk grassland at Trosley provides core habitat for the site's specialist butterflies, the various thorn thickets and fingers of early successionalwoodland should not be wholly discounted; providing, in the first instance, important shelter at what would otherwise be a very exposed location. It was within one of these scrubby nooks that, to the overoptimistic call of "fritillary,about to land!" a Comma made its way onto the morning's list. However, our wait for a close view of a Dark Green was quickly ended with the discovery of a quite heavily marked individual nectaring on buddleia blossom. We delayed here for a few moments, taking in the green flush and silver ellipses of the undersides of the hindwings, before tracking back to our rendezvous point. At the start of any Purple Emperor field trip there is almost invariably a quickening of the collective pulse, palpable anticipation and a sense of wishing to get to the hean of the site without lingering unduly around the periphery. Newtye Hurst did not prove an exception, and we walked purposefully past the large Oaks standing guard at the entrance and onto a narrow ride. A few minutes later, for this is not a large wood and Ringlet & Meadow Brown had thus far provided the only distractions, we stopped at a small clearing, put down our rucksacks and inclined our heads towards the treetops. Purple Hairstreaks were immediately apparent, jin.king spasmodically about the boughs of Oak and Ash. Such activity was encouraging and presently a White Admiral glided gracefully int:othe clearing. There was opportunity to admire the upperwings outstretched fully against a backdrop of Hazel, before she (for the direction of the departure flight suggested egg-laying activities within the wood's shadier recesses)flew again. Craning our necks skywards once more, an altogether larger and more powerful butterfly was
noted beating up from the lower section of the wood. The Purple Emperor alighted regally atop an Oak tree and, over the course of the ensuing hours, proceeded to command the natural amphitheatre formed by the broadly circular arrangement of trees at this point in the wood through imperious flicks of its angular wings. Then, as we paused· to check the ripe fruits which had been positioned along the path as a lure, deeply coloured and unfamiliar upperwings were noted against a bracken frond; closer inspection revealing that these belonged to a female Purple Hairstreak which had descended froth the canopy. Newtye Hurst is a quiet wood, in which human voices rarely compete with the calls and songs of the indigenous birds. Today was somewhat different, and I wondered what an unsuspecting visitor to the wood would have made of a scene comprising a group of twelve people gazing resolutelyskywards,a camera with lens of telescopic proportions mounted across the path, and a loose collection of banana skins and plums strewn amongst the grass. Furthermore, if the intrepid explorer drew closer, he might have overheard snatches of an apparently bizarre conversation:
Speaker 1 (in confident manner): "Oh yes, he's definitelystill up there.I canjust make out the tip of one antenna and about a quarterof theforewing." Speaker 2 (sounding sceptical): "OK, but where exactlyareyou /,ooking?"
Garden Observations -2004 by RichardStewart It was highly unlikdy that the aceptionally good sightings in 2003 would be repeated but neverthdess our garden in Westerfield Road, Ipswich, has again had some interesting sightings. For the second year we had just one visit from a Purple Hairstreak, on July 8th and this has set me thinking about where it would have come from. A large Oak is close to our house but many observations have failed to spot the species there though there may be Oaks with this buttetfly along the nearby Spinney linking Westerfield and Tuddenham Road, not at present available for me to explore. I doubt if any research has been carried out about Purple Hairstreak dispersal distances so I have decided to use an old school compass and draw a circle, with a diameter of three quarters of a mile, from our house and try to explore every Oak at a suitable time. Already I have discovered six new Oaks with the buttetfly present, one only
Speaker 1: "Yousee the largeoakjust to the left of the hazel... " Speaker 2 (interrupting enthusiastically): "Yes, the one with the knobbleon the trunk about tenfeet up." Speaker 1: "Yes,we/£follow the trunk up until it splits.Thenkeepyour eyeon the lefthand branchuntil it kinks, then take the thirdsmallerbranchto the right andfollow that straightalonguntilyou reacha clump of leavesat the top.It'sreallyquitea distinctiveclump; woksa bit like a kidney and someof the leavesare a ratherrusty cowur.Now find the group of leavesat
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about four hundred yards from our house. It will probably take another year or two to do it thoroughly but I confidently anticipate many more host trees being found. The large Swallowrail, which flew quickly past me at the bottom of our garden on August 3rd was an incredible surprise, and it disappeared over • the back fence before Marie could see it and didn't return. This brings my garden total of species up to 26 but there is, with this butterfly, always the possibility of breeding and releasing, as almost cenainly occuned on the Rivers Estate in 1998. However, there were two other sightings of what was probably the same bunerfly, in Ipswich, from Iris Maeers in Holywells Park and Pat Gondris at St. Edmund's Road; also, this was a time when more migrants were coming in and just three days later I was observing Clouded Yellows at Piper's Vale on the edge of Ipswich. Finally, even though we keep a close eye on our garden wildlife, we probably missed a large influx of the migrant SilverY moth. Marie spotted one on Valerian outside our French window and a closer examination revealed at least fifty, nectaring also on two varieties of Buddleia, Verbena and Jasmine. We have never seen anything like this number before in the garden and a count the next night gave a total of twenty-three. This was on August 11th and 12th during the time already mentioned when • other migrants were coming in, but it did occur to us that the moths were feeding mainly on our large Buddleia, which was past its peak of flowering. We were left wondering whether the number would have been greater, had we looked late in the day during the earlier part of August.
Peacock
SilverY Moth
byDouglas Hammersley
byMervyn Crauford 19
