Vanessa atalanta update - UK

[Anne Kilmer]

I am just cutting back the hairy old nettles (well, the man with the
scythe is, actually. I am pointing.
I see no evidence of anybody nibbling. And I've looked.
haven't seen peacocks since the end of May. It'll be a couple of weeks
before the new nettle shoots are ready for the gang. But I'm sure we've
left plenty of the old stuff.
Two Miscellaneous Brown butterflies wandering in my wildflower patch.
They refused to stand and be recognized. The Pieris brassicae has had
its share of the cabbages and is flying. Come to think of it, I should
go poke around and off the eggs from most of them, if I hope to eat
those cabbages.
It was sunny yesterday and again today, sort of.
Cheers
Anne Kilmer
 
Martin Honey wrote:
>
> Hi Guy (and others)
>
> >For the first time in a couple of weeks (the sun has been only shining when
> >I had to work), I was out yesterday. One thing I noticed was that despite
> >good numbers of the seasonal butterflies (Maniola jurtina, Melanargia
> >galathea, Aphantopus hyperantus, the normal pierids), there were almost no
> >Nymphalinae out. There was a single Vanessa atalanta, but that was all, and
> >though I've been looking for caterpillars of Aglais urticae and Inachis io,
> >I couldn't find any.
> >I'm in the Heidelberg - Germany area, is this true for the rest of W. Europe
> >too ?
>
> Over the weekend here in London I saw several V. atalanta, including one
> ovipositing. I too have seen few nymphalids recently, a few peacock (I. io)
> but virtually no small tortoiseshell (A. urticae). On all the patches of
> nettle (Urtica dioica) that I know about I've not seen a single urticae
> larva and only one batch of io larvae (actually quite a large number of
> larvae and all nearly full grown). The most frequently seen species of
> nymphalid was the comma (P. c-album).
>
> Martin
> ***********************************************************
> Martin R. Honey CBiol MIBiol, Lead Curator (Moths)
> Collections Management Division, Department of Entomology
> The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road
> London, SW7 5BD, Great Britain
> EMAIL:     M.Honey at nhm.ac.uk
>
> All Museum telephone numbers changed on 5 July 1999, my new
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