Beautiful Butterflies 2018

Wendy, looked like a lovely day, and they certainly looked plenty happy where you placed them! It's still cold and rainy here today, and my recent 2 day old Monarch has not budged from where she was this morning, even with a bottlecap of honey water in front of her.

Sounds as if she needs some warmth from the sun, my three were leaping around this morning & feeding on sugar water but couldn't get to release them til mid afternoon but it was even warmer & sunnier by then, good start for them!

The butterflies are getting quite scarce now, although there has been a sudden influx of Red Admirals at the end of the season … possibly getting drunk on fruit juice, although with the way they fly I'm not sure how you'd tell if a butterfly was drunk. Asking it to fly in straight line would, I feel, result in too many false positives!!

Beautiful! I am still seeing individual Monarchs wobble their way south, though I heard a report about a week ago that several were found resting on the south shore of Ontario Lake in New York State 5 min from where I live.

Having vists here over past few days from beautiful pristine Peacock Butterflies much like the ones I released at local nature reserve & forecast is for a further week of sunny & dry weather, what a bonus!

Beautiful shot, Nigel. Red Admirals are stunning butterflies. I'm not seeing many butterflies at the moment except for whites. My Buddleia which is now pretty much over, didn't seem to attract much even during the height of summer.

It's been quite autumnal this weekend - maybe a few more will come out again when it warms up again in the next couple of days … hopefully!

WendyBartter said:

still two more to happen but I fear one of them compromised!

... I posted this on 9th Sep & the update is that they never eclosed into beautiful butterflies ... instead I found this 'orrible fly in their house yesterday

Ben in touch with the team who investigate the occurrence of these flies & their possible effect on reduced butterfly numbers, particularly Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral & Peacock species, & they think it is Sturmia bella, a parasitic fly which I am going to send to them for analysis!

Strangely I couldn't find the egg case this time & no exit hole from a pupa ... I will also forward the two pupae to them!

Sorry to hear about the pupa Wendy, but well done on getting the fly off for identification.

Our weather is still sunny day after day. I want rain for the garden & the countryside but next to nothing arrives. There are still a few butterflies around, like this Adonis blue from a few days ago.

There are plenty of Common Blues but I'm not seeing a lot of Red Admirals or Peacocks.

WendyBartter said:

Strangely I couldn't find the egg case this time & no exit hole from a pupa

... following discovery of second fly this morning, which was similar to but bigger than the first, I removed all the bits & bobs from Butterfly House in order to wash it & discovered the two fly egg cases hidden under the paper liner... still no visible exit holes from pupae though so hope I get some answers from techie bods!