Saturday 14 June 2014

Uskmouth Butterfly Transect 12th June

I carried out the transect this week. We are in a lull in butterflies numbers at the moment - in between broods of many species. I saw no small tortoiseshell, peacocks, commas or red admirals for example, but plenty of caterpillars of peacocks and small tortoiseshell.
The most abundant butterfly was speckled wood with 18 seen. I also saw 6 common blue, 2 small skipper, 2 large skipper and 7 "whites" which always seemed to be flying too far away and too quickly to identify. The first meadow browns have emerged, with 4 seen. The most abundant Lepidopteran by far though, was narrow-bordered five-spot burnet with over 40 seen. There were numerous pairs of NBFS burnet mating right next to the cocoon which the female had emerged from. Why should the female waste energy flying about when she can release some pheromones and wait for the males to come to her? I also saw 1 cinnabar moth, a latticed heath and 2 burnet companions.
The next day I saw 3 small tortoiseshells and a peacock at Uskmouth!

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