Devon Branch www.devon-butterflies.org.uk Stonechat with Cream-spot Tiger (Michael Brooking) Newsletter Issue Number 99 June 2017 Butterfly Devon Branch Conservation Newsletter The Newsletter of Butterfly The Editor reserves the right to Conservation Devon correct errors in, adjust, or Branch published three shorten articles if necessary, times a year. for the sake of accuracy, presentation and space available. Offerings may occasion- Copy dates: mid December, mid April, mid ally be held over for a later newsletter if August for publication in February, June, space is short. and October in each year. The views expressed by contributors are Please send contributions for the newslet- not necessarily those of the Editor or of ter to the Editor (address at back of news- Butterfly Conservation either locally or letter). Accompanying images are espe- nationally. cially welcome. Contents From the Editor 3 Butterfly lays eggs in freshly mown lawn 3 Devon’s Butterflies in 2016 Roger Bristow 4 First appearances in 2017 11 Red Admirals on a very cold day Pete Hurst 12 Winter work parties mini roundup 12 All The Moor Butterflies update Megan Lowe 14 Devon BC In Your Area webpages Amanda Hunter 15 White-letter Hairstreak appeal and workshop Jenny Plackett 16 Devon BC Members’ Day & AGM programme 16 The Grizzled Skipper in Devon - a much declined species Pete Hurst 17 A (very!) good year for Vapourer moth Pete Hurst 21 Events June - October 2017 22 Bake for Butterflies advert 26 Committee and contacts 27 Devon BC members who have the newsletter electronically have enabled more branch funds to be spent on conservation in Devon for which we are grateful. Others who still prefer a printed copy have donated an extra £6 to the branch (the cost of belonging to a BC branch) again, for which we give thanks. The electronic copy is full-colour and if you usually have a printed version but wished to switch, please contact Amanda Hunter (see page 27). 2 From the Editor The butterfly year has started off surprisingly well following the poor season in 2016. Many butterfly species have shown well including Holly Blue and Or- ange Tip. In my garden I saw Holly Blue egglaying on Dogwood, a foodplant listed in the literature but interesting to witness. In contrast with last year I have seen a good many first brood Small Coppers. My first Copper last year was on September 17th. I have however noticed a dearth of Small Tortoise- shells, not actually sure if I have seen even one this year yet. The committee welcome 2 new members: Dave Holloway and Peter Beale. Dave is part of a team along with Amanda Hunter and Bill Potter inputting information for our “In Your Area” webpages on BC’s national website. Peter has taken up the role of Conservation Officer for the branch. He has much experience to draw on from his day job as an ecologist and specialises in botany. Branch Rules: These were updated last year but new changes are pro- posed that we will be recommending we adopt at the AGM this autumn. To see old and new Rules visit BC’s In Your Area webpages for Devon Branch. The list you will see on the right has “Members’ Page” at the bottom. Click on this to get to get to both sets of Rules. Giving talks for Devon BC: If you are able and willing to give talks on butterflies for the branch please get in touch with a committee member. From time to time we are approached with requests for butterfly talks but we are not always able to oblige from the committee. Butterfly lays eggs in freshly- mown lawn Whilst working outdoors, I noticed a White butterfly apparently egglaying on a customer’s recently cut lawn. The butterfly repeatedly flew low for short dis- tances and frequently stopped to inspect the ground and occasionally depos- ited an egg. Overtaken by curiosity, I pursued the butterfly, which turned out to be Green-veined White, following as close as I could to see what it was laying on. At one of the places she visited, I could only find leaves of Sorrel, Dandelion and grass with none of these being possible foodplants. I contin- ued following the butterfly and finally homed in on where she had just deposited an egg underneath a… tiny Cuckoo Flower leaf! Some lawns can have a strong presence of this plant especially in a clayey soil and this lawn had the plant well-distributed over a good part of it. A full -grown lar- va will be close to 1 1/2 inches long and I wondered if it might be possible to survive in a well-cropped lawn not much more than an inch high! Green-veined White (Peter Vernon) 3 Devon’s Butterflies in 2016 - Roger Bristow The year 2016 was generally not a good year for butterflies. The number of records received (15,022) was down by 20% on 2015, which was 18% down on 2014. How- ever, the start of 2016 was not too bad with 202 butterflies of 9 species seen in the first 3 months (compared with 176 butterfly sight- ings of 9 species in 2015). The relative abundance of butterflies at any one site was, however, about the same as last year, except in the Butterfly Conserva- Orange Tip (Peter Vernon) tion numbering code E (>100). In category E, highest count of any species at there were 14 species, whereas in 2015 there any locality (Meeth) in 2016 were 10 species. In terms of numbers of but- terflies observed at any one locality, the Orange Tip was in the top spot with 555 individuals counted on 3 April at Meeth (P. Butter), followed by the Mar- bled White with 429 individuals at Spreyton on 16 July (L. Gerrard). The top three Devon butterflies in terms of records submitted were the Red Admiral (1,704 records), Large White (1,632 records) and Small White (1,600 records). Last year’s No. 1 butterfly, the Meadow Brown, slipped to 4th place. Including the scarce migrants (Camberwell Beauty and Long-tailed Blue) and the Glanville Fritillary (probably an unauthorised introduction), which was also seen in 2014 and 2015, the total number of species seen in Devon in 2016 was 45. Excluding the hibernators, all but 4 species (Common Blue, Adonis Blue, Small Pearl- bordered Fritillary and Meadow Brown) emerged either at the same time or later than in 2015. The last flying date for over one third of the species was later than in 2015, alt- hough for two of these species (Large Skip- per on 10 Oct., Orange Tip on 30 Aug.) the last flying dates were exceptional. Excluding the hibernators, the flying season was shorter for 15 species compared to 2015, and longer for 11, with 10 about the same. Adonis Blue (Amanda Hunter) As in many of the previous years, most of the species which are double- brooded, showed no clear temporal separation of the broods; the Dingy Skip- per, and Wood White were the exceptions. The Small Copper seemed to have a well-defined first brood (27 April to end of May), but thereafter there was no clear cut 2nd (commencing 7 July) and 3rd brood. 4 The first butterflies of the year were Painted Ladies first seen on 2 Jan follow- ing a small-scale immigration (with moths) in December 2015 along the south coast. Some 15 butterflies, mostly Painted Ladies and Red Admirals, but with a couple of Peacocks (6th), and a Small Tortoiseshell (27th), were seen in January. There were 32 butterfly sightings, dominated by Red Admirals, Peacocks, and Small Tortoiseshells, in February. Additional species were Commas on the 21st and 25th and a Brimstone on the 21st at Bovey Heathfield. In March, 148 adults were seen. Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks and Brim- stones were the commonest of the hibernators. Additional species included 7 Small Whites, with the first on the 10th in Exeter (D. Turp), a Speckled Wood on the 20th in Plymouth (C. Seidel) and another on the 21st in Penhill (G. Mor- ton) and an Orange Tip on the 31st at Colaton Raleigh (S. Williams). The commonest species seen in April, as in 2015, were the Peacock (25% of sightings) and Orange Tip (15% of sightings), closely followed by Brimstone (12%), Small White (11%) and Speckled Wood (11%). The first Large White was seen on the 3rd at Hooe (V. Tucker). April 11th saw the first appearance of the Holly Blue at Hooe (V. Tucker). A Green Hairstreak was seen at Gara Rock on the 13th (M. Brooking). Green-veined Whites were seen at several localities on the 19th. One Small Copper was seen at Bolt Head on the 27th (M. Brooking), followed by a Wall (P.Shaw) on the 30th. The first Pearl-bordered Fritillary was also seen on the 30th at Haldon Forest (N. Gardner) and Yarner (J. Rickett). A solitary Painted Lady was seen on the 23rd at Wembury (V. Tucker). At the other end of the season, 16 species (+ a Camberwell Beauty) were seen in October (last flying dates are in parentheses): Small Tortoiseshell, Holly Blue, Brimstone, Peacock, Small Copper, Wall, Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown (10th), Clouded Yellow (31st), Large White, Small White, Green-veined White (9th), Com- ma, Red Admiral, Painted Lady and an exceptionally late Large Skipper (10th) Twelve of the above species: Brimstone, Holly Blue (28th), Small Copper (2nd), Large White (2nd), Small White (22nd), Wall (1st), Comma (2nd), Peacock (23rd), Red Admiral (dominant – 51 sightings), Small Tortoiseshell (30th), Painted La- dy (1st), and Speckled Wood (20th) continued flying into November.