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Brown Hairstreak in Worcestershire - Bulletin 43

May 2007

Dear Brown Hairstreakers,

 Our caterpillar hunt on 20th May went well and we were able to add a further 5 larvae to our growing family.  A big thank you to Les Clarke, Becky Lashley and Trevor Trueman for joining in with the hunt.  We have still to crack the problem of how best to mark overwintering eggs and, with the blackthorn now in full leaf, we failed to relocate a significant number of the 58 eggs I had found back in April.  Nevertheless, all of the group were successful in finding larvae and earned the honour of naming a caterpillar.  As well as the aforementioned Alison (who appears to have gone AWOL) and Billy, we were able to add Cathy, David, Emily (see photo), Francis and Georgina to the rollcall.

  All except Georgina were found along the main hedgerow leading into the orchard on the western side of Grafton Wood.  They were all between 8-10 mm in length which was well ahead of the size of larvae found on a similar date last year.  Like the previous year, all the plants where caterpillars were located have been tagged with the appropriate name and, this time, we have also added the date recorded and larval length onto the label.  The idea is to update this information each time the caterpillar is refound.  While finding a larva in the first place is challenging enough, we know from past experience that refinding them is even more difficult and so it proved yesterday.  Out of the original six in the orchard, I was only able to refind Cathy and David.  Both were on the same plant as before and had increased in size by around 2-3 mm over the past week.  'David' was around 1 foot away from his original position while 'Cathy', who I missed altogether at first, was eventually spotted around 4-5 feet away from where she had been seen on 20th.  I also managed to find a new caterpillar 'Hector' around 9 mm in length and on a plant that we had certainly searched the previous week.  Rather worryingly, the labels for Emily and Francis had apparently disappeared altogether and whether this is down to foul play (I certainly hope not!) or the fact that cattle are now grazing the orchard is difficult to judge.  Certainly a lot of the blackthorn suckers growing out into the orchard showed clear signs of browsing so "missing presumed eaten" is perhaps the most likely scenario.  I didn't have time to look for Georgina who we had found at the far south-west corner of the wood where we had carried out our egg transect experiment of the previous autumn.  Anyway, if you visit Grafton Wood over the next few weeks please try to check out the remaining caterpillars and add the date and length measurement to the label if you manage to find one.  Even if unsuccessful, please complete the date of search and write N/S (no sign) alongside and either way let me know by email.  Oh yes, and keep looking out for any ants!

 Off to Spain on Tuesday for a week's butterflying in the Sierra Nevada mountains and, given the present weather in the UK, hope that Professor Higgins got it right when he claimed that "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain"!  Many thanks to Becky Lashley for the photo of Emily.

 Mike Williams,

Brown Hairstreak Species Champion