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NEWSLETTER No. 12 - Winter 1984/85

WEST MIDLANDS BRANCH, BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION

While looking at a buddleia bush in my garden on 29th August, I became aware of a Small Tortoiseshell in difficulties. It fluttered in a spiral to earth and when I moved closer to examine the disturbance in the garden debris, I realised the butterfly was being attacked by a wasp. The butterfly was soon still and the wasp was hard at work on it removing the wings. Then the wasp flew rather heavily to hang upside down from one of the buddleia leaves. It had a large pellet between its legs which it turned round and round for a few seconds. This proved to be the thorax of the butterfly which it soon flew away with. The abdomen was left with the wings on the garden. The day was hot and sunny around 20 Celsius with a light breeze. Time of observation 12.35 p.m.

P.J. Parr

Ed. I was interested in this observation as I had heard a similar story also this year from Bob Sim in Worcester. How commonplace is this occurrence? Further observations from members would be welcomed.

Our friendly secretary, who first gets people involved with projects, then rushes off to drop some other poor person in it with another project, has had the cheek to pester me for a report of what has gone on so far.

I decided right away that we should contact every County Trust in the hope that they would publicize the project by printing all or part of an article on the background to the project, unfortunately this met with a very mixed response. Far more helpful have been the local groups of the B.B.C.S. around the country, many of them having subsequently printed an article in their newsletter. We have written to all county Lepidoptera recorders giving them a list of all post-1976 records from the B.R.C. for their county asking for their comments; we have to date received very helpful replies from Cheshire (Ian Rutherford), Gloucestershire (Guy Meredith) Herefordshire (Jonathan Cooter), Shropshire (Dave Smith), Staffordshire (Richard Warren), Warwickshire (Roger Smith) and Worcestershire (Jack Green); I would like to take this opportunity to thank these people publicly. The only recorders in my area who have not yet replied are those for Derbyshire and Lancashire whose names I do not know and who I have tried to reach through their local county trust. If anyone reading this knows their names would they let me know so that I may try again. To all those people who have written in requesting information please accept our thanks; and if you haven't already returned your questionnaire may I ask that you do so quickly even if it is a nil return or let me know that you are keeping it for next year. A brief report will be sent to all local B.B.C.S. groups and County Trusts in the next few weeks for possible inclusion in their newsletters and every person who has sent White-letter Hairstreak reports to the B.R.C. since 1976 will receive a letter asking for details of the site and its present status if known. Finally we printed nearly 3,000 copies of a small information sheet which were sent out with the summer issue of the BBCS news.

So apart from duplicating reams of paper and spending a fortune on postage have we done anything else ? The answer, I hope you will agree, is yes !

For obvious reasons most of my energy has been spent in searching Herefordshire for new colonies, confirming suspected colonies and starting some research projects on one colony with some local colleagues.

What follows is a diary of our work or progress:-

10th June - Larvae and Pupae at one colony in Haugh Wood, larvae also found at a suspected site in another part of Haugh Wood.
11th June - Larvae and Pupae found at a new site, Elms only discovered by accident - Sufton.
17th June - New site found on the Malverns with many pupae, these elms were first noticed earlier in the year whilst I was stuck in traffic lights at some road repairs - every cloud has a silver lining!
20th June - Took our secretary out to show him pupae, he, being taller, has an unfair advantage when looking up into trees! We investigated a small, recently felled area near Little Dewchurch, and to his obvious delight my apprentice found them first - new colony no 4.
1st July - A phone call from Rob Hall on the 2nd brings panic to the Davies' household, the adult White-letters have started to emerge, this was a few days earlier than expected.
4th July to 3rd August - Marking adults with cellulose paint on approximately 20 out of the 31 days in this period.
At this point I offer my most sincere thanks to my colleagues Rob Hall (B.B.C.S. member) Jeremy Soulsby and Barry Fleming, without their help much of what has been achieved would have been left undone.
6th July - Scaffolding erected by a tree used for egg laying.
22nd July - Barry confirms a 1983 sighting at Breinton with another sighting, Wych Elm present.
Barry also finds another new colony at a site about 6 miles N. of Hereford.
24th July - Barry and I find a new colony on two adjacent 25' Wych Elms at F.C. plantation, 5 miles S. of Hereford.18 other species recorded in one hour so a site worthy of further investigation in future.
25th July - Barry and I find a third colony in Haugh Wood, and later 1 see some
Hairstreaks flying high round some Ash trees, there is one small Wych Elm and a few Oaks-are the Hairstreaks White-letter or Purple?
The site was near Capler.
27th July - Barry and I find a fourth colony in Haugh Wood. One wonders how many more there might be.
16th Aug - Barry and I with another apprentice in the person of my niece find three new colonies;one near to Holme Lacy, a second at Canon Pyon following a tip off from an Ornithologist, and the third being a confirmation of their existence at Capler. These last three colonies were found by searching for eggs as the adults had gone over by then.

Pupae were also reported by a National Trust Survey Team at two more new sites.
This gives the following results;

Confirmation of two sites suspected from 1983.
The discovery of twelve new sites in 1984.

The survey, that we have begun, at one of the sites in Haugh Wood has brought a mass of information which will have to be sorted out during the winter, but some interesting statistics have already come to light. The total number of adults marked over the 31 day period was 477 the longest lived specimen being one caught and marked on July 5th and recaptured 18 days later on July 23rd.

By altering the marking technique in 1985 we hope to be able to gain more information about the % male and females in the population and details on movement about the site which is long and thin (it extends for about 350m along a woodland ride and woodland
edge)

"The adults are attracted to flowers; they like lime blossom and the honeydew that is often associated with limes, bramble is a favourite and they may be seen on privet, buddleia and thistle heads."

The above is a quotation from "British Butterflies, A Field Guide' by Robert Goodden; most other books also mention Bramble, less often privet and only occasionally thistle or others. They also fail to mention which species of thistle(s) are frequented, whether this is due to a failure to identify individual thistle species or because the adults observed visited all the available species is never made clear, but our observations this year put a large question mark against the current literature. All, but a very few, of the adults marked were caught whilst they were feeding and our estimate of the frequency with which the nectar sources were visited is given below:-

Creeping Thistle 75%           Available during the whole of the flight period
Ragwort 20%                      As above
Bramble 3%                        As above
Marjoram 2%                     Only available during final two weeks of the flight period.

Also of interest are the flowers available but at which adults were not seen, these included Marsh Thistle, Yellow Wort, Hemp Agrimony (1 sighting) and others. Next year we hope to carry out this investigation further on a quantitative basis, noting which plants are used by Strymonidia w-album, which are used by other species of Butterflies but ignored by S.w-album and which are used by other insects but not by butterflies. We shall be looking to see if the results alter depending on time of day, whether the flowers are in sun or shade, and when it is still or windy; some flowers provide a more stable platform on windy days. Using coloured discs 'baited' with honey solution and perfumes as well as some unbaited discs we will try to see if colour plays any part all other conditions being equal.

Whilst carrying out the survey we have kept records of the other species seen in the area and the total number seen, excluding S.w-album was 25, which shows what an important area it is; my list for the wood now has 34 species on it recorded at various times since 1981, and there is the possibility of adding 1 or 2 more species.

So how can you help?

1) Go out and search for elm and having found it check it for eggs or later on larvae, and finally pupae. All of these stages are far more easily found than adults! On at least three sites larvae, pupae and later eggs have been found but no adults seen despite looking during the flight season!

2) Come and help in Herefordshire next year during the flight period in 1985. Weather permitting we can promise you an interesting and busy visit collecting useful scientific information in one of the most beautiful parts of the Midlands, in what must be recognised as a site of great importance.
If you would like to come and help let me know and we can make the arrangements; contact me on 0432-266703 or write to 11 Rowland Close, Hampton Dene, HEREFORD, HR1 1XF

Martyn G.Davies

STOP PRESS
As I finish writing this I have just received a letter from Dr. Paul Harding, the Director of the Biological Records Centre, and I quote:-
"I ventured into Herefordshire with my wife in July for a few brief days of holiday. However, even when relaxing with a lunch-time glass of cider in a remote pub garden, S.w-album forced its presence on me"

This sounds like a good excuse for a Herefordshire pub crawl, Mike Williams please note - Summer Field Trip?

The other important part of our work on the White Letter Hairstreak has, of course, been the experiment to determine whether the new disease resistant Elm "Sapporo Autumn Gold", would prove a suitable alternative foodplant. The answer, I am pleased to report, is a tentative "yes". Although members' fortunes with the White Letter Hairstreak eggs differed, at least four managed to get them through to the adult stage. Two major questions remain to be resolved:
1. Will the trees, under natural circumstances, break bud early enough to coincide with the emergence of the larvae from the egg?
2. Will the female butterfly lay on the new Elm?

These questions can only be answered by planting out the new Elms in sites where White Letter Hairstreaks are known to have survived, and this is what we hope to do over the Winter. If any members who still have trees would be prepared to donate them back to the branch for this purpose, I would be pleased to hear from them.

Another interesting point to emerge from our experiment is the apparent willingness of the young larvae to feed on non-flowering Elm (none of our Elm saplings had flowers). If this is also true of our native Elms (something which Martyn's survey will no doubt discover), then the butterfly's chances must be that much greater, because of the large amount of nonflowering sucker growth now to be found along many hedgerows and woodland edge.
Our thanks to all those members taking part.

Mike Williams