Hi Michael
I have happy memories of rearing through Long-tailed Blues from mange tout
(this vegetarianism is getting tougher...) but, needless to say, they didn't
leave the house. Especially as it was winter ;)
There was a Map seen somewhere last week. Unfortunately it's very easy to
obtain the early stages of a variety of exotic species and people may think
that they are doing a good thing releasing them :( Then there are the people
who are deliberately trying to establish populations of non native species.
Pity they don't divert their efforts to something which would actually be
helpful.
I remember the Monarchs well. I was shot down in flames for being a spoilsport
by pointing out that they weren't wild. Oh well.
And it just goes to show that you get tainted by association - that giant Palm
moth bruiser wasn't even mine ;) I got it from the finder via someone else! And
that now resides safely in the Booth Museum. There was also a tiger moth of
some sort....that was poo pooed as a release.....until they started turning up
elsewhere.... So there will always be new species arriving (a new tortrix moth
this very week) but the problem with releases seems to be getting worse.
I'm sure there's a paper in this....Dr Blencowe :)
From: "Blencowe, Michael" <michaelblenc...@sussexwt.org.uk>
To: Adastra discussion group <adastra@lists.sxbrc.org.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, 31 May 2017, 10:36
Subject: Re: [Adastra] Swallowtails in Sussex in 2017
#yiv9641673179 #yiv9641673179 -- _filtered #yiv9641673179
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div.yiv9641673179WordSection1 {}#yiv9641673179 Hi Sarah, ha - yeah, in her
defence she was rather new to all of this natural history malarkey. I don’t
think she considered it to be a biological record. She was just amazed her
caramelised onion polenta pie had turned into a Swallowtail. I did get the
recipe for the pie by the way. I’m just interested in finding out more about
some of the sources of our more exotic lepidoptera sightings. In recent
years we’ve seen some Monarchs around Sussex which have been the result of the
latest ill-informed craze of releasing these butterflies at Weddings and this
of course distorts our understanding of the genuine migration of this species.
Last year we received records of the Florida Fern Moth Callopistria
floridensis in Sussex. And then there was that dodgy record of that South
American Palm Borer moth in Chichester years ago… (I would insert a smiley /
winking face in here Sarah but I don’t know how). Michael x
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From: Adastra [mailto:adastra-boun...@lists.sxbrc.org.uk]On Behalf Of
Sarah Patton
Sent: 31 May 2017 10:09
To: Adastra discussion group
Subject: Re: [Adastra] Swallowtails in Sussex in 2017 Pretty weird, but then
am I the only one who thinks it's a little bit questionable to be reporting a
Swallowtail when you know you've just released it??!! S From: RALPH HOBBS
<ralph.ho...@tesco.net>
To: Adastra discussion group <adastra@lists.sxbrc.org.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, 31 May 2017, 9:02
Subject: Re: [Adastra] Swallowtails in Sussex in 2017 Very interesting
Michael, but what I can't understand is how a female Swallowtail can have
emerged to lay fertile eggs in France, even in the south, in late March! Just
last week in the south of France first brood Swallowtails were out in force
near the Med, and just starting to emerge at higher altitude. That egg must
have been laid either in south Spain or Morocco(?!) or else both parents
emerged artificially early within a glasshouse (these things happen) where the
parsley plants were raised. Not only that they managed to avoid death from
insecticide, find one other to mate, and presumably find enough nectar to keep
them going long enough to start laying eggs. Curiouser and curiouser! Ralph
From:"Michael Blencowe" <michaelblenc...@sussexwt.org.uk>
To: "Adastra discussion group" <adastra@lists.sxbrc.org.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, 30 May, 2017 11:59:50 PM
Subject: [Adastra] Swallowtails in Sussex in 2017 Dear Adastrans, First
off a quick thank you to all of you who have purchased a copy of 'The
Butterflies of Sussex' - and for all the lovely comments Neil Hulme and I have
received. It seems like we got it right. I'm interested in receiving any
sightings of Swallowtail butterflies in the county this year. Recent years have
seen Continental Swallowtails migrating across The Channel into Sussex and in
2013 some individuals were seen egg-laying which subsequently led to
Sussex-born adults emerging in 2014. There were some sightings at the end of
last year and I am interested to find out if any of their offspring emerge in
2017. At 06:30 this morning I received an interesting message from Mary
Murphy in Shoreham. Mary reported that she had aSwallowtail on her balcony.
Last week’s warm weather has resulted in a modest influx of Painted Ladies and
migrant moths into Sussex from the Continent and I wondered if thisSwallowtail
had been part of the migration or had possibly even survived the winter here. I
called her straight away to get the full story and things were not as I
expected. Instead of flapping its way across The Channel this butterfly had
hitched a lift on a Parsley plant. About 8 weeks ago Mary had bought the potted
Parsley at Brighton’s Infinity Foods. The plant had been imported from France
and unknown to Mary contained aSwallowtail egg. The Swallowtail was destined to
be an unintentional ingredient in Mary’s caramelised onion polenta pie. The
Parsley plant was left on a windowsill and luckily (for all involved) Mary
spotted the small caterpillar before it (and the Parsley) headed for the pot.
With the caramelised onion polenta pie now on the metaphorical back burner Mary
had the consolation of watching aSwallowtail caterpillar develop, pupate and
emerge (an experience which she had to fuel by purchasing more Parsley plants).
The adult butterfly emerged on 29th May and understandably wanted to get as far
away from the oven as possible so Mary released it onto her sunny Shoreham
balcony and the missing ingredient from her pie flew off today. Not exactly
the sort of sighting I'm after but it does give us more information on how some
of our Swallowtails are entering Sussex. Please send any sightings
(whether in the wild or in a supermarket) to me at my Sussex Wildlife Trust
addressmichaelblenc...@sussexwt.org.uk Michael Blencowe (Henfield)
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Sussex Wildlife Trust is a company limited by guarantee under the
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No. 207005. VAT Registration No. 191 305969. Registered Office: Woods Mill,
Henfield, West Sussex BN5 9SD. Telephone 01273 492630
