September 2004
A few reports of singles of Painted Ladies during the month.
3 September
2004
At
least eight Painted Ladies
were prominent on the cyclepath south-east of the Toll
Bridge.
August
2004
A
few reports of singles of Painted Ladies
during
the month.
Adur
Butterfly List 2004 (including the Database)
July
2004
There
were no reports of Painted Ladies during
the month.
29
June 2004
On
the cyclepath north of Old Shoreham there
were one or two Painted Ladies.
June
2004
A
few reports of singles of Painted Ladies
during
the month.
Adur
Butterfly List 2004 (including the Database)
9 June
2004
On
the cyclepath north of the Toll
Bridge, just one faded Painted
Lady Butterfly was seen in a brief visit.
11
February 2004
A
Painted
Lady Butterfly is seen flying at about
8 mph against a light breeze (about 6 mph) from the north-west near Lancing
Beach Green (by the Sailing Club where the path narrows between the green
and Widewater Lagoon). This butterfly
appears to be an immigrant, probably
on the long journey from Africa, possibly from France.
Another
Painted
Lady Butterfly was found on the edge of a
golf course bunker at Benfield Valley Nature Reserve, Portslade (TQ
262 079) where the
Blackthorn (=Sloethorn) was beginning to blossom.
The UK Leps messages contain further information and hypotheses
From:
"steve nash (SO)" <steve.nash@b...>
Date:
Wed Feb 11, 2004 2:06 pm
Striped Hawk-moth, Ni Moth and Small Mottled Willow (77+ in total!) do not occur in northern Europe during the winter, yet they all turned up on the south coast between 3-6 February 2004, the same time as the majority of Painted Lady records. Over 200 Painted Lady have so far been reported to me between 3-10 February 2004. None were reported between 24 Jan-2 February 2004. Last year, a similar migration of Painted Lady occurred, at the same time as the moths, from 12 March 2003. No Painted Lady were reported before this date. I've also received reports of large migrations passing through the Canary Islands and Portugal between 5-8 February this year. The evidence backing migration is overwhelming, however 1 or 2 butterflies may have come out of hibernation in the warmer weather. This also appears to be the case with Humming-bird Hawk-moths.
Steve
Nash
A
flutter of orange and the unmistakable patterns of a Painted
Lady Butterfly that flew steadily over
the southern section of Mill Hill. Later,
a second Painted Lady
flew around the copse and settled on the
Beech
leaves still on the tree and several times on the grass. Could these be
immigrant
butterflies rather than hibernating adults? Although
it was a clear cloudless day, the temperature only reached 6.5° C.
The winds have been from the north-west for most of this week (last three
days) and south-west for the previous week.
Weather
Graph (February 2004)
The
air temperature has remained above freezing for virtually all of the winter.
(Painted Ladies
may not be able to tolerate freezing conditions?)
Some
lepidopterists tend to favour immigration, although amongst all the naturalists,
the views seem to be about 50/50. I am tending towards the view that some
adult butterflies have been able to survive the mild winter.
NB:
The last date on record for Painted Ladies in the Adur area last year was
10
October 2003.
Research
has found evidence of Painted Ladies
hibernating in Britain.
Immigration
of Lepidoptera
Adur
Butterflies
Adur
Butterfly Flight Times
A further report of a Painted Lady Butterfly occurred on the northern part of New Monks Farm, Lancing.
4 February 2004As I walked out of the door to do the school run as a butterfly took off down the my front garden in south Lancing (TQ 186 044) carried by the light breeze. It was too quick to positively identify and in silhouette but seemed pale and may have been a Painted Lady. This is the first butterfly of the year. This the same location from which the last Painted Lady of 2003 was seen on 11 October 2003.
Butterfly Flight Times (Adur)
NB: Painted Lady Butterflies have subsequently been reported from other parts of Sussex including near Portslade railway station. The brief interlude of warm weather must have encouraged hibernating butterflies to emerge. The have no previous records of hibernating Painted Ladies surviving the winter on these Nature Notes pages and this is the first February record.
