This colourful and impressive butterfly is one of the stars of Dene Park and the surrounding woodlands in the northeast of the Parish.
Description
This is a large orange strongly-flying butterfly, the largest of the UK fritillaries, which shows subtle silvery-green markings on the underside of its rear wings. It likes areas of woodland with some fairly open areas, where the caterpillar food-plant of violets can thrive. However, I haven't located a likely caterpillar site in our woods yet, so it is a bit of a mystery.
This is a photo of an adult male in Tudeley Woods middle of July 2014 very clearly showing the male sex-brands, packed with androconial scales designed to release the male pheromone, in the four dark lines on the fore wing only found in the males. The female lacks these four lines, but their black wing splodges tend to be more extensive, thereby appearing darker overall. They tend to be seen slightly less than the males. The photo also shows the greenish and brownish iridescent hairs over the top surface of the thorax. Its left wing of this individual has in fact been partly severed, perhaps by the bite of a large beak.
This is a female, without the four dark lines, and with an overall darker appearance on the wings:
Distribution
The Silver-Washed Fritillary is generally found along woodland tracks in clearings and on woodland edges, and the best place to see it in Hadlow Parish is undoubtedly Dene Park, which is apparently open enough for it. It does tolerate more shade than the other fritillaries, none of which are found in Hadlow. It occasionally wanders a little further afield, but rarely, and to little long-term effect. In Kent it may be found in other woodlands across the county, and currently seems to have a bit of a stronghold around Tonbridge and Hildenborough. This is a rather nice view of a male in Dene Park, again showing how much brighter it is than the female:
In the UK, this butterfly has been the subject of mixed fortunes, and is now rather less common and less widely distributed than it used to be. It is currently rarely found north of a line drawn between the Mersey and the Wash in Great Britain, although it can be found further to the north on the island of Ireland. Also in the damper west, it is less rigorously confined to woodland and may often be found even along hedge-banks.
Internationally this butterfly is found across much of the Palaeartic, throughout much of temperate Europe and Asia.
Life cycle
One of the strange features of this butterfly is its habit of finding a woodland clearing with violets, the caterpillar food-plant, and then laying its eggs, often at a reasonable height, in fissures in the bark of nearby trees. This implies quite a journey for the newly hatched caterpillar n order to find its first proper meal!
Adults are generally seen flying strongly along woodland rides and tracks, settling from time to time to rest or take nectar from flowers such as brambles. One of the lovely things in life is to see a male looping continuously in the vertical plane around a female as it flies straight along, in their graceful nuptial dance.
The adults fly throughout July and August, and often lay their whitish eggs in regularly favoured locations, such as a woodland clearing. The hatched caterpillars simply eat their egg-shell, spin a pad of silk, and then settle down to hibernate for the winter. In the spring they finally travel down to ground level to search out violet leaves to feed from. The brownish caterpillars marked with orange may bask on dead leaves for long periods and up to a foot from the living clumps of violets they are feeding from. By June they are fully grown and climb back up onto trees in order to pupate, when they look like dangling dead leaves.
Oddities
There is a strange darker grey-greenish form called Valesina found in the centre of the South of England, but I don't think it currently extends into Kent, and I have no photo of it.
Predators and parasites
Birds take many, but the life of an individual adult may be nearly a month.
Description
This is a large orange strongly-flying butterfly, the largest of the UK fritillaries, which shows subtle silvery-green markings on the underside of its rear wings. It likes areas of woodland with some fairly open areas, where the caterpillar food-plant of violets can thrive. However, I haven't located a likely caterpillar site in our woods yet, so it is a bit of a mystery.
This is a photo of an adult male in Tudeley Woods middle of July 2014 very clearly showing the male sex-brands, packed with androconial scales designed to release the male pheromone, in the four dark lines on the fore wing only found in the males. The female lacks these four lines, but their black wing splodges tend to be more extensive, thereby appearing darker overall. They tend to be seen slightly less than the males. The photo also shows the greenish and brownish iridescent hairs over the top surface of the thorax. Its left wing of this individual has in fact been partly severed, perhaps by the bite of a large beak.
07-2014, Tudeley Woods, Capel
This is a female, without the four dark lines, and with an overall darker appearance on the wings:
Dene Park, 22-07-2012
Distribution
The Silver-Washed Fritillary is generally found along woodland tracks in clearings and on woodland edges, and the best place to see it in Hadlow Parish is undoubtedly Dene Park, which is apparently open enough for it. It does tolerate more shade than the other fritillaries, none of which are found in Hadlow. It occasionally wanders a little further afield, but rarely, and to little long-term effect. In Kent it may be found in other woodlands across the county, and currently seems to have a bit of a stronghold around Tonbridge and Hildenborough. This is a rather nice view of a male in Dene Park, again showing how much brighter it is than the female:
Dene Park, 22-07-2012
In the UK, this butterfly has been the subject of mixed fortunes, and is now rather less common and less widely distributed than it used to be. It is currently rarely found north of a line drawn between the Mersey and the Wash in Great Britain, although it can be found further to the north on the island of Ireland. Also in the damper west, it is less rigorously confined to woodland and may often be found even along hedge-banks.
Internationally this butterfly is found across much of the Palaeartic, throughout much of temperate Europe and Asia.
Life cycle
One of the strange features of this butterfly is its habit of finding a woodland clearing with violets, the caterpillar food-plant, and then laying its eggs, often at a reasonable height, in fissures in the bark of nearby trees. This implies quite a journey for the newly hatched caterpillar n order to find its first proper meal!
Adults are generally seen flying strongly along woodland rides and tracks, settling from time to time to rest or take nectar from flowers such as brambles. One of the lovely things in life is to see a male looping continuously in the vertical plane around a female as it flies straight along, in their graceful nuptial dance.
The adults fly throughout July and August, and often lay their whitish eggs in regularly favoured locations, such as a woodland clearing. The hatched caterpillars simply eat their egg-shell, spin a pad of silk, and then settle down to hibernate for the winter. In the spring they finally travel down to ground level to search out violet leaves to feed from. The brownish caterpillars marked with orange may bask on dead leaves for long periods and up to a foot from the living clumps of violets they are feeding from. By June they are fully grown and climb back up onto trees in order to pupate, when they look like dangling dead leaves.
Oddities
There is a strange darker grey-greenish form called Valesina found in the centre of the South of England, but I don't think it currently extends into Kent, and I have no photo of it.
Predators and parasites
Birds take many, but the life of an individual adult may be nearly a month.
No comments:
Post a Comment