Largest butterfly migration for decades

Largest butterfly migration for decades - media release

Hundreds of thousands of Painted Lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui) reached the UK this week after a flying over a thousand miles from Morocco.  In a mass migration, the scale of which has not been seen for years, these butterflies can be spotted in almost every field and congregating in large numbers on butterfly nectar plants.  The Painted Lady is a pale orange-brown butterfly and is characterized by an extremely swift flight.  It is the

 mostly widely-distributed butterfly in the world being found on all five continents.

The migration has been tracked on butterfly and birdwatching forums as it moved north through Spain and France earlier in the year.  The main numbers reached the Wales just before the weekend and judging by reports there are more on the way.  Butterflies often congregate on hill tops and I counted over forty butterflies in the air at the same time near the Blaenplwyf aerial mask Aberystwyth.  There were over 400 butterflies on a half mile stretch of road there; something rarely seen nowadays.   Mostly the migration will be seen as the odd butterfly passing over a field every minute or so but this is happening all across the 

UK.  On the actual migration front, huge surges in numbers can been observed.  In one day in Norfolk last week, an astonishing 18,000 butterflies were recorded passing through.  Maybe once, just for once, we can catch a glimpse of what the countryside was like a century ago.  

Some people might assume that it is the sunny weather bringing the butterflies out but in this case it is just a coincidence.  The real reason for the migration lies in 

the fre

ak rains experienced last winter in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.  The resulting lush vegetation provided fodder for huge nu

mbers of caterpillars in January and February.  By the time these turned to adult butterflies, the food plants had all but disappeared spurring them to migrate to greener fields abroad.  In an interesting parallel, a similar mass migration of Painted Ladies is occurring in the United States, with the butterflies starting in the arid south-

western deserts and now moving north through the States.  Again, unusually heavy winter rains in the desert regions started the population explosion.

The Painted Ladies will lay their eggs on thistles in the UK which will be good news for farmers.  A few will lay on related sunflowers and possibly on some Mallow relatives in the garden.  These will produce further generations of butterflies, a few of which will make the return journey back to Morocco and Spain later on in the season.  In the meantime, we should enjoy a bumper summer season of butterflies. 

New Colombian butterflies emerging

We have some little-known butterflies coming out this week including Chesterton's Longwing (Heliconius erato chestertoni), which has a stunning navy blue sheen and a thick yellow bar on the hindwing.  We also have some new forms of Heliconius cydno and the doris Longwings as well as a new species of Owl butterfly.  All these species come from Colombia.

Last night the butterfly house was featured on HTV Wales news.  They came into film the Ulysses Swallowtail and the rainbow stag beetle which was stuck on my finger for the whole morning. 

Ulysses has come!

The Ulysses Swallowtail (Papilio ulysses) is surely one of the most colourful butterflies on the planet. We have seven of them out and flying this week and they change the whole display. This swallowtail comes from Australia and Papua New Guinea.  For once the Blue Morpho takes second place in the attention and remarks of our visitors.  Ulysses has an even deeper blue sheen and is also distinguished by its spoon-shaped tails.

We have a shipment of 200 pupae coming in from Colombia tomorrow.  This will give some new species for us including a blue form of the small postman (H. erato chestertoni) and three new types of glasswings.  Also we have three Polyphemus silkmoths (Antheraea polyphemus) out and lovely male Luna moth just pumping up its wings as I left this evening.  

Butterflies wherever you look

Today, in addition to a display full of butterflies, we have six species of moth out including the Tussore Silk moth, Lorquin's Atlas, African moon moth, Madagascan bullseye moth, Indian moon moth and the beautiful Luna moth from the USA.  These moths will live about 7- 10 days.  Look out for a future post on the Spanish moon moth (Graellsia isabellae) as we have seven cocoons waiting to emerge.

Spring opening

The Spring opening has seen a host of new insects and allies at the butterfly house.  We have new beetles, stick insects, leaf insects and yellow-legged millipedes. 

One of the stars is the Rainbow Stag Beetle (Phalacrognathus muelleri) from Queensland, Australia.  The wing cases of this species have the most brilliant greens and reds coupled with an immaculately polished shine.  The male has long 'antlers' which he uses to fight off rival males.  The female is equally showy but lacks the 'antlers'.  The adult beetles live up to fifteen months and feed on fruit and tree sap. 

We also have a number of other beautiful beetles in the genus Eudicella and a huge male Stag beetle.

Summer Bonanza

In the last month, we've imported 45 species of butterfly and moths which are all emerging right now.  On top of this, our numbers of Blue Morphos, Zebras and postmen butterflies are increasing daily giving us one of our best displays ever. Other gems to be seen are Nessaea with its electric blue bars on its wings, the Orchard Swallowtail, a giant in the family rarely seen in butterfly houses and the King Page, a stately black and yellow swallowtail.  We have also 17 of these butterfly species breeding on site in one form or the other.

Outside, the Ensete bananas and other tropicals are finally kicking after languishing for weeks in the cold summer nights.  The Buddlejas are at their zenith with a giant B. lochinch weighed down by its heavy fragrant blooms.   The garden butterflies are only just appearing with the odd Painted Lady, Red Admiral and Peacock.  No signs of the local Purple Hairstreak yet which live on the neighbouring oak trees.  I'll keep you posted when I spot one.

Lots of things to see this summer ..

Now that we've been open four months, our own butterfly breeding programme coming into full flow, helping to boost the numbers that we import.  Our first Blue Morphos are emerging this week. The Postman, small postman, zebra and Ismenius longwings are all busy eating down our Passion vines.  Also on the way are dozens of Owl caterpillars and a few of the Purple Mort Bleu butterfly (Eryphanis).

We have four species of moths out this week - an impressive male Comet moth, several of our own Indian moon moths, two giant atlas moths that are currently pairing and a new species called the Senagalese Emperor Moth.  We also have the strange Brahmea moth caterpillars with their twisted, wiry outgrowths and one of the fastest growing caterpillars we ever display. 

We are currently making a CITES application to import some Golden Birdwing pupae (Troides rhadamantus) from the Philippines.  These are huge black and yellow butterflies that are rarely seen in displays.