A Comma emerges

The long promised sunny spell finally arrived on Sunday 10th October and after watching a Comma nectaring on my Sedum spectabile I noticed another one emerging from its chrysalis on the Hop.

Comma pupates

A Comma caterpillar, from my garden Elm, pupated today. The discarded larval skin can be seen close to the point where the pupa is attached to the twig.

Chrysalids of this species typically last 10-20 days.

Butterflies and Moths this weekend!

I seem to have spent a lot of time this weekend seeking out Rosebay Willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium) in an attempt to find leafmines of Mompha raschkiella. It is Dean Stables's fault for publishing a photo on his blog! I'm also looking for Mugwort at the moment and Phyl Abbott (Plant Atlas of Mid-west Yorkshire) suggests that this often grows with Nettle and Rosebay Willowherb in unmanaged grassland.

On a nettle-patch between Jerrison Wood and Spring Wood at Esholt I saw the greatest concentration of Commas that I have ever seen in one place. There were also Red Admirals, Large Whites, Ringlets, Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers.

I will try to remember to return here at the end of August to search for Comma caterpillars which I have only ever found on elm.

I could only find vacated mines on the willowherb apart from one which seems to contain several tiny beetle larvae.

I will have to keep searching the Rosebay Willowherb in the hope of finding a tenanted mine.



Stopping the car by yet another stand of Rosebay Willowherb, near Menston, I noticed this Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata).

Whoever wakes in England

This Comma (Polygonia c-album), my first "real" butterfly of the year landed on the drive at lunchtime, moments after I had released a Peacock that I have kept through winter in the garden shed.

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In the autumn, I was given an old wasps' nest from Denso Wildlife Reserve by my entomologist friends, Harry Whiteley and Steve Warrillow. Larvae of the Bee Moth (Aphomia sociella) are feeding on the remnants of the comb.

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The first of my newly-purchased plants is in flower. In Yorkshire, Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) is a widespread but infrequent escape from gardens occurring in hedgerows and on road verges. I am growing both Lungwort and Common Comfrey (Symphytum officinialis) in the hope of finding the rare leaf-mining moth Dialectica imperialella.

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Oh, to be in England

Now that April's there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England - now!

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Robert Browning