Spring 2012 newsletter - Butterfly Conservation

A Purple Hairstreak Summer Judith Barnard
Ever since I started butterfly hunting, there have
been some which have been more elusive than
others. Take the Hairstreaks, for example. It’s not
too difficult, if you know the right places, to find
the Green and Black Hairstreaks as they tend to
perform their daily business at human height.
However there are two Hairstreaks, the Purple and
White-letter, that spend much of their time high
up in tree canopies, only coming down briefly to a
height where we can see them.
I hoped this year to spot
one of these more elusive
Hairstreaks as I had never
seen a Purple or White-letter
Hairstreak before.
Near where we live in
Northampton is Harlestone
Woods and opposite it is the
Wyevale garden centre. At the
back of the garden centre is
a smaller wood (which was
possibly part of the main
wood at some point in time).
It contains many deciduous
trees, including oak. Next to
the wood is a filled-in quarry
which is fenced off for safety
reasons. However if you are
careful you can climb the fence
and walk down the outer edge
of the wood. The previous year I had found an
Elephant Hawk moth caterpillar here so I knew it
was a good area for wildlife.
Towards the end of July this year we decided to
walk the edge of the wood, on the quarry side, to
see if anything was around. We weren’t looking for
anything in particular so was delighted when my
eye caught something small fluttering about in the
lower branches of a tree. It landed with its wings
open and I saw a shimmering patch of purple
Top: The Northampton Purple Hairstreak
Below: Its French counterpart feeds on an
apple. Photos J. Barnard
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on its wings. At last, the Purple Hairstreak! We
returned the same time on subsequent evenings
(around 6pm) to get more photos; it was always
quite windy but they clung on tight to the leaves!
The Purple Hairstreak favours oak as its habitat
and egg laying location. It is interesting to read
that it lays its eggs on the branches of oak but
at some point during their transformation they
find themselves, in chrysalis
form, deep within an ants
nest under the ground. It
appears that ants climb the
trees and carry the caterpillar
or chrysalis down to safety in
their nest! Once the butterfly
emerges from the chrysalis
it flies back up into the oak
canopy.
That wasn’t the end of our
Purple Hairstreak sightings.
A few weeks later, at the
end of August, we were off
to the Dordogne in France,
staying in a gîte known for
its excellent butterfly habitat,
right on its doorstep. It was
good to see many species
there which often proved too
hard to find in the UK. So I
was delighted to see my first
Swallowtail, Clouded Yellow and Large Blue as
well as discovering new species from that area such
as the Weaver’s Fritillary, Sooty Copper and my
favourite, the Dryad.
Just metres form the gîte was a clump of apple
trees bearing fruit. Here we spotted our second
Purple Hairstreak habitat. This time they appeared
to be feeding on rotten apples! They weren’t as
brightly coloured as their UK counterparts; not
surprising as it was over 40 C that week!