Time Fades Away.

 After returning from the Dolomites, it was a busy old time with hunting local dragonflies and trying to catch up with the odd species that either myself or Lisa wanted to see.

A visit to Southwater Woods hoping to find a late season Purple Emperor proved lucky, as to start with we had great views of an egg laying Purple Hairstreak, this was followed by a White Admiral aberrant obliterae as well as the sought after species, with a female Purple Emperor on the track. All the butterflies were slightly past their best, but it was great to at least see them all.

White Admiral ab. obliterae

Female Purple Emperor.

One big surprise during the summer was seeing a Marbled White lay some eggs. This species is different from many of the brown family of butterflies that lay their eggs on the foodplant, as the Marbled White just drops them anywhere, scattering them as she flies. For that reason, I have never expected to find the eggs of this species. I was walking across the local meadow when I saw a female Marbled White fluttering about just above the grass, which made it obvious what she was up to. She then landed on a plant with cupped leaves. Suddenly 2 big white eggs dropped from her into the cupped leaves of the plant. Very bizarre and very unusual.

Marbled White ova.

Gary and David invited me to join them for an orchid day in the late summer, to hopefully see the Slender-lipped Helleborine, a species that I had never seen before. It was quite a long day out, as this rarity does not grown in this area. We had to head up to the North Downs. However, once at the site we did manage to find a reasonable number of this excellent plant.

Slender-lipped Helleborine.

Nearby was a few Yellow Birds-nest. This is not an orchid, but one of the parasitic plants that live in the darkness under the Beech trees.

Yellow Birds-nest.

My thanks to both Gary, the driver, and David for inviting me along.