Well it’s been a poor summer for conventional insect surveying but we have still seen some great results. With the sun seldom appearing for more than 10 minutes at a time, planning a day’s netting has been constantly frustrated. To make up for that the butterflies have had a wonderful time. Top news is the record of Silver-washed Fritillary in Slade Camp – a first for Shotover. David Redhead, of Butterfly Conservation, saw a second Fritillary in Brasenose Wood and for an encore recorded a Purple Emperor at The Plain.
The Purple Emperor was a fine piece of predictive field craft, as for some David had been watching the tall oaks on the south side of the Plain as a likely location for this butterfly. This also helps us with the theory that they are in residence but seldom seen, keeping to the tree tops.
Beetle work continues to accumulate species with the first Lesser Stag Beetle(Dorcus parallelopipidus) recorded on the hill. This is a moderately scarce dead-wood beetle, but this one was picked up dead on a heathland path.
We have also continued to use the ‘Winkler’ extractor to survey for dead-wood species, and have had good results. Four nationally scarce species have been recorded – mostly from Brasenose Wood.
