We use the words overwinter, hibernation, and diapause when we are writing about the reserve’s inhabitants’ preparations for the cold weather. It’s easy to assume that they are interchangeable terms but that is not so: let’s take a closer look.
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Only eleven of our fifty seven native species of butterfly overwinter as a chrysalis and we have six of them on our species lists.
Continue reading “Chrysalis”
The reds, yellows and browns in this picture of a butterfly’s wing are the result of pigments in the scales on the wing’s surface – but not the blue.
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Ashley Wicks, a regular visitor to the reserve, has sent us a picture of a very early red admiral.
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At this time of year, our peacock butterflies are leaving their hibernation sites to feed among the reserve’s spring flowers: welcome flashes of colour in all this rain.
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Mail from Max S to FoSCP – Fri 21/07/2023
Hi.
Saw this Silver-washed fritillary yesterday 20/07/23 at the country park.
Max
Common name: meadow brown
Scientific name: Maniola jurtina
Family: browns
A small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae), fresh out of hibernation and looking rather worse for wear.
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Fresh out of hibernation, a small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae), photographed by Clive Knight in the reserve on Monday.
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A beautiful small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) feeding on ragwort, photographed yesterday in the reserve by Clive Knight.
And a red admiral (Vanessa atalanta) from Ian Bushell.
Recorder Ian Bushell
Date 21 July 2020
Start time 1420hrs Finish time 1615hrs
Temperature 23C; Cloud 70% Sunshine
Wind direction – westerly, light, odd gusts.
All fields now mown.
Remember all those peacock caterpillar netsts? They have metamorphosed into a shiny new generation of adult peacock butterflies.
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 