Spring has Sprung.

[nomad]

Spring arrived for a day yesterday in the UK, it was sunny and warm but today there are high winds here with rain. It has been a cold start to the Spring and it is late and this will have a knock on effect on our butterfly populations, many will appear later than last year unless it really warms up in April.

I choose to walk along a narrow green valley yesterday, Oak, Ash and hazel woodland spread up one side and on the other bare green grass with patches of Gorse indicating acidic clay with flints soil.

There were a few patches of yellow Primroses in the woodland and the golden stars of Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna) in the semi-improved grassland.

If you're going to see butterflies in Britain this time of year, it is more than likely going to be those that have undertaken their long winter sleep of hibernation. There were a few male Brimstones, Gonepteryx rhamni flying at breath neck speed along the woodland edges, ever seeking females. At the bottom of the valley by a babbling brook a few golden round Dandelions were attracting Small Tortoiseshells, Aglais urticae. Dandelions-Taraxacum species are such an important early Spring nectar source for flying insects.

For time immemorial these butterflies have heralded the arrival of our Spring, the only difference being that our forefathers could have seen Large Tortoiseshell, Nymphalis polychloros.

How has your Spring started.



Aglais urticae visiting Dandelion



 Valley in Spring, March 2016.


 

[wollastoni]

Spring has started in Lombardia too of course.
Unfortunately I have no time to go to natural places for the moment and I have seen only Pieris rapae in the center of Milan.

[nomad]

Well apart from Easter Friday, we had storms in the UK all weekend and its cold again today, certainly not one for butterflies.

[mantisboy]

I still have yet to see my first butterfly of the year, but last weekend I was able to find a few Oblique-lined Tiger Beetles (Cicindela tranquebarica)

Attachments:

[wollastoni]

I like Cicindela a lot, one of the rare Coleoptera you catch with a net !

And most of them are hard to picture as they are very fast and cautious.
Impressive insects !

[nomad]

It was a beautiful sunny Spring day today and I went out to a rural location that is part of a large Farm community that welcomes visitors. I was accompanied by my friend Ash, who was having fun with my ex and now his camera and learning how to use it with a few pointers from me.

We walked along by a river with flowering Willows to see if we could find any insects at the Catkins but the butterflies were not in attendance. Most of the butterflies we saw where content to bask and enjoy the sunshine after their long winters sleep and the males were busying seeking females.

I find it the survival of Adult butterflies during our cold Northern Winters remarkable and those that survive to emerge must be among the lucky ones.


A cut tree trunk is a good place to bask for Inachis io.



Polygonia c-album



Gonepteryx rhamni male visting Red Dead-nettle, Lamium purpureum.



Ashley with his Camera.



Large Hoverfly not sure which species yet. There are over 200 in the UK.

[weymouthent]

The Hoverfly featured here, is Eristalis intricarius a fairly common species (although not as common as it once was)

[nomad]

Many thanks. A web site mentions  "this large hoverfly is unlike the other UK Eristalis species in being a furry bumble bee mimic. The males are dark with a reddish-brown tail whilst the female has a white tail and is somewhat larger. This species always has a yellow scutellum". Seems to like Marshy Woodland exactly the habitat where we found it and you can see from the image that it had been feeding at the Willow Catkins. Certainly looked like a Bee sitting there having a clean.


Habitat of the Eristalis intricarius that we found. A good place for the hibernators too.

[nomad]

I have had another ID for my Hoverfly. Tony from the BMNH Nature Plus wrote " This is a female Cheilosia chrysocoma, a handsome bee mimic of the female Andrena fulva mining bee. These are uncommon but widespread with occasional reports from all parts of the country, including Scotland. The food plant is believed to be wild angelica, angelica sylvestris."


I have asked him the differences between that species and Eristalis intricarius. 

[nomad]

Tony added Regarding the Hoverfly.

" Eristalis intricarius was the first species I considered since the scutellum looked so light and there's very little difference between the two. However, the scutellum base colour of E. intricarius is a very whitish yellow and I felt from looking closely at your photo that its base might be rather darker. To be sure of that I'd rather have seen a photo more from the rear to see the base colour clearer through the hair. The other difference was that the light bands on the legs of yours have the yellowish quality of Cheilosia chrysocoma, while on E. intricarius they are commonly very white.

Both these though might be photographic differences so I could easily be wrong.

Overall there's hardly any significant difference between the two for single photo identification. The facial projection, the zigzag dark mark on wing centres, the very shiny abdomen surface under the hair and the "foxy" hair colour being very alike in both.

If you feel from seeing it live at the time that E.intricarius is the more likely, by all means go with that since I couldn't definitely rule it out from this photo".

[nomad]

It seems our member weymouthent was spot on. Nice to see we have a Hoverfly expert. The species in the image is Eristalis intricarius. I had already posted the Hoverfly image on Nature Plus when the correct ID was given here. 

[wollastoni]

I saw several Vanessa cardui and Pieris sp. today in a batch of wild flowers in Milano.

[nomad]

 Vanessa cardui are on the move northwards, there has been a big build up in North Africa. oops 

[bobw]

I saw my first non-hibernator of the year a few minutes ago - a female Anthocaris cardamines in my garden, and I've not see a male yet!

Before today I'd only seen a few Gonepteryx rhamni and Inachis io.

Bob

[Paul K]

I saw On April 18 first butterfly in Toronro:
Pieris rapae .
That was a very warm day, but since then it is a bit cold again and no more butterflies flying around yet.

Paul