For the Emperor

Over the last few years, I have got very into butterflies and when we got the site, I hoped that we would be able to make it into a haven for my favourite insects.

It turns out we had a fair few already, with hundreds of individuals and 14 species spotted. We were very lucky to have, Mike Slater, who is Warwickshire lead Lepidopterist come and visit. It was like having a font of knowledge on site, as he shared observations, quick wins and some rather exciting news. The first was that, with a bit of work we should be able to encourage 4 rarer species on site. One is the Dark Green Fritillary, two others the Grizzled Skipper and the Dingy Skipper and the fourth, which was beyond my wildest dreams, was his majesty himself: the Purple Emperor (you can read more here. This is a truly remarkable species, a powerful species which has iridescent dark purple wings. It lords over a master tree, normally an Oak and defends its territory robustly. Now we don’t have an appropriate oak on site, and getting one would take literally 100s of years, but we have the next best thing: Goat Willow.

The caterpillar form of the PE, feeds and hides on Goat Willow (often know as pussy willow). It will use other willow species, but prefers the Goat Willow, because the leaves are broader and hence afford more protection for the large catapilliar. Mike let us know that we have some Goat Willow on site and PE are known to fly in the area. We could even have them already, but if we were to enhance the site with more GW we would increase our chances significantly.

This week, fellow trustee, Dan and I planted 50 Goat Willow saplings on site. Later in the year I will keep an eye out for PE evidence. Watch this space.