Locations near NW England for Marbled White Butterflies

Son_of_Thor

Son_of_Thor

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Si
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I didn't know whether to put this in 'Talk Nature' or 'Talk Locations', so dropped it in here...

Seen loads of pictures, but never seen one in person - I'd love the opportunity to see/photograph them. Does anyone know of any locations relatively close to the NW of England where Marbled White Butterflies might be found? It looks like West Yorkshire might be a possibility, but where?! Happy to travel a couple of hours for a day trip but any further may well be a stretch
 
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I can't help now Si , thought it would be nice for you to have a reply though :D Ironically I actually saw one yesterday, which is double ironic because there is an absolute dirth of flutterbies here. So despite my huge concerns a few thoughts. Buddy a few years back you could have come here and I'd have taken you to t'other and of village and you would have filled your boots.sadly there's a housiing estate being built on that. So that's all gone sideways They seem to like rough pasture,don't know whether there is some tie in to ants, but that field was full of anthills (and a huge pop of marbled white)? If things were normal I'd have thought you could find them locally.but me first google search on distribution show they are more common in the south of UK, which frankly I didn't know.

So basically all I can do is wish ya luck matey, snd hope someone here can give you a head's up. They USED to be so common to me that I think you should be able to find some, they are gorgeous little things bud worth a trip, I'm just so twitchy this year about what I am seeing locally, I hope my pessismism is unfounded. I should have bees and bies all ways right now there is nothing. You're looking for downland rough pasture really rough fields Si..I'm guessing as a layman something that hasn't seen a plough in a good few years..........

Even though this year seems so topsy turvy they are on the wing right now as they should be so that's something I guess

all the luck mate, sorry being a bit down, :(

stu
 
Stuart Philpott said:
I can't help now Si , thought it would be nice for you to have a reply though :D Ironically I actually saw one yesterday, which is double ironic because there is an absolute dirth of flutterbies here. So despite my huge concerns a few thoughts. Buddy a few years back you could have come here and I'd have taken you to t'other and of village and you would have filled your boots.sadly there's a housiing estate being built on that. So that's all gone sideways They seem to like rough pasture,don't know whether there is some tie in to ants, but that field was full of anthills (and a huge pop of marbled white)? If things were normal I'd have thought you could find them locally.but me first google search on distribution show they are more common in the south of UK, which frankly I didn't know.

So basically all I can do is wish ya luck matey, snd hope someone here can give you a head's up. They USED to be so common to me that I think you should be able to find some, they are gorgeous little things bud worth a trip, I'm just so twitchy this year about what I am seeing locally, I hope my pessismism is unfounded. I should have bees and bies all ways right now there is nothing. You're looking for downland rough pasture really rough fields Si..I'm guessing as a layman something that hasn't seen a plough in a good few years..........

Even though this year seems so topsy turvy they are on the wing right now as they should be so that's something I guess

all the luck mate, sorry being a bit down, :(

stu
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Thanks for the reply Stu and the info. The housing estate thing :mad: - they're being built everywhere up here and always on open land rather than brown field sites, presumably because it's cheaper and more convenient for the developers. I think it's the Silver Studded Blues with the Ant association from memory (another Butterfly I'd love to see that we don't have locally).

It's not looking good up here either TBH, apart from the odd bright spot where our local wildlife trust maintain the land. We've had a horrendously wet and cold Spring and Summer isn't looking much better. We're just not getting any consecutive warm/dry days which doesn't help. Contrast that with a recent trip into France, where these was an abundance of insect life. Drive a couple of 100k over there and the car was plastered with small insects (like it used to be 30 years ago in this country going on hols in Summer) :(
 
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On ants and blues, I know not of silver studded,but 100% there is a tie in on large blue. Si we spent a day with 'em( large blue) maybe 2/3 years back hundreds of images not one wings open shot UGG :LOL: Buddy since childhood when large blue went extinct I've wanted just to see one.I kinda watched 'em go extinct. Seeing them was a bucket list thing for me probably 50 years a making Red ant host is called Myrmica sabuleti.



Then there was this re introduction program as the boffins worked out their life cycle and that particular species of ant they need and me got to see a childhood dream

So maybe my tie in isn't direct Si maybe it's more I just look at a place old pasture loadsa ant hills loadsa marbled white and see a tie in in life cycle where as being more specific what my humble eyes see is a habitat. Mate I'm the first to say I don't see the big picture, I guess what I see is "oh that beastie would like to live here. I've got to stop now and REALLY LOOK" if I find then I remember that stuff

Si I kinda waffled here and derailed ya thread building on your blue comment..................I'm sad there wasn't a member here to put you on a marbled white so basically I'm bumping this thread ,

comon guys give Si a marbled white

PS LOL:LOL: I'm no great shakes I googled that ant and copied so the letters were right........ ;)
 
Stuart Philpott said:
On ants and blues, I know not of silver studded,but 100% there is a tie in on large blue. Si we spent a day with 'em( large blue) maybe 2/3 years back hundreds of images not one wings open shot UGG :LOL: Buddy since childhood when large blue went extinct I've wanted just to see one.I kinda watched 'em go extinct. Seeing them was a bucket list thing for me probably 50 years a making Red ant host is called Myrmica sabuleti.



Then there was this re introduction program as the boffins worked out their life cycle and that particular species of ant they need and me got to see a childhood dream

So maybe my tie in isn't direct Si maybe it's more I just look at a place old pasture loadsa ant hills loadsa marbled white and see a tie in in life cycle where as being more specific what my humble eyes see is a habitat. Mate I'm the first to say I don't see the big picture, I guess what I see is "oh that beastie would like to live here. I've got to stop now and REALLY LOOK" if I find then I remember that stuff

Si I kinda waffled here and derailed ya thread building on your blue comment..................I'm sad there wasn't a member here to put you on a marbled white so basically I'm bumping this thread ,

comon guys give Si a marbled white

PS LOL:LOL: I'm no great shakes I googled that ant and copied so the letters were right........ ;)
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I've never seen either, although it looks like both have some tie-in with Ants (how strange the natural world is!)

We only have Common Blues and Holly Blues in our area. We saw a couple of different blues on our hols in France this year (but wasn't 100% sure on Id of either)

There's plenty of places up here with what looks like the right sort of habitat and correct food plants for some of the species, but sadly there doesn't seem to be much doing this year :(

Don't worry about it Stu, I could talk Butterflies all day mate :D
 
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