LARVAL FOODPLANTS

Actually more important than the nectar plants, for it is these plants that allow the continuation of the species as residents on site - our garden is their habitat.

NETTLES

Urtica dioica

THE MYTH ABOUT NETTLES. Many would-be wildlife gardeners are put off from growing nettles in their gardens because of the nuisance aspect of this invasive plant that is certainly hard to control and almost impossible to get rid of. And when you consider that the most flamboyant of the butterflies are the ones that use nettles as larval foodplants - Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, and Comma - it must dismay these people even more.

Everyone's nightmare! Nettles AND dandelions: but this Comma is fuelling itself from the dandelion ready to lay eggs on the nettles....

But there is a myth surrounding this subject which I shall now explode: you DO NOT have to grow nettles in your garden to keep these butterflies with you, because they are highly mobile (see MOBILITY in HOW IT IS ACHIEVED page) and will utilise nettles growing wild in the neighbouring countryside or wasteland, and still visit your garden for nectar. AND they prefer laying their eggs on fresh shoots, so chopping them back at the right time of year helps us and them. Only if you really want to see the caterpillars on your own land and the butterflies' courtship antics do you need your own patches, and even then it may be possible to keep the nettles away from the main garden. In our case, we utilise the ones growing wild on the dyke banks and do not have any in the actual garden itself. As long as there are nettles somewhere in the vicinity (and I would be very surprised if there wasn't!) you will get your Tortoiseshells and their allies: the Aristocrat butterflies as I call them.

All Browns eat grass, as do the three species of Skipper that reside here. So that means that eight species of butterfly are totally reliant on grasses being present in abundance, of the correct type and positioning, etc. You thought nettles were a problem! Individual requirements of the grass feeding butterflies are listed under each species in the butterflies section. Basic details follow:

Meadow Brown larva

LARGE SKIPPER: cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata) is the main grass used, usually tall isolated clumps but not exclusively so. SMALL SKIPPER: Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus) is the main grass used. Quite an elaborate ritual is undertaken by the female (see Small Skipper section). ESSEX SKIPPER: Timothy grass (Phleum pratense) seems to be it's main foodplant, preferring tall clumps. WALL BROWN: various grasses are used. The female tends to lay on very sparse grasses. GATEKEEPER: tends to favour grasses that are sheltered by shrubs or hedgerows. MEADOW BROWN: totally unfussy - lays in flight! SMALL HEATH: a visitor as yet, preferring habitats of extremely fine, low cut grasses of the fescue type. RINGLET: lays in flight, but more particular than the Meadow Brown, preferring damper or sheltered areas - the dyke banks are well suited.

looking for a needle in a haystack: a Large Skipper egg

grasses in the shelter of shrubs.

Yorkshire fog growing alonside a pathway.

cock's-foot grass

BIRD'S-FOOT TREFOIL

Lotus corniculatus

The Common Blue is currently the only butterfly that utilises this major butterfly plant as a larval foodplant with us, in addition to the two Burnet moths that we occasionally see. This is a VIP, being a major nectar plant as well. It is nicely starting to spread throughout the site, including the low growing flowering lawn meadow patch that runs parallel to the dyke. Long term hopes are for the DINGY SKIPPER (Erynis tages) and GREEN HAIRSTREAK (Callophrys rubi) to also breed on site using bird's-foot trefoil.

SORRELS

Rumex spp.

Grown purely for the benefit of the Small Copper, neither of the two sorrel species seem to be taking to our land as thoroughly as expected. In the meantime, the butterflies appear to be quite happy laying their eggs on the seedlings of broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) of which there are millions!

Small Copper laying eggs on COMMON SORREL Rumex acetosa SHEEP'S SORREL Rumex acetosella

CRUCIFERS

These related plants are wild or cottage garden plants belonging to the CRUCIFERAE family, and associated with the brassicas, of which the Cabbage Whites feed from of course. Those two butterflies - the Large and Small Whites - will also use these crops as larval foodplants, but it NEVER works the other way round, whereby the Orange Tip and Green-veined White use brassicas. Those latter two butterflies are the ones we grow these plants for (or allow them to stray into our garden) - we can't prevent Cabbage Whites from doing the same, at least it keeps them off neighbours crops.

The crucifers: CUCKOO FLOWER Cardamine pratensis DAME'S-VIOLET Hesperis matronalis GARLIC MUSTARD Alliaria petiolata HONESTY Lunaria annua OILSEED RAPE Brassica napus plus other related wild plants that, like the rape, find their way on to our land.

Cuckoo flower

Dame's-violet - white & mauve forms

Garlic mustard

Oil-seed rape

Honesty

ALDER BUCKTHORN

Frangula alnus

This small tree has been planted throughout the garden primarily as the chief larval foodplant of the Brimstone. (The other recognised foodplant is purging buckthorn - Rhamnus catharticus - of which I planted a couple this spring and they already have larvae on them). We are currently having problems with the sheer amount of eggs that the few female Brimstones are nevertheless laying on our saplings - one has already been defoliated - and I am constantly and painstakingly removing the

larvae onto more substantial shrubs. As far as I am aware there is no Brimstone stronghold in this area, so by planting buckthorns we are certainly doing

our bit by attracting this widely roaming species to our land - the females pick out buckthorns from great distances. The irony is that once emerged from the chrysalis in August, the butterflies roam off on their travels, largely ignoring our feast of nectar that we have laid on for them. At least they return each spring for the breeding season. It does seem a kick in the teeth though.

Another butterfly that will use alder buckthorn - as an alternative to holly - is the Holly Blue, and being as we currently have much more buckthorn than we do holly, this could have a bonus effect once the Holly Blue picks up again. It is currently on one of it's regular downers when it becomes virtually extinct, only to suddenly reappear with a vengeance. Soon hopefully.