10-08-20: Sitting pretty – butterflies at Kingston Uni

Purple hairstreaks at Kingston Hill Campus

We had a brilliant time getting the butterfly counts completed at the Kingston University sites, only one of our target sites was missed this year, which is amazing given the conditions that we have been doing the surveys regarding access.

Full details from this years surveys

• KUBAG volunteers completed 23 surveys across 15 survey locations. 
• 149 individual butterflies were spotted. 
• The large white was most commonly seen across 12 of our sites
• Tolworth Court Sports Grounds and Kingston Hill wildflower Meadow and pond surveys had the most number of species spotted at 8 each.
• Kingston Hill won out for the number of individuals spotted in any one survey with 33. 

We had an exciting find this year with our first record for a Purple hairstreak at Kingston Hill, followed by more sightings on subsequent surveys. These are hard to spot little flutterbys, often just a fast flying little butterfly that may have been confused in the past with the common blue butterfly which we have on site. This butterfly’s larvae feeds on species of Oak, so much so that its scientific name is Quercusia quercus – it’s a good thing that our Kingston Hill campus is filled with oaks young and old 😊. 

They also tend to stay fairly high in the canopy in the day, so we were lucky to find them flying around near ground level on a few days allowing for them to be photographed and identified. 

Lots of other species spotted during the count including colourful hoverflies and beetles as well as glimpse of jumping crickets and grasshoppers. We even had a pied wagtail contemplating entering the Nightingale Centre – I think it was voting for a name change given that these little birds often nest on the roof of the buildings at Kingston Hill. 

A nightingale may have sung in Berkeley Square, but I'm here every year!

While the count is over for this year, you can keep doing surveys and practising spotting species in preparation for next year’s surveys. 

Some of the species spotted during the count

It’s a great excuse to spend 15 mins in the sunshine looking for the colourful and cryptic species to flutter by. 

Until next time.