There are two butterfly summers underway in Britain right now. If you have the good fortune to be a silver-studded blue or a large skipper in the West Country you are leaping out of your chrysalis and dancing in the sunshine.
If you were unlucky enough to be an egg laid in eastern England you are still stuck in the pupal stage, perhaps so chilled and damp you will never take to the skies.
The split weather system over recent weeks means that there are, as yet, no discernible country-wide trends for butterflies this year.
In general, climate change is encouraging an earlier emergence of adult butterflies, which is borne out in the west this season. The Lulworth skipper is now flying on the Dorset coast, two months before its typical flight time back in the 1980s. Similarly, my old guidebook from 1986 has the silver-studded blue’s typical flight season being in July.
Over in East Anglia, my patch, there is no evidence of early emergences with many butterflies – including most swallowtails, which should be all over the Norfolk Broads by now – stuck in the pupal stage.
Still, in the east we can at least witness butterflies’ ingenious responses to fickle weather. The swallowtail’s pupae can survive being submerged under water. These are almost impossible to find but in awful weather over the past few days I’ve still discovered brilliantly camouflaged orange tip caterpillars clinging to the slender seed pods of garlic mustard.
The best protected caterpillar I’ve seen is the red admiral, which bites and folds a nettle leaf to make itself a little tent, where it shelters from predators and rain, waiting for brighter times.
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