Why the T in Buddleja One of my favourite places in France .............................. 7-8

Our lunch was eaten in a nearby picnic spot, before we set off northwards along the beach, facing into a fresh breeze but with more sunny periods developing. When adjacent to Sizewell 'B', we saw our first Clouded Yellow, also a Small Heath, then a female Common Blue resting on a dry seedhead.

A second Clouded Yellow was then seen at the top of the shingle ridge, well camouflaged when diving down to rest on sea pea. Also noted in this area were Grayling on sea holly. We had now reached the point where we had to leave the beach and turn inland. A very sheltered area rich in flora, including bird's-foot trefoil, wild carrot, hemp agrimony, knapweed, fleaba.ne and restharrow. Common Blue were in abundance and their white eggs, which are la.id singly, were searched for and found on the leaves of rest-harrow. Confirmation being made with the aid of a hand lens. Small Copper, Large White, Speckled Wood, Small Heath and a very late and faded Meadow Brown were also noted in this area. The final stage of our walk was along woodland rides, following the southern edge of Goose Hill,

then Kenton Hills. These

Why the 'J' in Buddleja?

by Steve Goddard

Much has been written a.bout the wonderful 'Butterfly Bush' perhaps more commonly with the spelling of'Buddleia.' but also with the spelling of'Buddleja ', So, which is correct? Well, strictly it is the latter and the reason goes something like this: When Carl Linnaeus assigned the name of the Reverend Adam Buddle (16601715) to the genus, he mis-spelt the word with a 'j' instead of an 'i'. However, by the rules of international nomenclature, the original spelling- even though in error - must take precedence.

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Hence 'Buddleja' is to be preferred over ,, .,.. ..,\ 'Buddleia'.

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1

woodlands were planted ~~-'\ by the Forestry ~- 'Commission in 1958, again : . ) .. forming part of Nuclear Electric's land '....,l~·•" holding. Good clear views were had of a Wall Brown on sow thistle and many Speckled Wood were in evidence along the rides. The weather by now had improved dramatically with almost unbroken sunshine and our walk ended with sightings of Red Admiral, Comma, Small White, Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown, making a total of 14 species. All very rewarding after a most un-promising start.

Common Blue by Douglas Hammersley

One of rr1y favourite places in France

by James Mann

Less than half a mile from our house the road crosses a bridge over a river called Le Tech. To the left the river crosses the plain and issues into the Mediterranean some ten miles away between the towns of Argeles and Sr. Cyprien. To the right it twists, turns and tumbles down from a height of around 1700 feet from a tiny village called Le Tech some twenry miles away. By all logic with the same name as the river we would expect this to be the source, but no, the source is another twenty miles up the valley on the Spanish border at a height of7800 feet. My favourite place is in the village of Le Tech. A little track forks off the 'majn' road and crosses the river by means of ague. Ague is a low bridge that is without parapets and is submerged at times of flood. The track proceeds for only about a quarter of a mile on a narrowing piece of land between the river on the left and a cliff rising ro about 50 feet high on the right. The track used to go some 250 yards further but the floods of November 1999 swept this bit away. It is only a small area but it has an amazing diversity of habitat. It starts off with an arid sandy patch, ideal to hide Graylings. As the river curves to the left away from the path it makes way for an area of woodland containing both sunny and shady areas, on the right is an open rough grassy area where I have already seen at least four different blues and three different Skippers. This patch is surrounded by various indigenous flowering shrubs and the usual escaped buddleia. As the river curves back towards the path the

woodland becomes more sparse and open to the sun. To the right as the path nears the cliff the atmosphere becomes cool and moist. There was still dew on the leaves at I lam on a July morning with the temperature in the arid bit in the middle 80's F. The river in the summer is a tinkling mountain strean1, there are lots of wagtails and I am told kingfishers bur so far every time I have seen their flash of colour it has turned out to be a large dragonfly. I have so far definitely identified 33 different species plus some blues and fritillaries to sore out, but at least I have discovered that my two different large Nymphalidae are ArgynniJ paphia, Silverwashed Fritillary and Argynnis Pandora, Cardinal for in this area the two species overlap. My list to date is below. I don't know if I will ever identify every species for my books tell me that it is just possible in this area to see 23 different blues, 16 fritillaries, 15 skippers, 10 hairstreaks, 9 Graylings, 8 whites and 5 coppers just for a start. Anne, my wife, and I often spend several hours here, she tells me to go off and look for butterflies while she enjoys the plants the birds and the quiet. With a picnic area, loos and a cafe in the village it is a wonderful place to spend a day.

P.S. I have not started on the day flying moths yet. There are several different tigers.

Le Tech butterfly list

Large White, Small White, Bath White, Wood White, Orange Tip, Marbled White, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Ringlet, Wall, Southern Speckled Wood, Comma, Painted Lady, Red Adrniral, Peacock, Southern White Admiral, Clouded Yellow, Cleopatra, Swallowtail, Scarce Swallowtail, Cardinal, Silver-washed fritillary plus at least two others, Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Grayling, Great-banded Grayling, Green Hairstreak, Small Copper, Large Skipper, Dingy Skipper, Silver-spotted Skipper, Common Blue and Holly Blue plus 2 others.

Small Copper by Douglas Hammersley