Butterfly Survey 1976-2025
map of white letter hairstreak area 1976-1987
White Letter Hairstreak Strymonidia w-album
Wingspan - 35 mm
The fate of the White Letter Hairstreak was inextricably bound to the destruction of the millions of elms and wych elms in this country during the late 1960's and 1970's - through Dutch Elms disease. These signature trees, the backdrop to so many Constable canvasses, seemed to disappear overnight, and as they did, so did the white letter hairstreak butterfly. With this disaster in mind, it was a marvelous surprise to find the butterfly within a few days of starting my field study at Shoreham, White Hill in 1976. The little butterfly was confined to the small area of The Upper Meadow - part of the Dunsany estate, and identified with one particular wych elm, which had survived the initial onslaught of Dutch Elms disease. This colony declined as the tree lost its vitality and the disease slowly took hold. However, another colony nearby survived, which I began to record in 1983. Sadly, the Upper Meadow is now substantially overgrown and the fate of the colony is indeterminate, though most likely demised. There are however, now small colonies at High Elms, Bromley Common and Hayes. Beyond this there are still substantial local Elm suckers arounf Elmfield and along the A21 to Farnborogh.
Habit: male and female butterflies differ slightly, but both with a more or less signature 'W' mark on the under wing. Butterfly rests and feeds with closed wings, displaying its W markings clearly usually found 'crawling' around taking nectar from bramble and other wild plants near the host tree. Otherwise, the butterfly is likely to be seen by careful observation of the low to middle canopy. The butterfly has the direct whirring or flitting flight, typical of hairstreaks.
Single brooded: over winters in egg form - laid strategically on wych elm twigs, before the small greenish, louse like larvae emerges in early Spring to feed among the foliage - pupation is after about eight to ten weeks,
Larval Foodplant: Wych Elm and Elm, rarely Lime.
Status locally: indeterminate. Small colonies remain in High Elms and Norman Estate, which can be found breeding on the elm suckers that spring up in place of the demised great trees we once knew. I exampled this species in particular when I showed two of the counties most eminent conservationists around my fieldwork areas on the Dunsany estate in 1978. My suggestions of linked and managed areas covering all of the Dunsany estate and beyond were declined, despite the landowner's assent - an example of organisational blindness and an opportunity missed. Forty years later a start has been made on these proposals.
WH - White Hill Shoreham, Fack - Fackenden, BC - Bromley Common, Ha Hayes --BN Bromley North - Ey Eynsford - Orp Orpington - R Ruxley Res - HE - High Elms
© 2008 - 2015 Fred O'Hare, 2013 Chris Borrows
© Rodney Compton