AN ANCIENT GREEK FEMALE ATHLETE FLUTTERS BY

According to ancient Greek mythology, Atalanta was an Arcadian (according to Apollodorus) princess. Apollodorus is the only one who gives an account of Atalanta’s birth and upbringing. King Iasos wished for a son, and when Atalanta was born, he was greatly disappointed. He left the baby on the mountainside so Atalanta would die in the cold and from hunger, since he did not believe she was worth bringing up as a child.

A she-bear found her and took Atalanta in order to live with her. The she-bear took care of the baby, nursing her and keeping the little child warm. After, kind hunters found her and took care of Atalanta. In the end, she was a wonderful hunteress, and skilled athlete.

It has always seemed fitting to me that her name was given to one of the most striking British butterflies, the 'red admirable' (now red admiral), a glorious butterfly with a complicated life cycle. http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/ explains:

"This species occurs in Britain as a migrant originating from northern Africa and southern Europe, and being an extremely mobile species, can turn up in any habitat including woodlands, grasslands, meadows, heathlands and moors, coastal habitats, riverbanks, low montane habitats, gardens, parks, allotments and town centres. Males also gather at certain grassland hilltop sites, apparently to intercept migrating females. The number of migrants varies according to variations in climate in Europe, and this greatly affects the number of UK bred butterflies seen later in the year.

Migrants arriving in the early spring oviposit on stinging nettles growing along hedgerows or in woodland glades, producing a summer brood in the UK which typically emerges from mid July to early August. In late summer these butterflies migrate south, and there is some evidence that the butterflies attempt to overwinter in southern woodlands. There have also been several occasions when I have recorded Red Admirals entering factory buildings and houses in November. The butterflies awake on warmer days in early winter, and sightings are relatively common in woodlands on sunny days between December and late January. In hard winters they seem unable to survive the hard frosts of February, but in 2006 there were almost unbroken sightings in Hampshire and Dorset from January to April, providing fairly conclusive proof that the butterfly can successfully overwinter in southern England."

Two magnificent males have turned up in the CFZ garden, and are strutting around the place as if they own it. Whether they are migrants freshly arrived from Africa, or newly emerged ones that have been gorging themselves on stinging nettles since the spring, I don't know, but they are certainly welcome additions to the butterfly fauna of the garden.

We have had a fantastic year so far for butterflies in the CFZ garden. Not up to what it was like in the 1970s, certainly, but by recent standards, fantastic. We have recorded the following species:

Peiridae
Large white (Peiris brassicae)
Small white (P. rapae)
Green-veined white (P. napi)

Lycaenidae
Common blue (Polyommatus icarus)
Holly blue (Celastrina argiolus)

Nymphalidae
Red admiral (Vanessa atalanta)
Painted lady (Vanessa cardui)
Silver washed fritillary (Argynnis paphia)
Speckled wood (Pararge aegeria)
Wall (Lasiommata megera)
Grayling (Hipparchia semele)
Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus)
Meadow brown (Maniola jurtina)
Small heath (Coenonympha pamphilus)

There are some notable absences from this list. I haven't seen a small tortoiseshell all year, and I haven't seen a comma, a brimstone, or a peacock since I returned to North Devon four years ago. The irony is that when I was a boy catching butterflies in this garden, I was not interested in the browns or Satyridae. They were too insignificant and dingy looking.

Now, they are the biggest component of the garden butterfly fauna.

We have our collective thinking caps on trying to work out ways of increasing our bio-diversity for the next season.