Butterflies of
Britain & Europe
White Admiral
Limenitis
camilla
LINNAEUS, 1763
Family - NYMPHALIDAE
subfamily -
LIMENITIDINAE
Tribe - LIMENITIDINI
introduction
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habitats |
lifecycle |
adult behaviour
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White Admiral
Limenitis camilla, male, Hampshire, England |
Introduction
The
White Admiral is distributed across much of southern Britain, and throughout
central Europe, but is absent from northern Scandinavia, most of the Iberian
peninsula, and the Mediterranean region with the exception of western Italy.
Beyond Europe it is found in Turkey, and across temperate Asia to north China,
Korea and Japan.
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White Admiral
Limenitis camilla, Alice Holt forest, Hampshire, England |
The
White Admiral can't really be confused with any other British species, although
novice butterfly-watchers sometimes mistake it in flight for the Purple Emperor
Apatura iris
which shares similar habitats and flies at the same time of year. The Purple
Emperor however is larger, has more pointed wings, and a much more powerful
flight.
In
southern Europe and western Asia
camilla
can be mistaken for it's close relative the Southern White Admiral
Limenitis reducta,
but that species has a
prominent white spot in the discal cell of the upperside forewing, and has only
a single row of black spots on the underside hindwing.
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White Admiral
Limenitis camilla, male, Hampshire,
England |
Habitats
In Britain the White
Admiral occurs in most deciduous and mixed woodland complexes in the southern
and central counties of England, but it is commonest in Wiltshire, Hampshire,
Berkshire, West Sussex, Surrey, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.
Within these woodlands the butterflies inhabit small sunny glades, narrow grassy
rides, and lightly wooded areas where the larval foodplant honeysuckle grows in
dappled sunlight, hanging as thin wisps from the boughs of oak, ash and other
deciduous trees.
The
butterflies rarely venture away from these areas, and are not normally
encountered in clearings, wide sunny avenues, or dry open woodland.
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White Admiral
Limenitis camilla, male, Hampshire,
England |
Lifecycle
The butterflies are normally
single-brooded, emerging in mid-late June, and have a lifespan
of about 2 weeks. Late emerging females can still be seen until
the end of July, and occasionally in early August. In
exceptionally warm summers there may be a
partial second brood in early autumn.
The egg
is globular, greyish-olive, and looks like a miniature sea
urchin.
The surface is covered with tiny hexagonal cells, and bears many
short
spines. It is
laid singly on wispy honeysuckle Lonicera
periclymenum, near the edge on the upperside of the
leaves. Females
usually spend 2 or 3 minutes carefully inspecting the vegetation
at ground level, before entering the undergrowth to oviposit.
They then
meticulously select leaves growing semi-concealed in bushes or
on the boughs of trees, always in dappled light or semi-shade. Luxuriant growth,
or plants growing in sunlight are ignored.
In July 2007 I watched a female
ovipositing on wisps of honeysuckle about a metre inside a dense
hawthorn bush, and was interested to observe that she kept her
wings spread wide open during the oviposition process (
butterflies normally oviposit with wings closed or half-open ).
The caterpillars hatch after
about 10 days. They give away their presence by leaving
characteristic feeding marks - eating the tips of the leaves
either side of the midrib,
but leaving the uneaten midrib protruding. The young larva
disguises itself by covering it's body with pellets of frass (
droppings ), and often rests at the tip of the protruding
midrib. This appears to be a defensive action which has evolved
to protect it from marauding ants. Many tropical relatives in
the Limenitidinae take matters a stage further by constructing
"frass chains". They extend the midrib by about a centimetre, by
silking together pellets of frass. The tiny larvae habitually
rest at the extremity, where ants are unable or unwilling to
venture, possibly deterred by toxins within the frass.
In September, when in it's second
instar, the White Admiral larva
constructs a shelter by folding a half eaten leaf, which it
fastens together with strands of silk. It spends the winter
months
hibernating within the shelter, until the following March when
it awakens and resumes feeding, becoming fully grown in late
May.
The mature
larva is a beautiful creature, bright
green with short dark orange spikes along the back and longer
spikes on the front segments. It rests in a characteristic
posture, with tail raised and front segments arched, and is
extremely difficult to find in the wild.
The chrysalis is equally exquisite, having a purplish abdomen,
bright green wing cases, and metallic silver spots on the back.
There is a flattened knob projecting from the back, and a pair
of long black labial knobs projecting from the head. It hangs
suspended by the tail from a honeysuckle stem, and strongly
resembles a withered leaf. The pupal stage lasts for about 2
weeks.
If the weather in
late May and early-mid June is warm, larvae and pupae develop
rapidly, but in cool summers the rate of development is much
slower. Consequently the time during which they are vulnerable
to predation by birds is extended, and adult butterflies become
scarce.
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White Admiral
Limenitis camilla, Alice Holt forest, Hampshire, England |
Adult behaviour
The
White Admiral is amongst the most graceful of butterflies in
flight. Males glide high in the tree tops, then descend, flitting
and gliding delicately and with great precision, in and out
amongst the foliage in search of females.
On 16th June
2007, I watched 7 males flying around a small oak in a Hampshire
wood, and noted that they frequently settled to feed at acorn buds. They also regularly visited the flowers
of bramble and dog rose - White Admirals rarely if ever visit any
other species of flower.
Both sexes, but
particularly the males, also imbibe "honey-dew" from the upper surface
of oak leaves, high in the canopy. This sugary
fluid is a by-product expelled by the oak aphid
Phylloxera quercus, as it sucks protein-rich fluids
from oak leaves. Vast quantities of this substance coat the upper
surface of oak leaves in mid-summer. Rainfall washes the honey-dew
from the leaves, so after rainfall the butterflies tend to seek
alternative forms of sustenance.
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White Admiral
Limenitis camilla, male, Hampshire, England |
In hot weather
males often descend to imbibe dissolved mineral salts from stony
tracks in the forest, and I have seen them feeding on sticky
fluids coating the stems of dock and other plants. I have also
seen freshly emerged White Admirals drinking at frothy
"cuckoo-spit" ( froghopper secretions ) on twigs.
On overcast but
warm days, the butterflies often spend long periods basking with
wings outspread on the foliage of bramble bushes, bracken or
hazel, or on leaf litter on the forest floor. They will fly even during light rain if the weather is
warm, but when it gets really hot they seek shade, resting on the
upper surface of heavily shaded foliage.
I
have not observed courtship or copulation, but it is likely that
both take place high in the canopy on sunny afternoons.
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