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Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007, and must not be published in part or in whole elsewhere without prior written permission from the author.
Butterflies of Britain & Europe
 
Gatekeeper
Pyronia tithonus LINNAEUS, 1771
Family - NYMPHALIDAE
subfamily - SATYRINAE
Tribe - SATYRINI
 
 introduction | habitats | lifecycle | adult behaviour
 
Gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus, male, Stansted Forest, West Sussex, England
 
Introduction
 
The Gatekeeper, also known as the Hedge Brown, is a very common and widespread butterfly which is distributed throughout much of Europe, but absent from northern Britain, Scandinavia, and south Italy. It is found in the Pyrenees, but absent from the Alps, and from most of the Mediterranean islands. Beyond Europe it occurs in the Rif mountains of Morocco, and in western Turkey.
 
Males have a very prominent band of androconial ( pheromone producing ) dark scales running diagonally across the forewings, and are noticeably smaller than the females.
 
Gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus, female, Stockbridge Down, Hampshire, England
 
The butterfly cannot be mistaken for any other British species, but both sexes are very similar on the upperside to the Southern Gatekeeper P. cecilia, which occurs in Spain, Portugal, southern France, Italy and north Africa. The underside hindwings of the latter species are quite different, being dark brown, heavily mottled and striated with white.
 
Gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus, Stockbridge Down, Hampshire, England
 
Habitats
 
In southern Britain this species can be found almost anywhere where grasses grow in association with bushes. It can be exceedingly common on scrubby grassland, along hedgerows, in woodland clearings and glades, scrubby heathland, old quarries, and along country lanes, favouring damp but sunny situations.
 
The butterfly has become scarcer in areas where verge mowing, hedge removal and the misguided and obsessive "tidying up" of the countryside has occurred, but is capable of recovering and recolonising habitats such as overgrown gardens, railway cuttings, old quarries, and regenerating woodland clearings. At Langstone, Hampshire, it took about 3 years to colonise a coastal landfill site, and was exceedingly abundant after 5 years.
 
Gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus, male, Stansted Forest, West Sussex, England
 
Lifecycle
 
The adults emerge in late June and July, and lay their eggs singly on grasses growing in sunny positions around the base of hawthorn, bramble and blackthorn bushes where the grasses grow quite tall, ungrazed by rabbits, sheep or deer.
 
The eggs are spherical with about 16 vertical ridges, and are pale yellow with irregular brown blotches. They hatch after about 14 days.
 
The caterpillars feed nocturnally on the blades of red fescue Festuca rubra, meadow grass Poa pratensis, couch Agropyron repens, bristle bent Agrostis setacea and other grasses. They enter hibernation in September when quite small, and re-awaken in the spring, feeding slowly and achieving full growth by late May or early June. The mature larvae are dull greyish olive or sometimes a dirty buff colour, with a dark line along the back and thinner dark lines along the sides.
 
The chrysalis is a pale straw colour, marked on the wing cases and thorax with blackish streaks. It hangs by the cremaster, with the shrivelled larval skin still attached, from twigs or dry grass stems at the base of bushes. The pupal stage lasts about 2 weeks.
 
Adult behaviour

 

In overcast conditions, or in hazy sunshine, Gatekeepers bask on the foliage of bracken, bramble and other low vegetation.

 

Gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus, female, Stockbridge Down, Hampshire, England

 

During sunny weather they flit from flower to flower, nectaring for a few seconds at a time at privet, bramble blossom, dogwood, ragwort, fleabane, hemp agrimony, marjoram and various other plants.

 

Copulation takes place without any observed courtship ritual, and lasts for about an hour, during which the butterflies remain stationary with their wings closed.

 

Gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus, copulated pair, Ballard Down, Dorset, Hampshire, England
 
                                                       
Almost every British and European species of butterfly is declining rapidly in numbers, due in most cases to loss or degradation of habitats.
 
You can help to reverse the decline by supporting conservation organisations which purchase and manage habitats as nature reserves, and which lobby government at local, national and international levels, often very successfully, to bring about changes in farming, forestry and urban development policies.
 
Please contact the conservation organisations for advice on how you can help protect British and European butterflies and their habitats. You may be able to offer practical help e.g. by monitoring butterfly populations or helping to manage nature reserves. Donations to these organisations enable them to employ ecologists and biologists. Even if you are unable to provide such help, merely having your name on the membership list can be a powerful tool for conservation organisations wishing to demonstrate the levels of support they have for their policies.

 

 
Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007-2008, and must not be reproduced or published in part or in whole elsewhere in any form without written permission from Adrian Hoskins. Breach of copyright will be pursued by litigation.
 
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