SPORTING ANSWERS
The emperor of the woods
BUTTERFLIES
Q This past summer, for the first time, I saw a purple emperor butterfly in a woodland ride on our Suffolk shoot. Until then, I was unaware that these splendid butterflies even occurred in the county. Is there anything I can do to encourage them?
A Purple emperors, Britain’s second-largest butterflies, are surprisingly widespread in the woods and forests of southern and eastern England, but have frequently been overlooked because they tend to fly high in the canopy.
They were a passion of the late Denys Watkins-Pitchford, who as BB was a Shooting Times columnist. He reared purple emperor larvae in his Northamptonshire garden, releasing the adults in woods near his house.
The simplest way to encourage purple emperors is to allow sallow trees (pussy willows) to grow in your woodland rides, for these are the food plant of the emperor — or perhaps more correctly empress — caterpillars.
In his recently published book, His Imperial Majesty, naturalist Matthew Oates notes that “many country sportsmen responsible for pheasant preserve woods have a fondness for this butterfly”, adding that “it may be more can be done for the conservation of the purple emperor on shooting estates than on many designated wildlife sites”. It’s a challenge we would do well to accept. DT
