Devonshire May and June 18

Natural World
by Stephen Hussey of the Devon Wildlife Trust
Marks of Success
Wood White - Chris Root
we can better ʻfine tune’ our
management of the reserve’s
woodlands and grasslands to
suit the butterflies.
Seeing wood
whites at Meeth
Quarry
Choose a warm sunny day
between May and July for your
visit to Devon Wildlife Trust’s
Meeth Quarry. This will give you
your best chance of seeing a wood
white butterfly. Keep your eyes
peeled along the reserve’s main
tracks and woodland edges.
The butterfly has a distinctive
slow and delicate flight. Males are
on the wing almost continuously
patrolling to find a mate. Females
prefer feeding or resting on path
side flowers.
Meeth Quarry is situated on the
Tarka Trail off-road cycle way. It has
a network of bike, easy access and
walking trails, along with picnic
benches and some spectacular
wildlife. It makes a great place
to explore in spring.
For details on getting to Meeth
Quarry and all of DWT’s other
nature reserves go to:
www.devonwildlifetrust.org
ood whites are one of the UK’s
Wmost beautiful butterflies,
but they are disappearing from
our countryside. However at
Devon Wildlife Trust’s Meeth
Quarry nature reserve, near
Hatherleigh, they seem to have
found a secure home. There is an
ongoing project to keep a close
eye on their progress.
Holding on
The small and dainty wood white
butterfly likes warm, damp and
sheltered spots, and can be seen
along woodland rides and edges,
sometimes in meadows. While
much of the butterfly’s preferred
places have been lost over the last
100 years, Devon Wildlife Trust’s
Meeth Quarry holds the largest
remaining colony in Devon, and
one of the most important left
in England.
Cycle of life
You can see wood whites flying
from the end of May until the
end of July. At Meeth females
are often spotted laying eggs
on the plant bird’s foot trefoil in
sunny areas. When they appear
the butterfly’s larvae (caterpillars)
are camouflaged green and feed
on the fresh growth of the plant
and other members of the pea
family. The larvae pupate over
winter in amongst grasses before
emerging the next year as adult
butterflies.
Show offs
Wood whites are slow flying
butterflies and so relatively easy
to spot. During courtship the
males show off a very distinctive
display. He faces the female, waves
his head and antennae with his
proboscis extended.
Putting down a
marker
Devon Wildlife Trust is keeping
track of Meeth’s important
population of wood whites. Each
summer a group of volunteers will
MRR - mark, release, recapture - as
many of the reserve’s wood whites
as they can. This means carefully
capturing individuals, marking
their wings with a harmless
ultraviolet pen, recording their
location and then returning later
to attempt to recapture them.
MRR will tell the recorders not only
how many wood whites there are,
but also their movements and
distribution. With this information
Wood White - Chris Root
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