Orange Tip – Anthocharis cardamines

I saw my first Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines) of 2024 on 17th March in Cottenham patrolling a roadside verge (Broad Lane).
Archive photo of male Orange Tip on Cuckoo Flower
This was the first report for Cambridgeshire and Essex butterflies this year, apparently. I have to admit I’ve not kept a personal record of first sightings of this species, but the Cambs & Essex page does, so I can give you a list of previous years.
4 Apr 23, 24 Mar 22, 30 Mar 21, 26 Mar 20, 28 Mar 19, 17 Apr 18, 28 Mar 17, 8 Apr 16, 8 Apr 15, 24 Mar 14, 25 Apr 13, 26 Mar 12, 24 Mar 11, 11 Apr 10, 5 Apr 09, 21 Apr 08, 12 Apr 07.
So, it looks like my sighting is the earlies Orange Tip of the year in our Butterfly Conservation sector since they started recording public records on those pages. Previous earliest was three years where it appeared on 24 March, i.e. a week later. I posted on Twitter about the sighting and the tweet garnered a lot of interest.
Someone asked if there were wild brassicas, such as Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis) or Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) plants in bloom in our area. As far as I know, there aren’t. Indeed, the wildest it gets on that roadside verge is probably with the presence of Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and Common Daisy (Bellis perennis) unless someone has shaved it to the ground to make it all neat and tidy.
The lack of blooming wildflower brassicas (formerly known as crucifers) species, Cuckoo Flower or Garlic Mustard, could be...

Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - March 19, 2024 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs