White-letter Haistreak in Pwll, Llanelli

A few days ago Ian Morgan wrote: 'Following in my tradition of lousy photos, please see attached photo of w-l hairstreak [female] in my garden at Tyrwaun, Pwll last Sunday. It was attracted to a duvet that I had washed and was draped over some chairs etc to dry. At close range it looked bigger than I`d imagined - I`ve had a more distant one flying over elms [watched with bins] at the edge of next door`s garden a few years back and there are other older records from Pwll [inc the adjacent Ffordd y Wagen] and Stradey Woods.There is plenty of elm along the coastal belt.

I am not sure if there was something in the washing powder or biological odours in the duvet that attracted the butterfly. I may have a future as a hairstreak attractant?! [I`ve had purple hairstreaks land on my perspiring arm in the past and also seen them on dog droppings]. It allowed a very close approach which would have allowed a semi-competent photographer to take a decent shot [technology and me do not mix!]. Funnily enough, I was only thinking about w-l hk`s yesterday and Clive`s tip to scan elm tops on warm [early] evenings. Anyway, white letters are `out and about`!'

The map below plots all records of White-letter Hairstreak (with pre-2000 records shown as a smaller red dot), indicating how scarce, or more likely, how poorly recorded this species is.