Hello, I’m Chilly a Lesser Purple Emperor (Apatura ilia).
I’m also a Nymphalidae and I like flying when it’s day too. Of course we have to be careful, that we’re not eaten.
I have a big brother, who is called Purple Emperor (Apatura iris). We like the same clearings, because there are our forage plants. But we also like river valleys and especially the river banks, where “Silberweiden” are growing. My brother isn’t really taller than me. The markings on our wings are different. Typically we’re flying from the end of May until July, but when the weather is wonderful, the second generation can already eclose in August.
I eclosed on a leaf of an aspen, but my friends eclosed on black poplars and “Silberweiden”. To survive in the winter, I became grey and I went into a chink of my aspen. Stinky substances are pulling me e.g. excrements of dogs or horses or even carrion. The females like more drinking the honey dew of plant louses and eating overripe fruits. But my friends are becoming less, because there are less trees, as they are cut down to make agriculture and because there are more birds, that are eating us.
Anyway you can find some of us in the north of Portugal, in the north of Spain and in Central Europe.

Sabrina