The woods are marshy and full of Goat Willow (Salix caprea) and Grey Willow (Salix cinerea) trees, the favourite food plants of the purple emperor’s caterpillars. The other reason is the pioneering ...

Japan's magnificent great purple emperor butterfly is at risk of dying out, a nationwide research project showed. Populations of nearly 40 percent of 87 familiar species of butterflies ...

Deep in the southern oakwoods in July the great Purple Emperors hold court round the airy crests of the boughs, amid a silence so songless and solemn that the rustle of their own high, flashing wings ...