Adonis blues

11 Monday Aug 2025

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Adonis blue, blue butterflies, British butterflies, butterflies in Tout Quarry, butterflies on the Isle of Portland, butterfly, Dorset butterflies, Isle of Portland butterflies, Polyommatus bellargus

In classical antiquity, Adonis was celebrated as the epitome of male beauty. I presume, when writing in his publication British Butterflies in 1860, W. S. Coleman named this striking butterfly the Adonis blue, he considered it was the epitome of male beauty in the world of British butterflies. Though lacking the elaborate patterning of many British butterflies, the sheer brilliance of the colour of the male Adonis blue (Polyommatus bellargus) is breathtaking.

Fortunately for me, this butterfly has two broods each year so, though I missed the first in May-June, I timed my visit to Weymouth perfectly for the very start of the emergence of the second brood in August-September. I only managed to see two males, no females (which have chocolate brown upper wings, tinged with varying amounts of blue) but, as these sightings were only the third time I’d seen any Adonis blues, I was very happy indeed!

Holly blue and Small white

09 Wednesday Apr 2025

Posted by sconzani in insects

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blue butterflies, British butterflies, butterfly, Holly blue, Small white, white butterflies

Two for the price of one today!
It’s always a joy to see the blue butterflies emerge; it’s like a tiny piece of the sky has fallen to earth and is flitting amongst the flowers and shrubs and along the trees and hedges. The first to appear locally are the Holly blues. My first, on 2 April, was in an unlikely place; as I walked past, it flitted out from the street-side hedge of a house a few streets away from where I live. There was no Holly or Ivy in sight but perhaps those larval plants were growing in a nearby back garden that I couldn’t see in to.

Next to appear, just a couple of days later, was a Small white that was already looking a bit tatty. It seems its short life was proving to be a challenge, escaping from bird attacks or, perhaps, getting snagged in vegetation. My second Small white was pristine, feeding along a field edge so abundant with Blackthorn blossom that the area had attracted six species of butterfly: as well as the Small white, there were Speckled wood, Comma, another Holly blue, Brimstone, and my first Orange-tip of 2025 (which will feature in a future blog, as soon as one stays still long enough for a photo).

Mating pair

06 Friday May 2022

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blue butterflies, British butterflies, butterfly, Common blue, Common blue butterfly, Common blue mating pair, mating Common blue butterflies, Polyommatus icarus

Tuesday’s sighting of a single Common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) was the earliest in my five years of butterfly recording, which could be due to climate change (apparently, many moths are appearing early this year as well), though it could also be that I’ve got to know my local area more thoroughly and know better where to look. Yesterday, though the weather wasn’t brilliant, I found four more Common blues, including this gorgeous mating pair.

220506 common blue butterflies

The blues are back

21 Wednesday Apr 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring

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blue butterflies, British butterflies, Holly blue, Spring colour

There’s something quite startling about a tiny blue creature flying through your field of vision – it’s certainly eyecatching. I saw my first Holly blue of the year during Sunday’s meander but that one didn’t linger for a photograph. Yesterday, in a location where I didn’t see any last year, they were like buses – I saw four in total, including these two that floated in together.

210421 holly blue

233/365 Lifer : Adonis blue

21 Wednesday Aug 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature

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Adonis blue, blue butterflies, British butterflies, butterflies, butterfly, Malling Down Nature Reserve

Sunday was a day of two butterfly first-sightings.

190821 adonis blue (1)

Not only did I see my first ever Long-tailed blue but I also saw my first Adonis blues – and what stunning creatures they are! Aptly named after the Greek god of beauty and desire, the Adonis is an almost unbelievable shade of cobalt blue that shimmers when the sun catches it.

190821 adonis blue (2)

These are not butterflies we see in south Wales so I was really hoping to find some during my short break in East Sussex, and I did! These two were enjoying the sunshine and the wildflowers at the Malling Down Nature Reserve.

190821 adonis blue (3)

Seeing blue

24 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by sconzani in flowers, insects, nature

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blue, blue butterflies, blue colour, blue feathers, blue flowers, blue petals, seeing blue

Blue feathers, blue water, blue flowers, blue butterflies …

The reasons why our eyes perceive these things as blue (or don’t, if we’re colour-blind) vary depending on what we’re looking at. With birds’ feathers, for example, the blue is actually a ‘structural colour’, because ‘When white light strikes a blue feather, the keratin pattern causes red and yellow wavelengths to cancel each other out, while blue wavelengths of light reinforce and amplify one another and reflect back to the beholder’s eye’ (from the amazing Smithsonian website).

Water looks blue because it more readily absorbs light in red, orange and yellow wavelengths but reflects the blue wavelength, so it’s reflecting the colour of the sky above. Blue flowers occur in plants that are able to chemically modify red anthocyanin pigments to reflect white light as blue, and those butterflies that look blue are also reflecting white light, the blue colour being dependent on the placement of the minute scales on their wings. Colour is so complicated!