My first Brimstone

01 Saturday Mar 2025

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Brimstone, Brimstone butterfly, British butterflies, butterfly, signs of spring, spring butterflies

The sunshine is working its magic! Though our overnight temperatures are still dipping below zero (Celsius), the days are finally full of blue skies and sunshine, and that has encouraged more insects to awaken, including this handsome male Brimstone. As butterfly fanciers will know, these newly emerged males rarely stay still; they patrol their territory constantly, sprinkling their pheromones over the vegetation, always searching for the females that emerge a little later than them. As I watched this one though, I realised that, after every two or three circuits, he was resting in the same place, and I managed to fire off a few quick photographs before he flew off again on his relentless search for a mate.

Snoozing Brimstone

03 Monday Apr 2023

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Brimstone, Brimstone butterfly, British butterflies, butterfly

I’d seen ten Brimstones this year before I spotted this one today – nine of those zoomed past so rapidly I only managed blurry photos; one was still but very distant. So, I was delighted when I noticed this beauty snoozing under a bramble leaf. This may well have been where it had roosted during the night and it was waiting for the sunshine to warm it up before flying off.

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First female

01 Friday Apr 2022

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Brimstone, Brimstone butterfly, British butterflies, female Brimstone, spring butterflies

This pale lime beauty was my sixteenth Brimstone of the year (I saw my first on 27 February) but she was the first female, and the first to stay still long enough for a few photos. Male Brimstones usually emerge first from their winter hibernation (as adults) and can be seen flying purposefully up and down hedgerows, footpath edges and woodland rides, searching for females, which emerge a little later than their male suitors.

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B is for Brimstone

07 Tuesday Dec 2021

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Brimstone, Brimstone butterfly, Brimstone caterpillars, Brimstone eggs, British butterflies, butterfly

Of course, my end-of-year countdown has to include butterflies. Today it’s the Brimstone – there may be others.

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I was thrilled this year to discover more about the life cycle of this exquisite butterfly. In May, after watching a female laying on the leaves of Buckthorn saplings, I found my first Brimstone eggs and, after that, knowing what Buckthorn looked like, found many more and, of course, lots of lovely caterpillars in various stages of development. I’ve yet to find a chrysalis though – maybe next year.

Baby Brimstones

21 Monday Jun 2021

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Brimstone, Brimstone butterfly, Brimstone caterpillars, Brimstone larvae, British butterflies, butterfly reproduction

We’ve watched Brimstone courtship (Butterfly courtship, 24 May 2021) and we’ve seen Brimstone eggs (4 May 2021), now let’s have a look at what hatched out of those eggs, the Brimstone babies … well, we might want to call them caterpillars or, more scientifically correct, larvae, but I couldn’t resist the alliteration of that title.

According to Peter Eeles’s Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, the Brimstone butterfly progresses through five stages, called instars, taking around 25 days from the day it hatches from its egg to the time it moults into its final instar. Six days after that, it pupates. By returning to Buckthorn trees where I’ve previously seen eggs, I’ve managed to find most of these stages, including, on Saturday, a final instar.

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Eeles writes that, as early instars, the larvae tend ‘to rest alongside a rib on the leaf underside’ (shown in my first two photos) but from the third instar, ‘the larva now rests on the leaf upperside’ (above). In its final instar the larva has a typical resting pose, where it almost hangs off the leaf (below left), and it ‘exudes an amber liquid from the tips of the fine hairs that cover its body … This liquid may be distasteful to birds and therefore act as a deterrent’. The tiny orange globules can be seen in the photo below right. Now to find a pupa …

Butterfly courtship

24 Monday May 2021

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Brimstone butterfly, British butterflies, butterfly courtship, butterfly mating, Green-veined white butterfly, Orange-tip butterfly

Some recent moments of butterfly courtship I’ve managed to catch on camera …
The dance of the Brimstones: the butter-yellow male flies in to check if the paler female is ready and willing to mate. And he’s in luck, so their (to human eyes) romantic dance begins, with the male whirling around the female, wafting his pheromones in her direction to encourage her to settle and let mating begin. This ‘dance’ can continue quite a while, as I discovered while watching this pair.

Mating was already underway when I spotted this pair of Green-veined whites. And it is not just sperm that is passing between them. The Butterfly Conservation website reports that the male also transfers ‘a so-called “nuptial gift” of nutrients that the female can assimilate and use to increase egg production. Exceptionally, male Green-veined Whites may transfer 25% of their own body mass to females during mating, though typically this is more like 15%.’

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Sometimes males don’t know when to take ‘No’ for an answer! By pointing her abdomen in the air, this Orange-tip female is refusing to mate, presumably because she has already mated and needs to get on with the important task of egg-laying. But the male simply wasn’t getting the message and continued fluttering around the female, even landing on her outspread wings. Eventually, she flew off at speed to escape his advances.

Brimstone eggs

04 Tuesday May 2021

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Brimstone, Brimstone butterfly, Brimstone eggs, British butterflies, butterfly eggs

This was exciting – or should that be eggs-citing?!

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I was watching this female Brimstone, first sitting on a patch of brambles, then flying, seemingly haphazardly, through and around bushes along a woodland ride. I thought those bushes were Blackthorn but it turns out they were probably Buckthorn.

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Then I realised the butterfly was egg-laying. In his Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, Peter Eeles describes the process:

Females are particularly choosy about the plants on which they lay their eggs – even on sites with many buckthorns present, only a very small proportion are used by females, who typically lay on plants that are isolated, sheltered and growing in sunny areas, such as at the edge of a woodland ride.

The eggs start off pale green, as shown here, but soon turn yellow and then grey, as the little caterpillar develops. This is the first time I’ve seen Brimstone eggs and I’m fairly sure I’ll be able to find them again so I’m hoping to keep an eye on their progress.

A five-Brimstone day!

17 Wednesday Mar 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, spring

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Brimstone, Brimstone butterfly, British butterflies, butterfly, Grangemoor Park

Though yesterday’s weren’t my first butterfly sightings of the year (I’ve seen two different species fly rapidly past in recent weeks but haven’t managed photos), they were simply splendid. A walk around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park produced five (!) Brimstones and, though most were patrolling their chosen territories at speed, I waited patiently for one to stop for a rest and managed to get close enough to get some good images. I can’t tell you how truly wonderful it feels to be sharing my air space with butterflies again. They are such magical creatures!

210317 brimstone

86/366 Dandelions and Brimstones

26 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring, wildflowers

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Brimstone, Brimstone butterfly, British butterflies, British wildflowers, dandelion, Gonepteryx rhamni, Grangemoor Park

Here’s why it should be an offence to cut, spray or otherwise destroy blooming wildflowers – in this case, Dandelions, in particular.

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During yesterday’s daily exercise walk around Grangemoor Park I saw at least five Brimstone butterflies. These were all males, newly emerged from hibernation and already flying frantically back and forth along their chosen path-sides and hedgerows, seeking out females to mate with.

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As there aren’t yet many wildflowers in bloom at Grangemoor, when it came time to refuel for their next patrol flight, every single one of these Brimstones stopped and supped on Dandelion nectar. In fact, once I twigged to what they were doing, I took to checking every Dandelion I saw, just in case it held a butterfly. So, please, PLEASE, leave your Dandelions for the insects to feed on.

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140/365 The battle of the Brimstones

20 Monday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature

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#365DaysWild, Brimstone, Brimstone butterfly, British butterflies, butterfly, butterfly courtship, male butterflies contesting a female

This female Brimstone butterfly is minding her own business, having a drink, and has no idea she is about to be tackled from behind by two male Brimstones.

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After some mid-air tussling, she lands on a leaf and seems receptive to mating but which male will get to do the honours?

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The males engage in an aerial battle, while she waits with closed wings.

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The dominant male lands next to the female and seems to try to force her wings apart.

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She opens her wings and you can almost see the glint in his eye!

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But, before he has time to mount the female, the second male returns to try his luck once more. The female closes her wings and the male tries again to force them open.

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