Purple poser

19 Monday Jul 2021

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British butterflies, Butterflies of Oak woodlands, butterfly, butterflying, hairstreaks, Purple hairstreak

You may remember that at the end of May I made the surprise discovery of a Purple hairstreak butterfly larva in my local woodlands. Despite much searching I never found another but, as these butterflies are now on the wing, I’ve been keeping an eye out for any adults when I walk the woodland rides in that area.

210719 purple hairstreak (1)

And last week I found one … or, I should really say, it found me. I was focused on checking for butterflies flying high in the canopy of the Oak trees when a small grey-looking butterfly flitted close around my head and then disappeared into the branches next to the path. A few seconds later it reappeared and spent a few minutes, feeding on the honeydew on the leaves, before floating back up to the canopy again. A fanciful thought but it was almost like it was saying ‘Here I am. Look at me’, so I did.

210719 purple hairstreak (2)

Though these butterflies give a predominantly grey impression when you see them, they are named for the deep purple markings on their upper wings. You can catch just a glimpse of that vibrant colour in the photo above.

Graylings galore

16 Friday Jul 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Aberbargoed coal tip, Aberbargoed spoil tip, British butterflies, Grayling, Grayling butterfly

Yesterday I almost melted with the searing heat but I have only myself to blame for choosing one of the hottest days of the year to go looking for butterflies on top of a colliery spoil tip. And it was worth every drop of perspiration as I saw more Graylings than I’ve ever seen before – at least 20, probably more.

210715 grayling (1)

The wing markings of these butterflies is so cryptic that they almost disappear into the landscape. Even when I watched closely where they landed, I sometimes couldn’t find them again until they moved. They’re magicians!

210715 grayling (2)

Oh, and just a heads up for those of you in Britain – today marks the start of Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count 2021, a three-week period when we are all urged to record our sightings to help with the conservation of our butterfly species. You can read all about it on Butterfly Conservation’s website.

210715 grayling (3)

Two’s company

12 Monday Jul 2021

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British butterflies, mating butterflies, Small skipper, Small skippers mating

Two Small skippers are enjoying an intimate moment when …

210712 small skippers (1)

A third Small skipper, a male, tries to gatecrash the party.

But, you know the old saying, ‘Two’s company; three’s a crowd’. After energetically trying to intervene, number three gives up and flies off to find a female of his own.

210712 small skippers (4)

A white-letter day

09 Friday Jul 2021

Posted by sconzani in trees

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British butterflies, butterfly on Wych elm, hairstreaks, Satyrium w-album, White-letter hairstreak, Wych elm

I’m sure you’ve all heard of red-letter days, those days that are of special significance or particularly memorable. Well, for me, yesterday was a red-letter white-letter day – the day when I had my best ever views of the elusive White-letter hairstreak butterfly (Satyrium w-album).

210709 white-letter hairstreak (1)

These beautiful creatures spend most of their time in the tops of Wych elm trees (now that most English elms have died from Dutch elm disease) so my first sighting of them this year was typical – they were flitting around the top of a tree in a local park, far too distant for good views, let alone photos (see above).

210709 white-letter hairstreak (2)

Then, yesterday, I was walking in meadows adjacent to a local woodland, when I spotted this gorgeous White-letter hairstreak nectaring on a thistle right next to the path in front of me. I was able to photograph and watch it for at least 15 minutes before it flew back towards the nearby Wych elm. A white-letter day to treasure!

210709 white-letter hairstreak (3)

A future butterfly

06 Tuesday Jul 2021

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British butterflies, butterfly, butterfly egg, Large skipper, Large skipper egg

Golden Large skippers have been flitting through the tall grasses of my local meadows for about a month now and soon, too soon, they will disappear for another year.

210706 large skipper

But, if they manage to escape the cutting blades of mowers and survive through whatever weather the winter throws at us this year, then the larvae that emerge from their miniscule eggs, like the one below, will guarantee we see these handsome creatures again next year.

210706 large skipper egg

Small pearl-bordered fritillaries

30 Wednesday Jun 2021

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Aberbargoed Grasslands, British butterflies, butterfly, fritillaries, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Another visit to Aberbargoed Grasslands National Nature Reserve last week produced my best ever views of Small pearl-bordered fritillaries so I thought I’d share a couple of photos of these stunning little butterflies.

210630 small pearl-bordered fritillary (1)

They get their name from the series of pearl-like markings that can be seen along the outside edge of the underside of their hind wings, though I personally think all their markings, on both the upper- and under-sides of their wings are as exquisite as pearls.

210630 small pearl-bordered fritillary (2)

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.

210621 brimstone larvae (3)

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 …

The light and the dark

17 Thursday Jun 2021

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British butterflies, butterfly, butterfly aberrations, Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui

I’ve seen three Painted lady (Vanessa cardui) butterflies on my local walks so far this summer, two that looked as they usually do …

210617 painted lady (1) 210617 painted lady (2)

And one particularly darkly coloured creature. I don’t know what would have caused this variation, though there is some scientific evidence that very cold temperatures when a butterfly is pupating can lead to darker than usual wing colouring.

210617 painted lady (3)

Small, small, large

10 Thursday Jun 2021

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Aberbargoed Grasslands, British butterflies, butterfly, Large skipper, Small heath, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

The adjectives small and large are, of course, relative: of the three butterflies featured in today’s post, the large (skipper) is actually the smallest, but it’s larger than the Small skipper to which the adjective in its name refers. So, having explained that, let’s take a look at these three latest beauties to grace my (reasonably) local airways.

210610 small heath

I wrote (reasonably) local because these first two butterflies were seen on my journeys up the Welsh Valleys to Aberbargoed Grasslands NNR. The Small heath (Coenonympha pamphilus) (above) is now only occasionally seen in my coastal area – I found one in Cardiff Bay last summer but that was, sadly, a rarity.

210610 small pearl-bordered fritillary

The Small pearl-bordered fritillary (Boloria selene), of which I saw seven on Tuesday’s trip to Aberbargoed, is a bright orange beauty that thrives in the National Nature Reserve’s wet grassland environment, though, even there, the numbers are usually quite low. Sadly, the British population of this butterfly is suffering a long-term decline, and the changing climate isn’t helping matters.

210610 large skipper

I found my first Large skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) in the same local field where I spotted my first last year, and I’ve only seen one so far but, hopefully, they’ll soon be adorning the grassy fields in better numbers.

Roosting

02 Wednesday Jun 2021

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British butterflies, butterfly, Common blue butterflies roosting, Common blue butterfly, roosting butterflies

When we think of creatures roosting or going to roost at night, we usually think of birds – one magnificent example is the murmurations performed by Starlings before they all fly down to roost together, or you may have seen photos of mass gatherings of Pied wagtails roosting together for warmth during the colder winter months.

210602 roosting common blues (1)

However, birds aren’t the only creatures that roost – some butterfly species also roost at night, or earlier, if the weather is particularly dull and grey. One such species is the Common blue, which roosts, with head pointed downwards, usually on a tall stem of grass.

210602 roosting common blues (2)

These photos were taken late last Friday afternoon, following a morning of rain, when the cloud cover was still low and quite dense. The butterflies had obviously given up on the prospect of more sun that day and gone to bed early. I’m sure we all know that feeling!