Aye, aye, skipper!

05 Tuesday Jul 2016

Tags

butterflies, butterfly, Large skipper, Ochlodes sylvanus, Small skipper, Thymelicus sylvestris

A couple of weeks ago I posted about several recent butterfly sightings, including one of the Large skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus). Today we have my first 2016 sighting of a Small skipper (a completely separate species, Thymelicus sylvestris), which I was lucky enough to see and photograph at the cemetery last Sunday. It’s often difficult to tell the Large (below, left) and Small (below, right) apart when they’re flying but, in these photos, you can clearly see the differences in the markings on their upper wings. The colours of both skippers remind me of golden amber, especially when the sunshine touches them.

Apparently, the Small skipper’s eggs usually hatch in late summer, after which the wee caterpillars overwinter within the grass stalk where their eggs were originally laid. Come spring, they spin themselves a little grass shelter that helps protect them from predators, initially only popping out at night to feed but emerging more often during the day as they grow larger. They pupate in May and June, before appearing, often in large numbers, as beautiful butterflies in July. My Small skipper was true to form, basking on grass in the warm sunshine, allowing me to get lots of lovely photos.

160705 Small skipper (3) 160705 Small skipper (2)

Fluttering butterflies, no.2

24 Friday Jun 2016

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Anthocharis cardamines, British butterflies, butterfly, Celastrina argiolus, Common blue butterfly, Holly blue butterfly, Large skipper butterfly, Ochlodes sylvanus, Orange-tip butterfly, Polyommatus icarus

Though summer is well underway here in Britain, I’m not seeing a huge number of butterflies. Here are some I have seen fluttering by in recent weeks.

160624 Common Blue

There are several small blue butterflies in Britain and they can be difficult to tell apart but the Common blue (Polyommatus icarus) is, as its name implies, the most common. As is often the way with wildlife, the males are bright blue, whereas the females can be quite a drab brown.

160624 Holly blue

The Holly blue (Celastrina argiolus) looks quite similar to the Common Blue, especially in flight. The trick to identifying it is in the small black dots on the underwings. It is also the blue butterfly that emerges first from its winter hibernation so look for it near holly plants in early spring, then fluttering about ivy in the summertime.

160624 Orange tip

If this is an Orange-tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines), where’s the orange colour? Turns out this is a female and only the males have bright orange wing tips. Still, she’s a very pretty little thing, even if she did seem a bit shy and hid her head behind a leaf.

160624 Large Skipper

Though it’s called the Large skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus), this butterfly is relatively small, its wingspan just a couple of millimetres more than the Small skipper, so you need to look for the mottled brown markings on its upper wings to tell the two apart.