• ABOUT
  • BIRDING 2018
  • Birding 2019
  • BLOG POSTS
  • Butterflies 2018
  • Resources

earthstar

~ a celebration of nature

earthstar

Tag Archives: Orange-tip butterfly

126/366 The Lady of the Woods

05 Tuesday May 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

British butterflies, butterfly, Orange-tip 2nd instar, Orange-tip butterfly, Orange-tip egg

I know I already posted about seeing my first Orange-tip butterfly of the year (The ostentatious Orange-tip, 15 April) but, for those not familiar with this lovely springtime butterfly, I thought it might be useful to see a bit more detail. So, here is a typical male Orange-tip, from the top and the side. The speckling on the lower wings looks green but that’s an optical illusion – the colours are actually yellow and black.

200505 orange-tip male (1)
200505 orange-tip male (2)

And here’s a female from both angles. If you only see her from the top, you might confuse her with one of the other white butterflies, though the dark patches are different in all the whites, and the Orange-tip also has a distinctive wing shape.

200505 orange-tip female (1)
200505 orange-tip female (2)

I managed to find several eggs during a recent walk – the newly laid eggs are white but turn orange very quickly. You’ll find them on the caterpillar food plants: Cuckooflower, Garlic mustard and Honesty are three wildflowers this butterfly favours. And, for the first time ever, I found a caterpillar. This is a 2nd instar (i.e. stage) – the larvae proceed through 5 instars, progressively growing larger, until they are ready to pupate.

200505 orange-tip egg
200505 orange-tip larva 2nd instar

You might be wondering why I gave this post the title of ‘the Lady of the Woods’. Well, according to Peter Eeles’s superb publication Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies (every home should have one!), this is the name given to the Orange-tip by Benjamin Wilkes in his Twelve New Designs of English Butterflies, published in 1742.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

106/366 The ostentatious Orange-tip

15 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Anthocharis cardamines, British butterflies, butterfly, Orange-tip, Orange-tip butterfly, spring butterflies

If there is one butterfly whose male makes a truly conspicuous effort to impress the female of the species, then it must surely be the Orange-tip (Anthocharis cardamines). Those vivid orange wing tips are hard to miss, even when the males are speeding past at a hundred miles an hour. Today, at last, I saw my first Orange-tip for 2020 – in fact, I spotted four of these handsome chaps and, after following a couple back and forth along their chosen territories, I finally managed a single photo of one as it was refuelling.

200415 orange-tip

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

100/365 Boy meets girl

10 Wednesday Apr 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, flowers, insects, nature, spring, wildflowers

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, British butterflies, Cuckooflower, Orange-tip butterfly, Orange-tip egg, Orange-tip female, Orange-tip male

A sequence of events that unfolded before me this afternoon….

190410 Orange-tip male

A male Orange-tip butterfly feeding on one of its favourite flowers, and the host plant for its caterpillars, the Cuckooflower.

190410 Orange-tip male and female (1)

Finished feeding on that flower, the male flies on and suddenly smells a female. Woohoo!

190410 Orange-tip male and female (2)

Sadly for him, this female has already mated, which is why she’s holding her body in that odd upright manner. He remains hopeful for a moment or two, then gets the message and flies off.

190410 Orange-tip female

I follow the female who flies to another flower. She’s not eating so what’s she’s doing, I wonder.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Aha! Can you spot the single egg attached to the flower stalk, in the very centre of the picture? I’ll have to go back in a week or so and see if I can spot any caterpillars on these flowers.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

97/365 Fluttering along

07 Sunday Apr 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, spring

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Brimstone butterfly, British butterflies, butterfly, Grangemoor Park, Green-veined white butterfly, Orange-tip butterfly, Peacock butterfly

I took myself along to Grangemoor Park today, hoping its central hillock would block the cool north-easterly winds so that I might find some butterflies on the warmer, sheltered, river side … and I did. The three Orange-tips – all males – were my first of the year, as was the single Green-veined white (at least, I think it’s a Green-veined white – I do find the whites can be a little confusing).

190407 orange-tip190407 green-veined white

The four Peacocks were mostly too zippy to photograph, until I caught one enjoying the sunshine on a wooden railing. And the two Brimstones were also speeding along the edge of the pathways, until one stopped to refuel and I managed to grab a couple of snaps of it. I love butterflies!

190407 peacock190407 brimstone

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Orange-tips

27 Sunday May 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Anthocharis cardamines, British butterflies, butterfly, Orange-tip, Orange-tip butterfly

The various white butterflies can be difficult to tell apart but the Orange-tips (Anthocharis cardamines) are a little easier to spot. The male sports the orange tips on its wings that give the species its common name and which are, according to the UK Butterflies website, caused by an accumulation of the mustard oils that were ingested when it was a caterpillar.

180527 Orange-tip male

The female Orange-tip doesn’t have those bright wing tips but she does share with the male the equally characteristic mottled green pattern on her underwings.

180527 Orange-tip female.jpg

The female lays a single egg – the caterpillars will devour other eggs and fellow caterpillars given the chance, hence the single egg – on one of the preferred larval food plants, their favourites being Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis) and Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata). Eggs are white when first laid, changing to orange as they near maturity, a process that takes a week or two.

Newly laid white egg
Newly laid white egg
Maturing orange egg
Maturing orange egg

Orange-tip egg on Cuckooflower

I haven’t yet found a caterpillar but, in the next week or so, I will be re-checking the places where I found these eggs. If you want to read more about Orange-tips, you can check the Butterfly Conservation website here.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Cavorting at Cossie

03 Thursday May 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Brimstone butterfly, British butterflies, butterflies, Comma, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Orange-tip butterfly, Peacock, Speckled wood

180503 Brimstone & Comma

I think it’s fair to say it’s not been much of a Spring so far, weather wise at least. It’s often been cool, frequently wet, and the sun has been elusive. I’m hoping Monday, the last day of April, was a hint of days to come – though there was a cool wind, the skies were mostly blue and it was warm in sheltered spots. Those conditions at Cosmeston persuaded the butterflies to come out to play, and I saw the highest numbers so far this year: 7 Brimstones, 2 Orange-tips, 2 Speckled woods, 2 Commas and 4 Peacocks. And it was such fun to be cavorting like a crazy woman again, flitting across fields and dancing along hedgerows to try to get photographs.

180503 Brimstone (2)180503 Comma180503 Orange-tip180503 Peacock180503 Speckled wood

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Random creatures of Barry

24 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Barry, Crab spider, Dock bug, Garden snails, Glamorgan Botany Group, Grene shieldbug, hoverflies, insects, ladybirds, Orange-tip butterfly, slow-worm

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I spent a wonderful day on Saturday exploring and examining some of the town of Barry’s wilder green spaces with members of the Glamorgan Botany Group. But, of course, you can’t spend a whole day looking at plants without also seeing an awful lot of the critters that live on those plants and I admit to being a trifle distracted at times … by a sunshine-yellow Crab spider, by fluttering butterflies and buzzing hoverflies, by plentiful dock and shield bugs, by the sad sight of a dead Slow-worm. Some of the lovely old stone houses and churches we passed were pretty cool too!

170424 1 Creatures of Barry
170424 2 Creatures of Barry
170424 3 Creatures of Barry
170424 4 Creatures of Barry
170424 5 Creatures of Barry
170424 6 Old buildings of Barry
170424 7 Creatures of Barry
170424 8 Creatures of Barry
170424 9 Creatures of Barry
170424 10 Old buildings of Barry
170424 11 Creatures of Barry
170424 12 Creatures of Barry

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

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.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

View Full Profile →

Follow earthstar on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent blog posts

  • Nipplewort Rust February 26, 2021
  • First hoverfly February 25, 2021
  • Spot the spider February 24, 2021
  • Leaf mines: Phytomyza ilicis February 23, 2021
  • Feather: Swan February 22, 2021

From the archives

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

COPYRIGHT

Unless otherwise acknowledged, the text and photographs on this blog are my own and are subject to international copyright. Nothing may be downloaded or copied without my permission.

Click on the category

'Dedicated Naturalist' Project 365DaysWildin2019 amphibian animals autumn birds coastal fauna flowers fungi geology insects ladybird leaves lichen mammal molluscs nature nature photography parks plants reptiles seaside seasons spiders spring trees walks weather wildflowers winter

Fellow Earth Stars!

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×
    %d bloggers like this: