Singing the Chalk hill blues

28 Saturday Jul 2018

Tags

British butterflies, butterflies, butterflies of Sussex, Chalk hill blue, Chalkhill blue, Polyommatus coridon, Seaford Head Local Nature Reserve

This is the last of the seven new butterflies I saw during my seven days in Sussex and the second from my walk around Seaford Head (see yesterday’s blog for the first). This stunner used to be known as the Chalkhill blue and is now the Chalk hill blue – I haven’t been able to find out why the change was made but the name does indicate their preferred location, the grasslands found on the chalk hills and downs of southern England. (Its scientific name, Polyommatus coridon, hasn’t changed.)

180728 Chalk Hill blue (1)

Luckily, the two butterflies I saw were both males – I say luckily because the female looks an awful lot like a Brown argus / Common blue female, and we all know how tricky those are to distinguish.

180728 Chalk Hill blue (2)

Apparently, these stunning males are often seen in large numbers, many hundreds together, flying low over vegetation in search of females. What a glorious sight that would be!

180728 Chalk hill blue (3)

Small and blue

27 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Britain’s smallest butterfly, British butterflies, butterflies, Cupido minimus, Seaford Head Local Nature Reserve, Small blue, Small blue butterfly

Nine days ago, when I was staying with my friend Jill in East Sussex, we decided to re-enact a walk we had done on 12 May 2017, a wildlife walk led by Michael Blencowe of the Sussex Wildlife Trust, an expert lepidopterist and co-author of The Butterflies of Sussex.

May 2017, looking from Hope Bottom on Seaford Head towards the Seven Sisters

On that previous occasion the day was cool, windy and sometimes wet so we didn’t see any butterflies. This time Britain was in the grip of a scorching heatwave so it was almost too hot and dry for butterflies….

I didn’t quite match the framing but this is the same view in July 2017

Almost, but not quite. As luck would have it, I managed to spot two more new butterflies this day, and I almost missed the first as it was so tiny. This is the very appropriately named Small blue (Cupido minimus), Britain’s smallest butterfly and one that is becoming increasingly scarce.

180727 Small blue (2)

These lovelies are often found in small colonies, in areas of scrub and grassland near where their food plant grows. I don’t recall seeing any Kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) during our walk through the Seaford Head Local Nature Reserve but, luckily for the Small blue and for me, it must have been there.

180727 Small blue (1)