I suspect that the appearance of the eyes is very variable, depending on lighting conditions. I had a look through my records and found lots of variation. The following two shots were taken on the same day at Old Castle Down near Bridgend. They may even be the same individual but, after the time lap...

millerd wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2020 7:53 pmI posted images of this Small Tortoiseshell on my diary pages recently
Any thoughts?

It looks somewhat similar to one I photographed at Aston Rowant back in 2016. Perhaps a local genetic variation?
Mike

... NXD is free and is much easier to see on the bigger screen. A free program that is well worth investigating is GIMP, which is a Photoshop clone. see https://www.gimp.org/ There are versions for older PCs available as well as the latest version which needs at least Windows 7. I prefer to use 'Un...

It is, indeed, a very striking moth. The populations at my local Cothill reserve were once much studied by Oxford University geneticists. A few years ago they had a population explosion and I even found them in my garden.

Mike

You don't state which sharpening method you use but, if it's 'Unsharp mask' then the 'Threshhold' setting is very important if you don't want to enhance noise in 'smooth' areas. This setting determines by how much adjacent pixels have to differ, before they are recognised as an 'edge' that needs to ...

Good luck with the Essex, Otep. I still hesitate over the identification of some of mine. You really do need to get underneath for the antenna test but, if they're males, it's much easier

Otep wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2020 6:13 pm As the resident Skipper expert I concur with everything written above.

Ah yes, Otep, but I think you still have the Smessex test to come

By way of further description, I'll add that the wing shape and his way of holding his wings at rest are characteristic of the 'golden skippers' - the others being Small, Lulworth, and Essex Skippers. He's male because of the prominent black 'scent bars' across the forewings. It looks as though you'...

I thought that was a very good description of variation, Bugboy. Perhaps I could add that when a scientist 'defines' a species, it is accompanied by a 'Type' specimen, which forms the 'official' reference for that species. During the 19th century, when so much of the groundwork on species definition...

An interesting paper on 'Fluorescence in Insects ' can be downloaded from: http://www.victorialwelch.com/download/i/mark_dl/u/4013202203/4622960031/8480-3%20Fluorescence%20in%20Insects%20paper%20SPIE%20Welch%20et%20al.pdf In summary, the paper shows that fluorescent molecules are frequently found in...

I agree with Guy and Roger that it's nice to have complete control over your site. I started with 'Front Page' but then found that the much more sophisticated 'Microsoft 'Expression Web' is now available as a free download. so I switched to using that. i also use 'FileZilla' to transfer web pages to...

Let's not forget that it's tough being a larva! - especially at this time of year when the birds are looking for food for their young.
The Holly Blues remain active in my garden and the occasional Orange Tip hurries through, without stopping.

Mike

Many years ago on a moor above Inverness, I watched a couple of Blackbirds mobbing a Buzzard in the distance. As the raptor got nearer, I realised that I had the scale wrong and that it was, in fact, my first Golden Eagle being harassed by a couple of Ravens :oops: . We had a simmilar occurrence in...

... I wonder if the first 'leap' can be explained by simple physics. The first downstroke of the wings will compress the air more, and thus generate a higher pressure (and therefore force on the wings) because the airmass beneath the wings can only move sideways, not down. Away from the leaf, the a...

It was a beautiful sunny and warm afternoon in my Abingdon garden, which I spent lying back in a reclining chair, watching Holly Blue butterflies flitting around the tree canopy overhead. It was a pleasant way of enduring ‘self isolation’. There were at least two individuals, which occasionally met ...

It was quite warm in my garden this afternoon, although clouds kept casting their shadows. A Peacock visited the Edgeworthia chrysantha , now well past its best but still providing some welcome nectar. I took this shot in full sunshine and used the small flashgun on my Olympus (equivalent to the pop...

I've just seen my first Holly Blue fluttering around my Abingdon garden. With more warm weather forecast for the weekend, perhaps my hitherto rather quiet garden will start to spring into life.

Mike

A friend and former colleague has been doing some extrapolations from the COVID-19 data for various countries - see http://www.stephenburch.com/covid19/covid19.htm The trends in the patterns from different countries suggest that UK may fare better than many other places. It seems likely, however, th...

This from yesterday: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52062209 Jack These examples do seem rather extreme to me and will surely lead to resentment. As someone commented, better to walk in an isolated place than on busy streets near home! On the other hand, I can see the point in steering people away f...

Is home really that bad? Not for me, Mike - it's positively blissful - ... My original comment was meant to be very 'tongue in cheek'. I do appreciate the points you make and I too can foresee problems, especially for people who have had all their main sources of pleasure (sport, pubs, clubs) remov...