I visited Hazelbury Common today looking for chalk hill blues. There was a guy there logging species who said there were a couple of dark green fritillaries near the bottom of the common. I eventually spotted one but couldn't pin it down for a photo, then I saw another fritillary-like butterfly that...

Many thanks Brian. I hope they don't eat clothes as I've lost it.

Looks like a male; it has the male dark scent scales on the upper wings.
Nice spot, and a photo is a real luxury!

You can't win 'em all, but number 1 is pretty good.

I got there today and spent three hours wandering around the wooded rides. Unfortunately I have no idea where to look for brown hairstreak and saw none. I DID see: comma peacock small skipper gatekeeper meadow brown marbled white common blue (female) red admiral white admiral (2 - both tatty) brown ...

Any ideas? It's very small, 15mm wingspan.
Thanks.

Hi Mark.
It's not a million miles away so I may try to find this wood tomorrow or Sunday. I'll report back.
Eccles.

Thanks Pete. I have a better pic of her but this one shows the antennae underside best. A couple of keepers at last. Now where are the males....

Oy, those are stunning shots. Nice one of the lulworth too Pete.

I think I've finally got one. A female. Found at Bannerdown this afternoon.

If you look at your third shot of the second batch, at the inner line of spots on the underside of fore and rear wings, there's a line of four spots on the rear wing and two on the forewing with just the edge of a third peeking out from under the rear wing. The brown argus lacks those inner spots on...

and it's a female, hence the long ovipositor.

I was at Clanger Wood on Monday. Temperatures were around 32C and the butterflies were buzzing. They wouldn't settle for more than 10 seconds and even when they did that their wings were constantly on the move.
Very nice painted lady.

I forgot to mention Silver Y moths. I've seen hundreds, probably thousands of them this year.

I saw three valesinas at Clanger Wood yesterday but neither those, nor the regular SWFs nor the three white admirals that I saw would settle for long enough to photograph anything decent. There were several brown hawker dragonflies hunting up and down the rides.

I've seen several painted ladies and red admirals, and a single clouded yellow in late May. No hummingbird hawks yet. So I'd say it's about average for migrants around the West of England.

You're probably right, guys. Thanks for the comments.

Heh, thought it looked odd.

The forewing is often tucked away to hide the eyespot when a meadow brown is at rest. It adds camoulflage and to the startle factor if it is disturbed and takes off, showing the spot.

Lovely shots Pete. I'm green hairstreaked with envy.