If I'm not mistaken, that's a female Long-tailed Blue

2 freshly emerged photographed at East Blean Woods. Also larvae seen earlier in the year.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1113218 ... 4486296925

Yes, looks like a standard issue female to me too. I've seen it written that it's this feature which gives them the first part of their name: 'Dark' being a reference to the females overall look (noticeably darker than the other large Fritillaries) and 'Green' to the underside rather than it being a...

Found my first Gatekeeper of the season on my work transects in central London today. The thriving, if rather small colony of Essex Skipper have also emerged in recent days here too, eleven males recorded today. IMG_0020.JPG IMG_0050.JPG I know they're all Essex as I've been looking closely on non s...

June 2024 Saturday 8th cont. During my visit, with so many targets to aim at, I took an obscene amount of pictures and whilst going through them you couldn’t help but notice just how variable they really are. Here’s a range with a couple of extremes thrown in. IMG_0119.JPG IMG_0165.JPG IMG_0370.JPG...

According to Paul Whalley ( Butterfly Watching 1980 ) Dave , they live up to 3 weeks. However, he also states Small Copper live about 3 weeks and I think you may have proved that to be an underestimate! Mind you I’m inclined to go with the Black Hairstreak given it’s narrow flight period. ~~~~~~~~~~...

Purple Emperors are very much out at Chiddingfold, and the first SWF were also seen there today. No doubt there will be more examples in various PDs before long, but here's a teaser or two.PE6 270624.JPGPE1 270624.JPG Dave Including your one I think we ended the day with 5 on the ground before most...

Think you might have forgotten to attach an image...

Pretty much standard thought process during my lunch breaks Wurzel :lol: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ June 2024 Tuesday 4th . June started much as May ended, overcast. However today was set to be warm and a little muggy, which in the first week of June means Black Hairstreak are on the men...

Yes she is an ab. The victoriana aurelians christened such beauties ab. albomaculata

I was there on Thursday and had about half a dozen. It was very warm and quite hard work as they were rather active. There were freshly emerged ones around and the Daneway ones do have an extended flight time compared to other sites with the later emergents switching to Marjoram as a LHP. I don't do...

Probably Sheildbug eggs.

millerd wrote: ↑Sat Jun 22, 2024 8:17 pm
You may well see me hanging hopefully around some woodland on the Surrey/Sussex border shortly, yes...

I was there all day today, probably a little too cloudy to start with but when the sun came out.....nothing!

Going back to that Marshie ab, been trying to pin down a name for it. The best fit I can find for the upperside seems to be virgata, whereas the underside looks most closely to melanoleuca.

Indeed Wurzel , but when you come across an eye catching Marshie ab the day before, it all becomes relative! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ May 2024 A quick overview of May 2024, overall bloody awful would be my glass half empty 'stuck at work when it was sunny' assessment! The what seemed t...

Try Mother of Pearl moth

...Has anyone else seen this strange phenomenon?... Only today I was following a Meadow Brown along a hedgerow when it dipped behind a bush and re-emerged a second later as a faded Comma. it happens a lot... :) Dave A not unusual phenomenon in August I find. Many a time a single Brown Hairstreak ha...

That Small Heath does bare a passing resemblance to the scotica version of the Large Heath

Lovely Silver-studs Katrina but I do highly recommend visiting Great Orme to see that particular subspecies, the females are quite stunning. You'll see many examples in my PD soon...ish. I would say that's a Broad Bordered Hawkmoth, for once the common name's is quite accurate and does actually help...

Thanks guys, he really was a beauty and certainly made the trip worthwhile That’s very interesting Guy . I guess it shows the close relatedness of the subspecies/species if they share a gene which can produce an identical aberration, I’m going with a genetic aberration as opposed to an environmental...