Some N. Yorkshire Dukes seen this afternoon, including a very pale ab. leucodes.

Jack Harrison wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2024 3:46 pm As it's from Yorkshire, the ab should be called [Theakston] Old Peculier.

Jack

As a fan of Old Peculier, I'll drink to that!

David M wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2024 8:13 pm That really is an epic underside aberration in that species, Dave.

It certainly is! I feel incredibly lucky to have seen this not once, but three times!

What a fantastic butterfly - and fantastic shots too. In that last one, you can see his dangly front legs. I've never seen those before in a Duke - the males just look as if they have four legs. Guy Cheers Guy! I think it's also the first time I've seen those vestigial legs so prominently on a male.

This is now the third time I've recorded this aberration at the same site in N. Yorkshire, having previously seen it in 2021 and 2023. This one was particularly stunning!

In 2021 I posted a previously unknown Duke aberration on here; it had no white on the antennae and wing fringes, and the underwing 'pearls' were almost black. I visited the same site again today as part of the annual N. Yorkshire Duke monitoring programme and I was amazed to find another individual ...

I photographed this one at Bishop Middleham in August 2020. Had I seen it almost anywhere else I'd have said 2nd brood Brown Argus without hesitation. I spoke to the County Recorder at the time who said they've had a number of records from the site which are strong candidates for BA rather than NBA....

Here ae my 3 entries:

Pearl-bordered Fritillary, nr Kirkbymoorside
Marbled White, Pickering
Small Tortoiseshell, May Beck
All in N. Yorkshire.

I think this is probably my favourite Duke of 2021, seen in N. Yorkshire.

Swallowtails at Strumpshaw on 8th and 9th June, and at Hickling on 9th in the sunshine...SWT1 080621.JPGSWT3 090621.JPGSWT1 090621.JPG...followed by Heath Fritillaries at Hockley Woods on 10th June mostly under cloud.HF2 100621.JPGHF1 100621.JPGFull reports on all these adventures in my PD when I m...

The Marsh Fritillary dumper has reached N. Yorkshire! I found 6 this morning at a SSSI site near Pickering.

I posted it on a Butterfly Aberrations Facebook page, and one member said he'd been studying Dukes for 30 years and never seen one like this.

I was able to get some more photos today of the Duke ab. I found in N. Yorkshire, including one of the underwing. It's pretty spectacular looking!

Dave

Hi Neil, When I first spotted it I thought it was an older specimen with the fringes worn away, but a closer look reveals how fresh it is. I was surveying today with Robert Parks, and he's hoping that we'll get a further emergence towards the Bank Holiday weekend if the weather picks up. Cheers, Dave

We've had poor luck surveying for Duke of Burgundy in North Yorkshire so far this year, with numbers way down on previous years. However, we found three fresh males at one of the sites this afternoon, including one with almost no white on either the wing fringe or antennae. A quick look at the named...

I'm a long way from being an expert, but I'm going to say SPBF, on the basis that the outer wing chevrons are actually chevrons, rather than the solid triangles more usual in PBF. There's also the (admittedly ill-defined) 730 on the left fore wing near the leading edge which is characteristic of SPB...

Scotch Argus were seen at Arnside & Smardale on Friday. Seen on Facebook and Butterfly Conservation Lancashire Branch website.

Dave

Nice! I didn't get a look at the underwing of mine, as a male chased it every time it settles!

Cheers,

Dave

I depends where in Yorkshire you are! There are a number of sites in Lancashire & Cumbria which have SWF; I saw them at Howe Ridding Wood near Whitbarrow last week. A good idea would be to look at the Butterfly Conservation Cumbria and Lancashire Branch web pages for the latest sightings to see ...

I was at Howe Ridding Wood in Cumbria yesterday, where I found a female Northern Brown Argus with pale-yellow lunules instead of the usual orange. This aberration has been named ab. pallidior in Brown Argus, but I can't find a reference to it occurring in Northern Brown. Has anyone else encountered ...