We had the warmest day of the year down here in Crawley on Friday 27th February (14 Degrees) and therefore a lot of butterfly activity. In total there were 7 on the wing - 3 Red Admiral, 2 Comma, a Male Brimstone and a possible Peacock. I also have a Peacock still hibernating in the shed.

Thanks for asking. All seems well. We had the warmest day of the year on Friday 27th Feb down here in Crawley and I saw 7 Butterflies on the wing, but he was not tempted to stir and is still tucked away in the corner. I will keep you all advised of any activity.

Red sky at night - shepherd's house alight !

Two Red Admiral and a male Brimstone for me in Crawley. These are the first of the year.

Vince

Hi Lynn, I have only just noticed your question otherwise I would have replied earlier. A few years ago I saw a Holly Blue laying eggs in the flowerbuds of my variegated holly. I have "Golden King", which, despite its name, is a female plant. I kept track of the spot and later managed to f...

Terrific shots Pete, the colours look so vibrant in the sunshine. Just what we need to see at this time of year. We will try to save you some snow

Vince.

Hi Sam, I have a pet Peacock as well. I found it on 2nd December after it had been disturbed from hibernation and took it home because it was likely to have been killed had I left it alone. When I got it back it looked completly lifeless so I put in an open box and left it in the shed. When I checke...

Hi Roger,

Teriffic images and a great idea. I am sure I am not the only one that would encourage you to expand the format to cover other species.
Could you tell me what camera and lenses you are presently using?

Cheers,

Vince

Blimey, I won something! I have only just seen the results and am still sitting in shocked surprise. Very many thanks to those who voted for me in the behaviour category. I personally found it very difficult to choose, such was the quality of the entries and also I found myself thinking things like ...

Hi Mark, Here is my list of identities for your Goan butterflies. My main source of information was a pocket-sized field companion - "A Photographic Guide to Butterflies of Goa" by Parag Rangnekar, which I found invaluable when I visited. It covers photos of 90 species recorded from Goa ex...

Hi Mark, I was in Goa at the end of January this year and picked up a handy butterfly guide while I was there. I think I can identify most of your photos, but it would be useful to know when the photos were taken because the dry-season forms differ from those of the wet-season to such an extent that...

Terrific work Em, thanks for the hard work and the headache I have now got!

In order to keep this thread alive, does anyone have any nice photos of variants that they wish to share?

Vince

Hello,

I also saw a lot of these this week around my local pond. At first I thought it was a micro moth, but my book says that it is a Cinnamon Sedge Caddisfly.

Regards,

Vince

Hi Mouse, Please keep working. I am just checking a few details from another source. I have a book which explains the intersexuality mutation, but it turns out that Pete has the same book (he just forgot!). I cannot do any more with this until next weekend, so Pete and Guy are looking into it until ...

I would like to say a big thank-you to all of those who worked so hard to try to find an answer to the original question. I still have some work to do on the intersexuality issue and have promised Pete and Guy some further background information. We may however never get a final definitive answer, b...

Time for another photo I think. This is the first sight that greeted me when I walked onto Ballard Down on 18 May. They all seem to be Adonis males. Fortunately you cannot see what they are "feeding" on, but you would not want to get any of it on your shoe!. The following day they had all ...

Hi Guy, I have a very good butterfly book which explains the various processes of mutation in detail. I do not have it to hand at the moment because it is at my "other" house. I would be very happy to pass on the information you have requested on intersexuality, but am unsure whether I wou...

Hi Mouse, Before I reply I would again remind everyone that I am not an expert on genetics and am happy to be corrected at any time :D . During the course of my research on this particular matter I have found that the sexual mutations (i.e. gynandromorphs) are sterile. Assuming that mine is not, it ...

Blimey! - Thanks Guy, your comments were very interesting indeed. I have now done some research and find that this is probably not a gynandrous form, but as a result of another error during cell division. Apparently it can be due to the X chromosomes failing to separate at a late stage in the wing d...

Hello everybody, this is my first post to the forum, although I have been lurking for some time and some of you will know me from the Sussex pages. I attach 3 photos taken at Ballard Down in Dorset on 19, 20 and 22 May 2008 respectively. The first is definately a female Adonis variant but leads me t...