Yesterday I have done a "small field work" focused to the P. argyrognomon/idas near Jankovice . By the way to the site on this place I have taken a Speckled Wood . At the site I have snapped: - more P. argyrognomon/idas males ( upper side of one) and females ( upper side of one) - Silver-...

Hi CC, They are according to the UK moths site. I checked my old Readers Digest 'Butterflies & other insects' book (well thumbed!) first, which was published in the 80's. Back then it was an insect of the south west and channel islands. Since then it has inhabited much of the south coast and Lo...

Hi Vince, Chalkhill Blue undersides can vary in colour from snow white through to deep chocolate brown, slate gray, or bright orange-ochre. And that's just the males...! There are many named underside colour forms for almost every shade...! This may seem excessive (and to a degree it probably is), ...

I have seen this fine dayflying moth a number of times when in the west country. In flight at first sight, they remind me of the Painted lady rather than Red Admiral ... for a brief few moments until the moth's true ID becomes clear. Another occasional and colourful dayflyer moth that to my eyes doe...

Remarkable. No idea about the ID but, it appears like a ghost of some Orchids I've seen up on the nearby Limestone Hills in Gloucestershire...see here :~ http://www.hoganphoto.com/lillyleaf_twayblade.jpg http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/183366 Could it be a casual introduction of a garden or ornamen...

Nice one Rob ~ enjoyed that viewing.
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Clive wrote:Hi

The Common Blue really was out in force today at Magdalen Hill Down ...

Clive

To my eyes, that is the finest portrait of a Common Blue I can ever remember seeing ~ well done.

Unlike Small and Silver Studded Blues, Common Blues are far less habitat specific.... one of the many reasons I adore the Common Blue ~ it's liable to turn up almost anywhere ... even my back garden. Are the two less "common" blues recorded in that area of Cornwall? Habitat can be a very r...

Stick a few short Lombardy Poplar ( Populus nigra italica IIRC ) cuttings in your garden and most should soon root and produce nice upright saplings. Same with most Willows although the Broad Leaved Sallows are less easy to grow from cuttings.These will attract females of Poplar Hawks, Puss Moths an...

No two specimens are ever truly identical ...
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....... ..... but at the moment my cash being stretched in too many different directions. Not the least being my 'new' old Land Rover restoration to keep me out of the pub during the Winter months... Felix. Hey, a kindred spirit ... a commonality of interests..... long live the old ones..... :) .

I have seen numerous conditional experimental variations and none are iole. Even so, those experiments do not work on all those subjected to the same treatment programme ~ only some few members of the broods... which poses the question why.... it could STILL be genetic related with conditioning trig...

How can you or anyone be that certain ... where is the firm irrefutable proof ~ not the circumstantial stuff.

Selfish or not, once the iole has seen better days, few would want an image of it. It would still be good breeding stock.

Charles Nicol wrote:Thanks for that fascinating story CC... do you know what kind of moth was on the radiator ?

Charles

Yes I do ... it was one of the rarer Hook Tips....

So, based on the information available, which one was it ?...
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Superb pictures of form iole of the Purple Emperor ( Apatura iris ) on the web and elsewhere during the past season or so has rekindled my once held ambition to ascertain how iole takes it's place in the scheme of things. Back in the 1980s, like myself another friend also bred large numbers of this ...

This story reminds me of the time in my schoolboy 1950s when a then well know professional bird egg collector worked in a local petrol station ~ it was his own business I believe. He once served a motorist and remarked to him that he had been down a certain road through woods alongside the River Wye...

Despite the lack of suitable nectar plants currently in my small rear garden, had a good turnout of butterflies basking and passing through during the past few weeks... even yesterday between prolonged periods of very heavy rain, Peacocks, Commas, Small Tortoiseshells, Holly Blues, several 'Whites' ...

Cannot help with the ID but, in the top two pictures, it's a female butterfly ovipositing ~ egg laying.
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Wood Walton butterflies are from captive bred stock... Hmmm! Is that legal? :wink: I like the cut of your jib Zonda... a kindred spirit I suspect .... you rascal... and your four exhaust pipes ... ;) I followed this one locally a while back... he was actually holding me up in my old Rover... not fo...

The most risk for these sites aren't amateur entomologists but environment changes. This is THE risk worldwide.... The beautiful deserted alpine slopes I visited in Austria forty years ago are now devoted to winter sports and the environment is hugely changed. When I was last in Switzerland thirty ...