To my eyes, apart from the variation in the lines and other darker markings, the Pearl Bordered has a richer ground colour than the SPBF. The latter's ground colour even when fresh has a faded appearance in comparison. In a 'usual' spring and Summer, it's often late June or even early July before th...

Aghhh...I really must change my profile. These were taken in the UK...I moved back last September :oops: Martin. Ahah ... I supected as much. Does not the Spanish Brimstone (cleopatra?) not have a large splodge of Orange in the middle of it's wings...;) V6GTO ... I suspect also another automotive e...

Green Hairstreaks: On the Cotswolds, look for the Ova and later the larvae on Rock Rose or Birds Foot Trefoil. They feed mostly on the flowers. Like most things, not difficult to find once you get your eye in. The freshly emerged Green Hairstreak is a real joy to behold ~ the quality of the freshly ...

In my local woods, in late summer freshly emerged males and females spend ages feeding up on Teasle Flower Heads in order to build up food reserves for the long winter hibernation. Then they are a doddle to photograph. However, they have an annoying trait: I have never seen a feeding or resting Brim...

On top of the female holly blue, sunning itself on a peice of blue plastic today. What a shot. Lucky I suppose: http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/9103/hollyblueplastic2nk5.th.jpg Is this a normal form or an aberation? I saw alot of blackish parts. I believe it's a 'normal' form of the female but, ...

Well that's true - and you get more interesting shots to boot ... :) Cheers, - Pete http://upload8.postimage.org/22981/Brimstone_imago_FarleyMountCountryPark_24_Jun_06.jpg Well done! That's an exceptional 'in flight' shot. Would be interested to hear the full story of how that was taken. If it was ...

Some female butterflies use this or other behaviour to disourage males. Possibly because they are too young to mate or have already done so. The insect in your photograph looks like a female and a fairly fresh one. A distant relative of the Speckled Wood the Grayling behaves like that sometimes when...

Butterfly flight has been filmed and freeze-frame shows exactly how they work. A more specific search may turn something up for you. In many ways not disimilar to birds and other flyers. The wings do a lot more than merely flap. They are angled, flexed, overlapped, flattened or stretched so take adv...

Thanks Dave. One of the advantages of my canon 30d DSLR over my compact olympus C-500 is that when you press the button it takes a picture almost instantaneously, and in high speed mode ( non RAW mode ) I can take up to about 30 shots at 5 fps as it has a decent internal buffer. What you don't see ...

Thansk, that sounds great. Orderd 10 larvae from WWb so they should arrive soon. Love to see results. getting Great Water Dock and regular dock. Purple Loostrife sounds like a great idea. Getting 6 memters of netting and building a large outdoor breeding cage. WWB said if the cage was too large the...

That is VERY early.

Is the Small Heath in decline?

It certainly appears less numerous locally (Glos/Cotswolds) than I remember it a few decades back.

Purple Loostrife ? is a favourite nectar plant for this bug. A visual delight to see them feeding on it. The imagines will readily pair in a large breeding cage over a potted Great Water Dock. ALWAYS use Great Water Dock if you want to successfully overwinter the hibernating larvae. Common dock leav...

When searching for other Hairstreak ova, I have found w-album ova on Sloe also known as Blackthorn ( Prunus spinosa) and reared fine examples which fed up on the Blackthorn flowers. Females prefer the mature Wych elm ( Ulmus glabra) to lay in Glos but also lay on the saplings which are so immature, ...

As a child in the fifties I used cardboard boxes, paper bags ( successfully enclosing Nettle Cuttings stood in water jars) to rear Red Admiral, Garden Tigers, Scarlet Tigers, Commas et al larvae found locally with reasonable success. Few losses.... Good husbandry essential for success. In the interv...

Hmmm... playing god as such. Well I would not do it just to breed a whole load of abberations, just one ore two. Know any websites that show abberations besides http://www.nhm.ac.uk/ ? Know any moth abberations or is that harder to tell? We all play God one way or another! Approximately 75% of the ...

Very common and attractive moth I frequently see in my garden in both larval and imagines forms.

The one in the top picture I would say has recently emerged from the pupa and is still in the process of preparing its wings for flight.

Remember ~ every single butterfly is an abberation ~ no two are ever exactly identical although you may need to inspect them very closely to detect those differences. More extreme and obvious departures from the 'norm' are referred to as aberations. If you rear every butterfly from all the ova from ...

Marsh Frits have been fluttering all over radio four news today with regard to the release in Cumbria. They said it hasn't been spotted there since 2004 and some bright spark kept over some Caterpillars and has released some 300......keeping caterpillers for three years seem a long time me thinks.....

here is a photo not up to your standards but I hope it helps http://upload6.postimage.org/51458/fly.jpg There are a number of Leaf Butterfly ( Kallima) species. It is the underside which gives the butterfly it's non scientific name but, even so, it's a very appropriate one. Have a look at the pictu...

Not easy ~ but, here goes: Brown Hairstreak High Brown/Dark Green or even SilverWashed Frit. Most of these Frits actually hibernate as a fully formed larva ~ inside the shell although the SW usually leaves the shell before winter. I once found an egg like this on Blackthorn ~ it was some moth. Purpl...