Notes and Views - September 2017

[Pete Eeles]

Geranium Bronze in Dorset!

https://twitter.com/aeshnagrandis/statu ... 4282831872

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

Yet another Monarch! This time, Selsey Bill:

https://twitter.com/SelseyBirder/status ... 7176949760

Cheers,

- Pete

Edit [Vince]: This was also reported on the Sussex BC website. The webmaster, Jonathan Crawford, made the following comment about the sighting:

"Coincidently, I got an email from Bob Annell, County Recorder for Hampshire this morning and he mentioned his belief that most Monarch sightings in Hampshire were releases. Apparently there is a chap breeding them for weddings at Lee-on-Solent, which is not so far from Selsey. It does look to be in wonderful condition for a migrant which certainly raises eyebrows. We will have to leave it to our own recorder, Colin Pratt, to make a final judgement."

Vince

[millerd]

I post this very cautiously, but I believe this is an example of a Silver-spotted Skipper bilateral gynandromorph. I didn't recognise it at the time, only later when sorting through photos. It was seen today up at Aston Rowant (North). Unfortunately the butterfly is nowhere near new, and limitations of camera and photographer haven't helped, but the differences between the male and female "halves" of the butterfly seem pretty clear. I have split one of the photos (which just happened to have been taken right in line with the midline of the butterfly). Hopefully this makes things a bit clearer.

female side

male side

All opinions gratefully received! Finding this individual again would be a real needle in a haystack job. The differences in the sexes in this species are not as striking as in many others, so it wouldn't stand out in a crowd.

Dave

[Neil Hulme]

Wow! Nice one Dave. Never seen this before in SSSk.
BWs, Neil

[bugboy]

Congrats Dave . You can see a slight difference in wing shape as well (slightly more rounded in the female half) and the abdomen looks a little skewed as well

[Allan.W.]

Very unusual that,a great find ,as bugboy says the wing shape is noticeable ,don,t think I,d have realised it was a Gynandromorph
if I,d found it,is it me or does the head ,around the eyes seem to differ ? A once in a lifetime find .......nice one .
Regards Allan.W.

[Pete Eeles]

Wow - what a superb find! Really well done!

Cheers,

- Pete

[David M]

Tremendous sighting. I've never seen any of the Hesperids exhibit this.

[Rivoldini]

I hit Aston Rowant on August 31st for three hours and photographed quite a few Skippers. I'll check my photos now.
Nice one