Wall Brown on Scilly

[green demon]

On 30 June on St. Mary's, in a rare sunny interlude, I spotted a butterfly that looked decidedly like a Wall Brown but was much lighter, even yellowish. It was in an allotment and as I didn't want to trespass I was unable to obtain a photograph but studied it through binoculars. It was resting with wings open for a few minutes which I think is probably unusual for a Wall, but it looked fairly fresh and might have been getting some sun while it could.

I knew it wasn't a Speckled Wood as I have previously photographed the Scilly variation (see my gallery) and this was nothing like it nor the standard mainland one. A few days later I spoke to Will Wagstaff, who is the resident Scilly expert naturalist, but he informed me that it would very unlikely to be a Wall and that it would probably have been the Scilly Speckled Wood. I tried to explain that I knew what that looked like but without photographic evidence there was no point in pursuing this further.

I checked when I had a chance to look at an internet and read that the Wall is only an occasional Scilly visitor which would tend to back up Will's comment about the unlikelihood of it being a Wall.

My questions to the experts on here are as follows:

1. Can a Wall be quite varied in colour and maybe even mustardish in shade?

2. Is there a subtle variation in the occasional Walls found on Scilly as with the Speckled Wood?

3. If the answer is no to the above, are there other potential species, maybe Fritillaries that it may have been?

Unfortunately the weather never allowed a revisit to the spot for the rest of my stay.

Thanks,

Simon Green