Giant Gatekeeper?

[KeithS]

Whilst watching the Painted Ladies enjoying the Buddleia in my garden, I became aware of another flash of orange zooming around. Once settled, the interloper could be seen to have markings similar to that of a female Gatekeeper, except that on the rear wings the inner orange zone ran from the broad brown wing border right the way to the thorax, rather than becoming brown again. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was as large as (if not slightly larger) than the Painted Ladies around it I would have said it was a Gatekeeper.

I will look out for it again and try for a photo, but in the absence of that, any ideas what it might have been?

Is it an odd migrant or am I just hallucinating in the hot weather?

[Padfield]

Did you see the apical eyespot, confirming that we are dealing with a Satyrid? If not, did you see enough to confirm it was a butterfly, not a moth?

Guy

[Allan.W.]

"Zooming Around " ……………………………. Couldn't be a Male Oak Eggar could it ??
Regards Allan.W.

[David M]

"Zooming Around " ……………………………. Couldn't be a Male Oak Eggar could it?

Was thinking that myself.

[KeithS]

There was a definite apical forewing spot (but didn’t see if it had a double white core) - I had a good ten second look though binoculars before it took off and flew next door. As I say, the colouration and wing/body shape was almost identical to an oversized female Gatekeeper. The underside was also patterned similarly to the gk but the rear wings seemed to lack the white spots and were more orange on topside. As it flew in, I fleetingly thought it was a largish Comma, but its flight had that more leisurely Satyrid look (probably shouldn’t have used the word “zooming”). If I see it again I will try and net it for a good close look. I have never seen anything like it before. I looked on the interweb for a European species ID, thinking it may be an odd migrant, but I couldn’t find a match.

It wasn’t an Oak Egger, although I wouldn’t mind seeing one, haven’t for years!