Amazing aberration...

[David M]

One of my guests from an earlier overseas trip went to Buckingham the other day and saw this fantastic Painted Lady aberration:

Does this one have a name?

[petesmith]

Wow, that is a fantastic aberrant! Looks like it has been recorded before, but I can't find a name for it in any online references. Britishbutterflyaberrations.co.uk have it as "to name".
Would love to see one of these - this year must be one of the best for abs.

[Allan.W.]

Quite agree Pete,an amazing year for abberants ,I,ve definitely seen many more than the norm ,of several species
Concerning the cracking Painted Lady ,at the start of this post ,it looks like (or very similar ) to AB;Rogeri to me ……………….love to find one !
Regards Allan.W.

[aeshna5]

What a stunner. I've never even seen an image of this before yet alone seen one in the flesh.

[Jack Harrison]

Richard South in his 1906 classic illustrated a slightly similar aberration.

Experiments (E.B.Ford et al) have shown that Small Tortoiseshells can produce dark forms when reared at low temperatures.

My guess is that this recent superbly photographed Painted Lady ab is the result of environmental contions rather than genetics.

Jack