Common Blue Female

[SarahM]

I was in the Lyth Valley in Cumbria yesterday looking for High Brown Fritillaries. I saw 4 but it was a female Common Blue that stole the show for me. I saw 2 with a lot of blue on them but thought they were probably within the normal range. The third one I saw had even more blue on it so I tried to get some photos.The photo doesn't do it justice as it was a stunning shade of blue.

When I got home I read about female Common Blues and looked at many photos on this site and others, and in books. The ones most like the butterfly I saw were of subspecies Mariscolore found in Ireland and north west Scotland. Can anyone please confirm this from my poor photo?

Thank you,
Sarah.

[David M]

It's certainly a vivid shade of blue, Sarah, although these do seem to crop up randomly just about anywhere.

There's a good write up here: https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species ... ies=icarus

[SarahM]

I did read that David, but thank you.

Sarah.