Further, here's two pics of one of those ambiguous butterflies.
This is a reasonable guide on size as it's settled on plantain. It was maybe a little bigger than an average common blue but nowhere near as big as a large blue. Unfortunately I didn't get an upper of this individual.
This is the same individual. The shot is a bit soft but the wingtip is a little crooked, presumably after recent emergence and shows black bordering where a small part of the upperside can be seen. I suspect this is one of eight or nine across the slope that looked a bit 'odd', and may be what was seen by the person who reported seeing them previously.
Any suggestions of what we actually saw?
Attachments
Last edited by eccles on Thu Jun 04, 2009 7:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
A good comparison. They do look very similar except for wingsize. The smaller butterflies had a different flight pattern and general appearance to common blue. They were also a damn sight harder to follow than CB.
The fishing has been very poor recently so I have spent more time butterfly hunting than usual.
Today I started at an area of cleared woodland near Dalbeatie and saw several fritillaries, pearl borders or S.P.B's, one dark green, large skipper, small copper, small heath, green veined white, painted lady and wall.
Flushed with my success I then checked out an old quarry but there was very little to see there.
In the afternoon I got on my mountain bike and took the seven stanes trail hopeing to spot a dingy skipper. There were lots of butterflies on the south facing hill sides including two dingys and loads more frits.
eccles wrote:Any suggestions of what we actually saw?
Definitely a Large Blue. I can only guess that, like many species, their food supply "dried up" while in their last instar. They were at least able to pupate - resulting in under-nourished but viable adults whose offspring will, hopefully, have more-plentiful supplies of food.
I don't suppose you have a photo of your Collard Hill Small Blue? Somerset branch would be very interested in the record, as Small Blue hasn't been recorded from the Poldens for many years. I'm not even sure if its foodplant still occurs there.
Meadow Brown and freshly-emerged Small Tortoiseshells out and about here now.
I wish I did have a photograph of the small blue! It was a complete surprise to me, as I never saw any food plant on the site either. I saw it at the base of the hill, a real heat trap, - a blurry winged, very small lepidopterid, at first glance I thought a very small and dark brown argus (itself would be a surprise!)- that's to say the very small, dark forms occasionally encountered, but no it landed for 3 seconds maximum, sufficient for me to raise the camera, but not to focus sufficiently before it was flying up again into the air and over the may/hawthorn bushes!! I've seen MANY small blue over the years from isolated scottish populations to the huge numbers on Totternhoe hills/quarries.....make no mistake this was a DEFINITE small blue, MALE, dark upper wings, small suffusion of blue at base of all four wings, wingspan 15-18mm.
There must be a relict population nearby,??
This was the ONLY specimen of the species seen, and a complete surprise to me to see it, I commented on it to Denise, et al.
Cheers, Aron
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self contained...
Hatch Hill isn't very far away from Collard Hill, and last time I visited in midsummer a couple of years ago, it had a decent population of chalkhill blue. This means that the ground there is calcerous and may be good for kidney vetch as well as horseshoe vetch. If I visit Collard Hill again during the current LB emergence I'll try and get over there and check the site out.
eccles wrote:This is the same individual. The shot is a bit soft but the wingtip is a little crooked, presumably after recent emergence and shows black bordering where a small part of the upperside can be seen. I suspect this is one of eight or nine across the slope that looked a bit 'odd', and may be what was seen by the person who reported seeing them previously.
Any suggestions of what we actually saw?
They seem to be doing everything about a week earlier than I expected so I imagine that they will emerge around 14 July so yes, they will be on the wing for 2 August.
