Short-tailed Blue

[Pete Eeles]

This sighting deserves its own post!

From Malcolm Hunt: "The butterfly was filmed at broadstock quarry, Portland Dorset on the 5/8/09 at 18.12pm. I was on holiday with my family in weymouth. I have a short account on my blogsite which might be of use to you. http://www.malcolmhunt.wordpress".

Malcolm's photo is below.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Neil Hulme]

Corr blimey a Bloxworth! Congratulations to Malcolm on an amazing find. It might be worthwhile for those that live locally to have a good look around here over the next week or two. It's the sort of butterfly that you really need to go hunting for, but you never know your luck!
Neil

[m_galathea]

Indeed, well done that man! An excellent image too, especially given the conditions described.

http://huntphotography.wordpress.com/

[Dave]

OMG at that exact time we were having a meal with the in laws in the Pulpit Inn, Portland about a mile away!!!!!!!

[Dave McCormick]

Thats a great find, congrats to Malcolm for finding and getting a very good photo of it too!

[Jack Harrison]

I heard rumours three or four years ago about a breeding colony “somewhere” on Portland, but when I asked a few questions, of course everyone denied all knowledge of it. Maybe........

Jack

[Padfield]

This is very exciting indeed.

I commented in a post this time last year that short-tailed blues were spreading on the continent again, after declining for some years. Last August there was a big movement of the species within Switzerland, bringing them along the Rhône Valley, where I've never seen them before (and where they didn't fly in the first generation). Friends reported that their numbers were up in France, and I saw large numbers near Lyon myself. Although people say this is not a migrant species it certainly does seem to go in for movement en masse in the second generation.

Today, after cycling down to return some of Asha's medical materials to the vet, I continued to some nearby fields, where short-tailed blues were plentiful - my first ever local examples of this species. Interestingly, long-tailed blues were common in one of the fields, as well as short-tailed. Long-tailed blues are really quite unusual here and occur only as an occasional migrant. So I would suggest that is another species to keep an eye open for in the UK.


Short-tailed blue, Vaud, 14th August


Long-tailed blue, Vaud, 14th August

Guy

[Padfield]

PS - for anyone who wants to go short-tailed blue hunting near Portland, the species is particularly fond of rough fields with short, but not close-cropped, grass, and plentiful birdsfoot trefoil. Females will lay on this plant and males use it as the nectar source of choice. It is noticeably smaller than a common blue - broadly similar in size to little blue, though males may look bigger than little blue - and has a slightly urgent flight, different from the lazier flight of common and adonis blues, though nothing like as manic as long-tailed blues (which are readily identifiable at 50m!) and not as flappy as silver-studded blues.

Guy