Small Copper, 6 Spot Burnet or Adonis Blue

Dave McCormick · Post by **Dave McCormick** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:29 am

I live in Northern Ireland and just wanting to know where the best place would be to find:
Small Coppers
6 Spot Burnet
Adonis Blue

In the Co Down Strangford, North Down round those area would be? Whats the best time of year to find them?

I thought I saw 6 spot burnets one year before and they where around the same area as Adonis Blues.

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:56 pm

Five and six spot burnet moths are relatively common where I live and seem to frequent anywhere there is mixed uncultivated grassland. Look for pupation sacs on grass stems and for adults on knapweed and scabious flowers in June and July as they love them for nectar.
Small copper larvae feed on dock I believe, so look for those plants, again in unimproved scrub and grass. There can be up to three broods, one around May, and others in late July and August/September. They seem to like small yellow daisies for nectar and I've seen my best concentrations of adults among such flowers in early September in Wiltshire. I don't know whether your more northerly latitude would accommodate this late emergence.
Adonis blue emerge in late May/early June, then again in August. Larvae feed on horseshoe vetch which is a flower of chalk down. There isn't much chalk in Northern Ireland, and even less in the Irish republic, although looking here: http://www.geographyinaction.co.uk/Geol ... index.html
there appears to be a small hotspot north and east of Belfast near the coast so I would maybe look around there for grassland with the foodplant. If chalhill blue is found anywhere in early August then look in the same place a couple of weeks later for adonis blue.

Post by **Pete Eeles** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:10 pm

Hi Dave,

I'm afraid Adonis Blue aren't resident in Northern Ireland. See

http://www.bcni.org.uk/main.asp?page=Butterflies.ASP

Cheers,

- Pete

Dave McCormick · Post by **Dave McCormick** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:26 pm

I could have swore I thought I saw some Adonis Blues around. What kinda blues do N.I. get? MAnyebe it was a common blue I saw?

Post by **Pete Eeles** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:47 pm

The links says "Small Blue", "Common Blue" and "Holly Blue".

So probably a Common Blue.

Cheers,

- Pete

Matsukaze · Post by **Matsukaze** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:52 pm

The Adonis Blue's foodplant, Horseshoe Vetch, does not occur in Ireland.

The butterfly is not necessarily restricted to chalk, as it used to breed widely on the limestone in Somerset and Gloucestershire.

I have wondered if these lime-loving butterflies would take to living in the southern Peak District, if only they could get that far north.