Golden Gatekeeper

[millerd]

An often overlooked and unappreciated little thing, the Gatekeeper. However, when one appears that is the wrong colour, it does stand out. I posted this one the other day on the sightings thread, but now wonder if it is a known variety or just within normal variation. It is certainly not a worn individual - in fact (though the photo does not show this) the pale colouring had a sight lustre to it. Any ideas?

Dave

[Wurzel]

I had a quick look on the Cockayne collection and there were 2 possibilities from there - mincki and subalbida but both had more clearly defined margins than your specimen. There are four other possibilities - heat shock like Small Tortoiseshells, rain damage, totally new aberration ...or much more likely somebody far more knowledgable than me will identify it!

Hope I've been of some help -perhaps it will get the ball rolling - cos it's a little cracker of a butterfly!
Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Thank you for that - a range of possibilities!

Any other ideas? I may just have to file it in the curiosities folder for the time being.

Dave

[MikeOxon]

I've had a lookin Emmet/Heath vol.7 pt.1 They list colour modifications as follows:

brown colour replaced by silvery grey = ab albinotica
fulvous patches replaced by white = ab albidus
" " by yellowish white = ab subalbida
" " by yellow = ab minki
" suffused with fuscous scales = ab obscurior

the book also notes that these changes may affect both wings or just fore- or hind- wing.

There's an illustration of minki, which looks much more lemon-yellow than yours. It looks as though you might have one of the light-colour versions, with a bit of obscurior thrown in!

Mike

[millerd]

Thanks, Mike - missed this post earlier. Sounds as if there's a lot of variation possible between the extremes.

Dave

[David M]

I saw one like this last year:

download/file.php?id=7611&mode=view