Northern Specialties - Part 1
I'm spending this week visiting my in-laws near Consett, County Durham, and was lucky enough to spend all of yesterday out butterflying. Thanks to Iain Cowe's (IAC) expert advice (thanks Iain!), I set out to visit St. Abb's Head as well as a site further down the coast. My 2 targets were Northern Brown Argus and Grayling
ssp. scota.
A 5am start saw me at the first site by 7am, and butterflies were already very active. But I wasn't prepared for the first proper encounter - a pair of Grayling flew in front of me, landed, and proceeded with their amazing courtship display, right in front of my eyes! I've only seen this spectacle a few times before and felt very privileged to be witnessing this first hand once again (although the two didn't mate). The sequence of events is along the lines of:
1. The male and female land on the ground, the male behind the female.
2. The male moves around to the front of the female to face her head on.
3. An unreceptive female flutters her wings (shot 1 below) while a virgin female will remain still.
4. The male flicks his wings upward to reveal the orange patches found on the underside of the forewings.
5. The male flicks his wings open and shut for a short time before bowing to the female and slowly bringing his wings together, when the female's antennae are brought together over the sex brands found on the male's forewings (shot 2 below).
6. The male moves behind the female who is then mated.
- Courting Grayling (male on left, female on right)
- Courting Grayling (male on left, female on right) - the moment where the male bows and brings the female's antennae over his sex brands
Keeping on the Grayling theme - I was particularly interested in getting some shots of this subspecies (
ssp. scota) which is said to differ from the nominate subspecies as follows:
1. Slightly smaller size.
2. Upperside fulvous markings extensive but very pale, almost yellow.
3. Underside of the hindwings with extensive and very dark marbling, with the white transverse band variably expressed; Dennis (1977) states that this band is not lacking a white transverse band, as its formal definition suggests.
I can't say I noticed the smaller size, but the other characteristics definitely hold. A few shots below show the variability of the underside hindwing markings, the first where the white transverse band is pretty much absent.
- Grayling ssp. scota (male)
- Grayling ssp. scota (male)
- Grayling ssp. scota (female)
More to follow!
Cheers,
- Pete
The steep embankment above and below the road were extremely good for Grayling, and I saw half a dozen Dark Green Fritillary in the green area below the road.
Are you going for the Small and Large Heath Races as well?
Its a very small world indeed.
What really surprised me was that a few of the individuals whose uppersides I saw had the distinct white spots, supposedly reserved for ssp. artaxerxes. Given my previous sightings of some NBA ssp. artaxerxes with no white spots, I've come to the conclusion that the white spotting is a generalisation, and the presence or absence of these white spots is within the normal bounds of variation!
