![Image](https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8839/18009558521_b8d4521660_c.jpg)
Aberrant female common blue
Aberrant female common blue
This I think is an aberrant female common blue, could someone confirm this for me please.......Thank you for your help. I think I`ve put this in the wrong place sorry.
An aberrant female common blue? brasenose woods, Oxford. by poacher rtd, on Flickr
![Image](https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8839/18009558521_b8d4521660_c.jpg)
Re: Aberrant female common blue
That's quite an insect!
- Tony Moore
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Re: Aberrant female common blue
Lovely shot, especially with the yellow showing the antennae so perfectly...
Tony M.
Tony M.
Re: Aberrant female common blue
Hi Mike,
That's a fabulous female Common blue,you pictured there Mike, lovely shot, you may like to have a look on the Natural history museum website at the Cockayne collection which has several pages of Common blue abberations on show,a really useful website,unfortunately a lot of Common blue abs; are un-named.
regards Allan.W.
That's a fabulous female Common blue,you pictured there Mike, lovely shot, you may like to have a look on the Natural history museum website at the Cockayne collection which has several pages of Common blue abberations on show,a really useful website,unfortunately a lot of Common blue abs; are un-named.
regards Allan.W.
- Gruditch
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Re: Aberrant female common blue
I took this one a couple of hours ago. Unlike the surrounding area, these very blue females are common on this site.
Regards Gruditch
Regards Gruditch
Re: Aberrant female common blue
The double fringe confirms this as a Common Blue. I agree that this is an unusual specimen and I assume it is a female, although the abdomen is quite narrow. It is not that unusual for females to have plenty of blue scales on the upper wing surfaces but this one seems to have virtually no red around the spots.Mike p wrote:This I think is an aberrant female common blue, could someone confirm this for me please.......Thank you for your help. I think I`ve put this in the wrong place sorry.
I think it is a beautiful photo of an interesting specimen.
Gruditch's photo is the more usual type of 'blue' female but it's not clear where it was taken.
Mike
Re: Aberrant female common blue
What interests me with this one, Gary, are the silvery patches at the apex of each forewing.Gruditch wrote:I took this one a couple of hour ago.
I've never seen this before.
- Gruditch
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Re: Aberrant female common blue
apicta-thetis
I haven't the first clue with aberrations, probably as Mike says, just the usual very blue female we get here. Taken in Hampshire, on private land btw.
Regards Gruditch
![Question :?:](./images/smilies/icon_question.gif)
I haven't the first clue with aberrations, probably as Mike says, just the usual very blue female we get here. Taken in Hampshire, on private land btw.
Regards Gruditch
- Neil Freeman
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Re: Aberrant female common blue
Lovely photos of a couple of beautiful butterflies Mike and Gruditch
I took the photo of the female Common Blue below near Solihull last year and posted it in my diary at the time where it prompted a few comments. Like Mikes, as well as being very blue, it has reduced Orange around the hindwing spots. At the time I had never seen this before and Mikes example is still only the second one I have seen like this.
There did seem to be a lot of very blue females around last year which I remember quite a few people commented on.
Cheers,
Neil
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I took the photo of the female Common Blue below near Solihull last year and posted it in my diary at the time where it prompted a few comments. Like Mikes, as well as being very blue, it has reduced Orange around the hindwing spots. At the time I had never seen this before and Mikes example is still only the second one I have seen like this.
There did seem to be a lot of very blue females around last year which I remember quite a few people commented on.
Cheers,
Neil
- Tony Moore
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Re: Aberrant female common blue
Tony M.
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Re: Aberrant female common blue
Here's the bluest one I've ever seen, in the Alpes-Maritimes in May 2012.
--
Colin
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Colin
Re: Aberrant female common blue
This is the most extreme I've ever encountered:
Still, it's nothing like as extreme as those completely lacking the orange lunules.
Still, it's nothing like as extreme as those completely lacking the orange lunules.
Re: Aberrant female common blue
Since we're sharing, here's my bluest from back in 2007:
Some addictions are good for the soul!
Re: Aberrant female common blue
And to chip in as well: this one is from Harmondsworth Moor, near Heathrow. 11th May 2011.
DaveRe: Aberrant female common blue
Thank you everyone for your help, this year I`m seeing a number of very blue female common blues as well as the normal coloured ones, Once again thank you for your help.
- Gruditch
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Re: Aberrant female common blue
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/ ... xonID=8765
Does anyone think this could be my one
Regards Gruditch
Does anyone think this could be my one
![Question :?:](./images/smilies/icon_question.gif)
Regards Gruditch
Re: Aberrant female common blue
This is developing into an interesting thread! When I commented before, Gary, that your pic looked like the 'usual' blue female, I was only referring to the red lunules, which are conspicuously absent on Mike p's initial photo. I've been doing some reading since and most of my books say very little about aberrations in the Common Blue - mostly concerned with underside spots and streaks.Gruditch wrote:http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/ ... xonID=8765
Does anyone think this could be my one![]()
Yours certainly looks like the Cockayne specimen you found but I've not managed to find a full description of 'Apicta-thetis'. The trouble with Abs is that lots of people like to name them and then it turns out that several different names describe the same thing. Hopefully one of our 'real' experts will be along soon
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Mike
- Mark Colvin
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Re: Aberrant female common blue
Goodson and Read (1969), in their Aberrational and Subspecific Forms of British Lepidoptera, list at least 277 named aberrations of the Common Blue. The description for ab. apicta-thetis is as follows:
Good hunting.
Kind regards. Mark
Good hunting.
Kind regards. Mark
Re: Aberrant female common blue
It'll do for me.Gruditch wrote:http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/ ... xonID=8765
Does anyone think this could be my one![]()
Thanks for the attachment too, Mark.
Re: Aberrant female common blue
Not as extreme as some of the previous but I found her this afternoon:
who also had an interesting underside:
Some addictions are good for the soul!