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Hi had a great day out on Saturday and have never seen so many Adonis Blues along with freshly emerged Common Blues, Small Blues, Dingy Skippers and Brow Argus I have uploaded a selection here maybe to many but there were so many stunning Butterflies I wanted to do them justice. What was evident with the Female Adonis is the amount of colour variation which make them a really stunning butterfly.

Enjoy

Andy
From These 3 pictures you can see the amazing colour range of the Female Adonis Blue "Stunning" Still Never work out why They called this Dingy This one had a rather light Forewing didn't look to have been caused through damage though This one had a funny marks on its forewings looks like a water stain, any thoughts One for the moth'ers amongst us On the way home popped into Bentley wood which was very busy and managed a few snaps

I certainly am enjoying them Andy. You're Adonis are way better than mine. I see you had another early start but clearly worth it - I love the Small Blue surrounded by the dew droplets.

Some Moths from last nights catch and had a wander around Magdalene Hill for a couple of hours, most prolific was Small white well distributed over the site, a dozen fresh Common Blues and 6ish Large Skippers and my first Meadow Brown of the year. Found a few Mullein Larvae at various instars and plenty of Small Tort Larvae and day flying moths

Cheers

Andy

Adonis pair on orchid and newly emerged Adonis - what brilliant finds and brilliant photos!

Excellent shots Andy. You kept the emerging Adonis quiet!

Had a look at old Winchester hill and beacon hill this morning. Not much at either really. Chalton down had several common blues but they were hyper at 9:30.

I spotted some caterpillars on a plant in the garden yesterday and you have answered what they are now. First instar mullion moths my orange tip caterpillar count us 4 now.

Very natural looking images Andy, just as they should be!!! Also a nice selection of moths to enjoy

Bill

"When in doubt...venture out"

Hi Andy

It was good to meet you at the weekend, good luck with your Sallow.

Looks your Saturday morning early start paid off Looks like a fantastic site, I have added it to my list of places to visit. I particularly like your emergent Adonis Blue and the range of females. Was your Moth catch in the garden or elsewhere? some superb camouflage amongst them

Hi Paul, pleasure to meet you and thanks again for the Sallows, glad you like the pictures and yes the moths were caght in the garden using my 22watt atanic.

Thanks

Here is my latest eclectic mix quite a few as had no computer and been on hols, hope you enjoy, next post will have more butterflies as I am of to the Pyrenees on Wednesday for a weeks butterfly and moth hunting. Probably my fault that Pauline is becoming bit of a moth'er and really impressed with the pictures of the Puss moth and Eyed hawk she got yesterday when we were out and glad I was able to show her one of the larvae that she was wanting to see

Thanks

Andy

Superb Andy - very nice! The Eyed Hawk larva might be parasitised given the dark spots, and I reckon your first Small Skipper is actually a male Essex, based on the sex brand (and antennae, to a degree) ...

Cheers,

- Pete

Thanks Pete always grateful for the info and having correct ID's and interesting on Eyed hawk moth will keep an eye on in as we walk the dog there every day but looks ready for pupations due to it's size.

Ta

Andy

Good to see you got the high browns. Will have to compare them to my Niobe/high brown frits to see if I can work out what I found in Switzerland!

Waiting for the plane to take me away from this butterfly Paradise

I think you will have an excellent time in the Pyrenees! I am already planning my next mountain butterfly holiday!

Here is a selection of Butterflies, Moths and Larvae from July.
What a Stunning Larvae; the moth is nice but cannot live up to the larval stage
Found a number of these very locally but still never had one in the moth trap
Will add more tomorrow few from Old Winchester hill today then will start to post the pics from my trip to the Pyrenees later tomorrow.

Enjoy

Andy

Took a trip to Old Winchester Hill Yesterday morning with "FISHiEE" crack of sparrows as usual and very wet from the previous nights rain loads of blues around although no Adonis, unfortunately it was a bit windy but got a few nice pics none the less and also nice to see a few Striped Lychnis Larvae.
Lots of aberrant chalk-hill blues around still just wished I had got some pictures when in better condition Cheers

Andy

Fabulous set of photos - I particularly like the first common blue.

Hi Andy,

Some great photos in your diary, great to see some of the moths and larvae, particularly the Hawk Moths. Brings back memories of looking for those when I was a nipper back in the 1970s.

Cheers,

Neil.

Hi,

Here is the start of my pics from a recent trip with Naturetrek to the Spanish Pyrenees in July the weather great a tad warm though and unfortunately quite windy, food excellent with nice wine in support while staying at Casa Sarasa on the bottom slope of Berdun.

Location lovely and generally sites chosen by the guides came up trumps even found a number of Swallowtail Larvae in our hosts garden along with a number of butterflies. Apologies for the quality of some of the pics because as I said it was quite windy, butterflies were always very active due to the time of day searching and to top it all my macro lens started to come apart, although it could be that I am just rubbish photographer.

I have hopefully identified them correctly however I am asking for help/confirmation with some and if you think I have got it wrong please shout.

We were at altitudes up to 2000m and there was still pockets of snow around, as this was the first trip I had been on I could not get over the quantity of butterfly species that were present on roadside verges unlike here in the UK.
Lots of Pictures so will generally post the am then pm so it will give those of you interested time to review my identifications and comment accordingly

Hope you enjoy

Cheers

Andy

Day 1 - This is the morning batch

The first 10 were found in the garden of the accommodation.
Comments appreciated so feel free, will post the afternoons selection tomorrow evening if I have time

Cracking reports and shots Andy Though I am probably most envious of the Peppered Moth - which for me is the stuff of evolutionary legend

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Hi Andy. Happy memories - I have spent many happy holidays camping in the Spanish Pyrenees.

Your 'large skipper' is a female Lulworth skipper. Apart from that, I agree with your IDs. The common blue does have a lot of escheri about it and I would love to see an underside - but I think it probably is icarus. As for the first female Plebejus - that is harder. The undersides of idas and argus are both very variable and I've never been convinced by stories about how pointy the black crescents are. She does look very different from the female you show lower down (argus), which suggests she might be idas, but I would hesitate to call that one.

Did you get up to any of the endemic Erebia species, like lefebvrei, gorgone or sthennyo?

Guy

Some smashing shots there Andy but I love the dew/rain shots - really worth getting up early for ...and yes, we must catch up sometime soon.