Tiny butterflies.!

[Jack Harrison]

On 31 July I wrote:

My captive Large White caterpillars are certainly not going to become tiny butterflies. ....... They are monsters but maybe that is because they are parasitised. I should find out in the next few days.

7th August all seven now healthy pupae.

Jack

[Allan.W.]

Amongst the pictures that I took on Sunday morning was this one,at first glance ,a male Chalkhill and a smallish Brown Argus ,but ,on closer inspection ,I see that it is actually a male Chalkhill and a very small Common Blue.
Regards Allan.W.

[dilettante]

This Very Small White was in my kitchen today

[Testudo Man]

Amongst the pictures that I took on Sunday morning was this one,at first glance ,a male Chalkhill and a smallish Brown Argus ,but ,on closer inspection ,I see that it is actually a male Chalkhill and a very small Common Blue.
Regards Allan.W.
P1330900.JPG

Hi Allan, great example of showing us a smaller than normal Common Blue, well done.

Yesterday, i visited Queensdown Warren in Kent. Ive decided that im seeing 3 different sizes of male Adonis Blues
The normal full size male, a smaller than normal size, then even smaller size males!!

3 example images from me(but the 1st male is from Darland Banks, Kent) although the other 2 males are from Queensdown Warren, Kent
Cheers Paul.

PS. I have no size comparisons(with other butterflies in the photo) so you will just have to take my word for it mate

Full size male Adonis.

Smaller size male Adonis.

Smallest size male Adonis.

[Allan.W.]

Thanks for the comments Paul ! That particular pic was a bit of a fluke (but I,ll take it !) ,since my original post I,ve now seen about eight species which have had some particularly small individuals ( including one male Adonis ) ,but it doe,s seem to be (for me anyway ) mainly Common Blues and Brown Args; a Common Blue that I saw at Dungeness was by far the smallest British Butterfly that I have ever seen ,much smaller than any Small Blue . Two seasons ago I found a Small Copper with a wingspan of no more than 15mm ,I took a pic but with nothing to give it scale ,it was just another Small Copper !
Superb Adonis undersides by the way Paul !
Regards Allan.W.

[Testudo Man]

Thanks for the comments Paul ! That particular pic was a bit of a fluke (but I,ll take it !) ,since my original post I,ve now seen about eight species which have had some particularly small individuals ( including one male Adonis ) ,but it doe,s seem to be (for me anyway ) mainly Common Blues and Brown Args; a Common Blue that I saw at Dungeness was by far the smallest British Butterfly that I have ever seen ,much smaller than any Small Blue . Two seasons ago I found a Small Copper with a wingspan of no more than 15mm ,I took a pic but with nothing to give it scale ,it was just another Small Copper !
Superb Adonis undersides by the way Paul !
Regards Allan.W.

As you say, in past years, im sure smaller than normal butterflies did occur in low numbers, an i think this year(because of our "heatwave") it has been highlighted with more numerous sightings of smaller than normal butterflies. I for one, have tried to seek out these smaller individuals this season, something that i havent done in the past.

Thanks for the comment in regards to my Adonis images Allan.

Speaking of smaller than normal sized butterflies, this last Saturday(25/8/18) i came across what appears to be a perfect fresh little female Chalk Hill Blue. It was early evening(after a 20 minute bout of rain) so all the butterflies were quite docile!

I dont have very large hands for a guy! so you can get a sense of the scale/size of her, with the butterfly perched on my finger tip!

A couple of images, both pics are not cropped. Cheers Paul.......EDIT, forgot to say, the location was at Queensdown Warren, Kent.

[Testudo Man]

Thanks for the comments Paul ! That particular pic was a bit of a fluke (but I,ll take it !) ,since my original post I,ve now seen about eight species which have had some particularly small individuals ( including one male Adonis ) ,but it doe,s seem to be (for me anyway ) mainly Common Blues and Brown Args; a Common Blue that I saw at Dungeness was by far the smallest British Butterfly that I have ever seen ,much smaller than any Small Blue . Two seasons ago I found a Small Copper with a wingspan of no more than 15mm ,I took a pic but with nothing to give it scale ,it was just another Small Copper !
Superb Adonis undersides by the way Paul !
Regards Allan.W.

As you say, in past years, im sure smaller than normal butterflies did occur in low numbers, an i think this year(because of our "heatwave") it has been highlighted with more numerous sightings of smaller than normal butterflies. I for one, have tried to seek out these smaller individuals this season, something that i havent done in the past.

Thanks for the comment in regards to my Adonis images Allan.

Speaking of smaller than normal sized butterflies, this last Saturday(25/8/18) i came across what appears to be a perfect fresh little female Chalk Hill Blue. It was early evening(after a 20 minute bout of rain) so all the butterflies were quite docile!

I dont have very large hands for a guy! so you can get a sense of the scale/size of her, with the butterfly perched on my finger tip!

A couple of images, both pics are not cropped. Cheers Paul.......EDIT, forgot to say, the location was at Queensdown Warren, Kent.

25th-August-2018-to-600a.jpg

25th-August-2018-to-600b.jpg

Given the time of the year/season...and the fresh condition of this small Female...could it be a female Adonis Blue? rather than a female Chalk Hill Blue?
I didnt see her with her wings open, so im not sure which species it is???
Does anyone want to educate me, in telling both said species apart, when wings are closed.
Cheers Paul.

[Allan.W.]

Hello Paul ,
As you know ,Chalkhill and Adonis(females ) are difficult to tell apart ,but for me your image shows an Adonis Blue ,in my part of Kent ,Chalkhills are way past their best ,and the ones I,ve seen in the past week or so are very tatty (males and females ),but I,m still finding freshly emerged female Adonis , I must admit I,ve a few shots that I,m just not sure about ! a little while back on one of the forums ,an idea (theory ) wasput forward for counting the the White rings on the Antennae ,I tried it and it does seem to work ,I think it was something like around 17-20 in Adonis ,and 24-27 rings
in Chalkhill ,it is an excellent theory ,and it did work with pictures I tried it with (try first with males !) your pictures are very sharp ,so you should be able to count easily.
Regards Allan.W.

[Goldie M]

Hi! Alan, I took a shot whilst at Temple Ewell of what I thought was an Adonis, others said Chalkhill female but I'm still not convinced.( I just wanted it to be an Adonis) BECAUSE I'D NOT GOT ONE FOR AGES Goldie

[Allan.W.]

Hello again Paul,
Take a look on the Identification forum (page 4 ) Adonis and Chalkhill blues by Acctivity …………………...Excellent !
Hello Goldie ,yes they are little devils to tell apart ,the females that is ,I visited TE/L a couple of times after yourself and never saw an Adonis
apart from one possible female (but plenty of SSS) ,I don,t think they were out when you were down ,the last visit I had early morning a while back
as I said ,I didn,t see any but I believe Essexbuzzard was there in the afternoon ,and he saw a few .
Have a look on the page above .
Regards Allan.W.

[Testudo Man]

Hello Paul ,
As you know ,Chalkhill and Adonis(females ) are difficult to tell apart ,but for me your image shows an Adonis Blue ,in my part of Kent ,Chalkhills are way past their best ,and the ones I,ve seen in the past week or so are very tatty (males and females ),but I,m still finding freshly emerged female Adonis , I must admit I,ve a few shots that I,m just not sure about ! a little while back on one of the forums ,an idea (theory ) wasput forward for counting the the White rings on the Antennae ,I tried it and it does seem to work ,I think it was something like around 17-20 in Adonis ,and 24-27 rings
in Chalkhill ,it is an excellent theory ,and it did work with pictures I tried it with (try first with males !) your pictures are very sharp ,so you should be able to count easily.
Regards Allan.W.

Cheers for that Allan.
I think thats why i questioned myself(when i quoted my own post) because although at 1st, i had thought female Chalk Hill Blue? this small female, is more likely to be an Adonis Blue. As youve suggested, Chalk Hills are way past their best now, but female Adonis Blues are still emerging.

I generally upload small files/images(which equate to approx 20% of the original size image). So, zooming in on the butterfly Antennae of my original image, im pretty sure i can count 22 rings!

It would be nice to think that one of the many small Adonis Blue males i have seen at this location, would pair up with this fresh small Adonis Blue female...but would she lay viable eggs?......Are these smaller than normal size butterflies, capable of mating/laying eggs that would be viable? who knows??
Cheers Paul.

[Jack Harrison]

First Painted Lady here near Nairn. I was watching Small Tortosieshells on a gravel path and there was another (so I thought) more distant.
No, it was a dark Painted Lady but only the size of a Small Tort.

Peacocks, Small Torts, Large, Small and GV Whites are all normal size. The Tortie numbers are building so clearly a second generation this year.

Jack

[Jack Harrison]

And now (30th) near Nairn, Peacock the size of a Small Tortoiseshell and a Small White hardly bigger than a Wood White.

The drought continues here. In the 12 months ended 31st August, my Davis weather station (reasonably accurate) recorded 590 mms rain, a total comparable with the southeast of England. But the micro-climate - low rain, high sunshine totals - was a factor in deciding to move here. In my last 12 months living on Isle of Mull, I recorded 2,600 mms. But don't let that put you off visiting the island. Lovely place (except sometimes for the rain). Indeed, we are having a week's' holiday there at the end of October.

Jack

[sonomoha]

wow! I was redirected to this topic after posted a request for ID because the butterflies were so shockingly tiny this year that I got confused
in particular, the female common blue were so so tiny. same for the brown argus and small copper.

Thanks to Allan W. for re-directing me to this quite informative thread in reply to my post

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9925

[CallumMac]

It occurred to me this morning that the profusion of tiny butterflies this summer may have had a lot more to do with the extreme lack of rainfall than the extreme high temperature. I have (quite by accident, I hasten to add!) reared in the lab a brood of three perfectly-formed Speckled Woods, each roughly the size of a Common Blue. I achieved this by forgetting to water their pot of grass in a dark corner of the breeding room! It appears to me that, having experienced a severe decline in the quality of their food (as the grass dried out), and presumably having also failed to locate any alternative food source (being in a breeding cage with no other pot of grass available), these three individuals elected to pupate early and at substantially smaller size than normal. One can imagine this also being the case for many of our species that would have been mature larvae during the driest part of late June and early July.

This may of course have been obvious all along to some of you!