www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

My Personal Diary - Insects I find mostly around Belfast, NI and also in my family's meadow beside Strangford.

The Field - 27th of May 2020

Today I spotted 2 marshies in the field and managed to get a fairly good close up of one. I have no idea where they came from but hopefully by planting lots of Devil's Bit I can create habitat for a colony to form from whatever local site these ones came from. I saw around 7 or 8 Small Heaths, which is encouraging as the numbers continue to increase year on year.

I think it may be mostly too early for Small Coppers but I did see this one individual and managed to get stung while photographing it: The Small Coppers are always a lovely sight and a fair few in our wee colony are abb. caeruleopunctata which are very pretty.

Another nice find was this Cinnabar moth: Unfortunately the ragwort in the field has mostly disappeared this year but it's good to know there are still some Cinnabars about, even if they're in low numbers. I think the ragwort should recover if next year is wetter.

Welcome Iacobn and a great way to start Is that a separate race of Marsh Frit in that part of Ireland?

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Greetings, Iacobn. Nice to see Northern Ireland represented on here again. We used to have a regular poster from that part of the British Isles (Dave McCormick) but he hasn't been active for a while.

Some interesting races in Ireland which are always welcome to see and you've started your PD with probably the second most iconic NI species, after Cryptic Wood White.

Yes Wurzel we have subsp. hibernica but I can't personally tell them apart. It seems to be extremely variable, just like the English subspecies.

Funnily enough just this week I found Cryptic Wood Whites in our field, which is a new site for them and I believe also a new 10km grid square! They're likely breeding as I've seen at least 3 and we have plenty of Lotus.

I also saw them at another site exhibiting mating behaviour, although I saw three pairs and the females rejected the male every time so I think they had already paired. I posted a video on youtube here: https://youtu.be/N_0K4bzqarA

Brilliant stuff Iacobn This species is probably going to be my last UK 'tick' so for now I'll just enjoy your shots

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Great to see this species on here, IacobnDG. Feel free to post as many images you like of this one!

I visited Darragh Island, managed by the National Trust, yesterday. Kayaking out is always a joy. There were plenty of Common Blues and Zygaena lonicerae and I saw one DG Fritillary, but it was far too fast to photograph. This is a new site for this species and the first record within around 10km of here for a very very long time. I plan to return to collect seeds of some of the plants like Devil's Bit Scabious (I'm building quite the collection of this from various localities around Ireland) and to see if I can find DG Frit caterpillars as hopefully the number of these will give a better indication of the status of this species on the island.

I saw this poor caterpillar being eaten by an Araneid today. Maybe a Cryptic Wood White as they are abundant at this site.

Interesting to read a report from somewhere really different in the UK IacobnDG Are those Common Blues the same race/subspecies as in Britain or are they 'mariscolore'?

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

IacobnDG wrote: ↑Sat Jun 20, 2020 4:03 pm...Maybe a Cryptic Wood White as they are abundant at this site...

We inhabitants of Britain can only look on in envy and yearn.....

Wurzel wrote: ↑Sun Jun 21, 2020 5:18 pm ...Are those Common Blues the same race/subspecies as in Britain or are they 'mariscolore'?...

It's hard to say. Certainly the females here are on average more blue but there are plenty that are indistinguishable to my eye at least from British specimens. The completely blue females which I tend to call var. ceronus (like in P. bellargus) are not the typical form at any site I've visited, but do seem to be present in most places. There are sites I've read about where they are the dominant form so maybe the name maricolore should be reserved for these populations? In all honesty I am not sure and I have read a paper which suggests that blue suffusion in the females is at least partly caused by environmental rather than genetic factors (Kertész, K., Piszter, G., Horváth, Z.E. et al. Changes in structural and pigmentary colours in response to cold stress in Polyommatus icarus butterflies. Sci Rep 7, 1118 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01273-7).

Cheers for that link IacobnDG - an interesting read tha

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Speaking of mariscolore, I believe this is arguably one. In the field today. Lots of males about and 1 or 2 females but they're difficult to spot. I have found what I'd call mariscolore var. ceronus at this site several years ago as well - see below.

What a pair of beauties, Jake. Those hindwing lunules are stunning.

They're great, aren't they? We're lucky to have such a great site in out field.

I visited Ballyhornan Coastal Path today. This is a lovely site which I had never been to before, and I discovered it as there are several records for Hemaris tityus from here (it seems I was too late today to see these). I was rewarded with a huge number of Common Blue (including some strong mariscolore females) and Meadow Browns. There were lots of rare plants here too, with thousands of Scilla verna seedheads and also Jasione montana which is locally scarce. Another unusual plant which was abundant was the white form of Centaurium erythraea. I also saw some Rose Chafers which is a first for me. Lastly I saw this large ichneumonid (or braconid?) which I thought was very pretty. I'm excited already to return next year and try to find Hemaris and later this year maybe the Wall Browns and Graylings (both locally very rare).

Back on the subject of mariscolore, I have just realised that British Common Blue females have highly reduced orange lunules, whereas in our females these are bright and have a much more well-defined boundary. Contrast this with the normally touted distinction with greater coverage of blue scales in mariscolore (while this is true on average there is no way of telling the two apart as any given specimen will be well within the range of either subspecies). Somehow I had never noticed this before but I am pleased with this as I can now be a lot more sure in my identification. To think there was a time when I wasn't convinced it deserved subspecific status!