www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

This is now the third time I've recorded this aberration at the same site in N. Yorkshire, having previously seen it in 2021 and 2023. This one was particularly stunning!

Crikey, that's a spectacular looking Duke. It must be a genetic mutation...or there's something strange in the water!

What a fantastic butterfly - and fantastic shots too. In that last one, you can see his dangly front legs. I've never seen those before in a Duke - the males just look as if they have four legs.

Guy

Padfield wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2024 7:15 pm What a fantastic butterfly - and fantastic shots too. In that last one, you can see his dangly front legs. I've never seen those before in a Duke - the males just look as if they have four legs.

Guy

Cheers Guy!
I think it's also the first time I've seen those vestigial legs so prominently on a male.

That really is an epic underside aberration in that species, Dave.

David M wrote: ↑Sat May 11, 2024 8:13 pm That really is an epic underside aberration in that species, Dave.

It certainly is! I feel incredibly lucky to have seen this not once, but three times!

What an absolute stunner Dave! Superb, and very bizarre that the same aberration has occurred several times in different years - as Bugboy says you have to think that it might be genetic rather than environmentally induced. Fabulous!

Interesting and beautiful find - congratulations

As it's from Yorkshire, the ab should be called [Theakston] Old Peculier.

Jack

Jack Harrison wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2024 3:46 pm As it's from Yorkshire, the ab should be called [Theakston] Old Peculier.

Jack

As a fan of Old Peculier, I'll drink to that!