www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Seen today myself and BryanH today at Straights Inclosure, Alice Holt.











Martin.

Wow, I bet that had you guessing for a while.

Gruditch

I think it would have done, Gruditch!

Fortunately an old hand was among the six of us who gathered round this specimen.

It was good to have bumped into Mike Young. Mike, the 'black' admiral posed plenty more after you left us!

Does anyone know the scientific name for this aberrent form?

Bryan

Just my luck Bryan ! I did get one shot for the record though



Was very nice to meet Martin and yourself this morning

That is a butterfly with a definate wow factor - well done!
Roger Harding

The pure black form is ab. nigrina Weymer, 1884. Other forms, with more or less white on, have other names. Yours looks pretty good for ab. obliterae. I've never seen any of them and it gives me a real thrill to look at these pictures!

A useful site for forms and aberrations is the Cockayne site. You will find white admiral here:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/research-cur ... ES=camilla

Guy

I think that's nailed it, Guy!

Mind you, however useful those Cockayne illustrations are, it's another argument for having 'real' images on the species pages

Bryan

Anyone visiting Fermyn Woods should keep an eye out for ab. obliterae which are regularly seen there. This pic was taken two years ago. (I may have posted it at that time - if so, apologies!)

Alex

Yes, Fermyn Woods is where the 'abberant' photo I took (in the main section about White Admirals) was taken... and there was at least one other specimen on the wing there at the same time. I think Pete told me this form may be caused by temperature fluctuations during the pupal stage. With the weird summer we have had so far, there may be a few more about this season.

Trev