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We are all used to seeing wings with bits missing and I for one had assumed much of the damage comes from contact with vegetation (Yes, some species like Swallowtails have their "tails" attacked by birds)

This picture, although not showing damage YET, indicates how a casual perch could easily result in wing damage. Look at the left fore wing.

Jack

Hi Jack,
You, and others, have I'm sure noticed the very characteristic wing damage suffered by many Brown Hairstreak. It was only last year that I suddenly 'twigged' why this is! The females have a habit of landing on blackthorn, then slowly reversing down the branch, probing for suitable laying spots with their abdomen. Of course their wings will regularly encounter spines, which have a rounded cross-section, and hence those 'half moon' nicks soon appear along the margins.
Neil

That's a very interesting observation Neil. But I have to disagree when you say:

You, and others, have I'm sure noticed the very characteristic wing damage suffered by many Brown Hairstreak

I can count on two hands the total number of Brown Hairstreaks I have ever seen, so certainly not watched enough of them to notice any characteristic damage.

Jack

I'd seen it but never noticed it, Neil! Very good observation.

This one (September 2007) looks as though she might have nestled down deep in quite a few spiny bushes:



Guy

Saw this (looks newly hatched) speckled wood today, it was wet and it looked like its wings could be easily damaed due to it flying in amongst wet grass and rain etc...

Here on grass:



Here it is when it landed on my boot:

I have seen similar deformities with captive bred butterflies (not in fact Speckled Wood) where they didn't have the space to expand their wings properly.

Jack

Hi Jack, Guy,
Sometimes it's too easy to forget that just because I happen to live in an area that's good for a particular species, it might be rare on another person's 'patch'! Conversely, we don't get many Scotch Argus in sunny Sussex! But there are enough around here for me to see them with some regularity, given that patience is required (it's an exceptionally lazy butterfly in my opinion!). I have seen individual females with up to three of these 'half moons', symetrically placed on both wing margins.
Neil

I of course used to live in West Sussex not a million miles from where you are Neil. But I could NEVER guarantee to find Brown Hairstreak; it always seemed a matter of pot luck if I came across one. I guess my field skills are lacking. I am equally useless with WL Hairstreak although I do recall some 35 years ago (!) before Dutch Elm Disease really took hold that I could find them in North Wiltshire simply by looking for wayside elms than had flowering bramble nearby. I don't seem to be able to do that nowadays. However, with better weather, Thursday, I am going to do a search today for WLH here in Cambridgeshire.

Jack