www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

How come the gatekeepers in my garden vary in size such a lot?
My book says they vary in size from 40-47mm. I have lots of weeny ones and yet I also have some that are the size of a decent sized meadow brown.
For a "meadowland" butterfly they certainly seem to enjoy hanging around the top of my old pear tree too.

Without catching one of the big ones up and measuring it it's difficult to really find out the correct size though.

Hmm, thinking on what you said, I have noticed this in some meadow browns too. I know the smaller ones are males, but some I have seen look somaller than usual. If a caterpillar does not get enough food before it pupates, this can cause smaller adults, or if tey eat too much, this causes larger than usual adults. All I know

I hadn't thought of the food supply but it might well explain what is going on.

Today I went down to Botany Bay, and a small brown butterfly with spots caught my eye, really tiny about the size of a skipper but dark brown....After climbing through a ditch and into the wood I found it was ....A tiny little speckled wood. Unfortunately it flew off before I could get a photo, but it was so teensy, it must have positively starved as a caterpillar!

Talking of Meadow browns I put a post up on the ident page of a pale one in my garden, do you think it is faded or do they really vary in colour that much? I have another that is also very pale on the fore wings but in better condition.