www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

This was on my local moorland site today... initially I thought battered/ damaged... but I think the extra spots are scaled accordingly... anyone seen one like it. ??




hmmm.... not so sure now

I never have, Paul.

Guy

Neither have I and could be a new ab. since I can't find this in any references I have. The closest is ab. bipunctanta (Tutt) - "Two white spots on the underside of the hindwings, one at the costa, the other towards the centre" ... although yours has the row of white spots too!

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote:Neither have I and could be a new ab.

Or a scale defect.

Yeah. I suppose scale defect most likely... that's why I was having second thoughts.... interesting tho' ent it

You didn't see the other side, did you?

Guy

you KNOW I didn't, don't you...

.. and the reason I posted it was 'cos I thought the blown up pic seemed to show scales

Paul wrote: I thought the blown up pic seemed to show scales

As indeed it does...

so the next question is... does that matter , or are the scales defective... sorry genuine ignorance here of what scale defect constitutes. I may soon appear to be a pedant

Soon??!

Scales can be 'defective' if, for some unknown reason, the processes by which the scales form and/or become pigmented are disrupted, disturbed, interrupted or corrupted. This could (for example) be due to physical damage to the larva or pupa, or a pathological condition from which the insect emerges alive, if not unscathed. Such defects can be symmetrical depending upon the nature of the cause.

Felix.

felix wrote:Scales can be 'defective' if, for some unknown reason, the processes through which the scales form and/or become pigmented are disrupted, disturbed, interrupted or corrupted.

Then why do you not refer to [southwater woods]environmentally induced aberrations[/southwater woods] as 'scale defects'? is it just your frantic semantics?

Well, jolly good question Felix, however these aberrations almost always involve a predictable reduction, expansion or otherwise mutation of existing markings, rather than new apparently random markings appearing like so much rubeola on the insects wings.

Felix.

Yep, I see