www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Popped onto Buxton Heath in Norfolk on the way home from the coast yesterday and saw what I think were Silver Studded Blues... Only trouble was that of those I saw (4 males and 1 female), none showed the blue spots on the hind underwing. Do SSBs commonly lose these scales after a few days I wonder? Even the best looking specimen (see attached) seemed devoid of the blue scales... maybe there's a suggestion of a couple on one spot, but it's debatable. Whaddaya reckon?

Trev

Oops, just noticed the thread title... Brain out of gear: Silver STUDDED Blues

Did you take any open-wing pics?

Looks like a worn Silver-studded Blue to me (based on my ID books!).

Cheers,

- Pete

Thanks Pete.. Yes, I was pretty sure they were, but was surprised that not one of them had the blue spots on the underwing. I will have to go there earlier next year to get a snap of a "mint" one.

PS: No, unfortunately I didn't get a photo with wings open. The little devils would not do this (they just did that "rubbing the wings together in a circular motion" thing that many small butterflies seem to do.

The size of blue dots is highly variable. See

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/image.ph ... (0342).jpg

For another example!

Cheers,

- Pete

Someone gave me advice to get them to open their wings, shade them from the sun, they either fly away or open their wings after a few moments.

However this seems to do the opposite with the blues, I discovered firing my flash a few times convinced one to open its wings up this weekend. (weather was overcast).

Dunno if it was a coincident or not!

That was probably me who gave that advice, and you're right, it works sometimes with some of the basking nymphalidae like commas, peacocks and gatekeepers but I haven't got it to work with the blues.

I don't know if this works with SWB, but I noticed that when a male chalkhill finds a female he will flutter around her for a bit, pause for breath as it were, and while pausing, display open-winged for a couple of seconds before fluttering around again. Insects have good colour vision so I guess it's a visual cue to the female. If you're quick you can grab the shot while he does it.

Or, wait for a cloudy but bright day. If they sense disturbance nearby they will close their wings as a defensive measure - less visible/easier to take off quickly? So you may need to wait for a minute or two once you've got in range if they're at rest. If they're feeding it's pot luck as they'll be hopping about.

Another (maybe obvious) point is that it's normally easier just to catch the critters early in the day, before they've properly warmed up.

This is certainly how I've managed to get some half-decent Chalkhill Blue photos recently. I got to the site (Stockbridge Down) at 0730 and, by 0830, everything was flying around in hyperactive mode!

Cheers,

- Pete