www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Hi everyone,

Is it just me or does the Blue on the 29th May here look very strange - http://www.hantsiow-butterflies.org.uk/sightings.htm. I'm very happy to be told I'm wrong here, it may just be that I haven't seen a Chalkhill for so long, and the colour is certainly very close to this species, but something seems a bit odd. The lack of a chequered fringe is a bit strange, as are the dark markings, and the wing shape seems closer to one of the smaller blues to me. I may well have got this bit wrong, but I was wondering whether this could be a female butterfly due to the abdomen shape (and the dark spots in centre of the forewing, although I know Chalkhill Blue is a very variable species!). I'm struggling to think of other suggestions as to what this butterfly could be, maybe an extremely weird female Common Blue?

Guy (standing by to be told that this is a standard Chalkhill Blue )

Looks like a fairly regulation male to me, though there could perhaps normally be more of a dark fringe to the hindwings.

Shoot me down on this, but my feeling is also a very blue female Common Blue. There is (especially if you blow the picture up a bit) just a hint of orange spots inside some of the black spots on the forewings. The abdomen looks more female than male and the fringes lack the characteristic chequering a Chalkhill would have. I think the colour may be misleading, as on my screen at least, it looks nothing like either blue.

Dave

I'm with Guy on this one. I think that is a very weird chalkhill blue and my inclination, before I even read Guy's comments, was that it was most likely a female common blue.

Please don't take that with any authority at all - I'm a bit perplexed by the butterfly to be honest. But it just doesn't look like right. I think the thing that worries me most is the wing shape - male chalkhill blues have pointy wings. The abdomen certainly looks like a virgin or newly mated female rather than a male, though the angle could distort this (a male chalkhill blue's abdomen normally reaches to the anal angle of the hindwing, when not bent down). The lack of any chequering in the fringe would be telling on its own, but even worse is the fact it does have faint half-chequering, something characteristic of common blue.

Fresh blue female common blues have very furry bodies, like this one, so I don't think the fur indicates a male.

So the Swiss vote, with no confidence at all, is for an extreme aberrant female common blue.

Guy

EDIT - and with Dave - I type more slowly than him!

Maybe it will help to have the picture directly in this thread - apologies to the photographer - I'll remove it if this is objected to:



Guy

I agree - an absolutely cracking aberration of a female Common Blue!

Cheers,

- Pete

Sometimes gut feeling is right, then!!

Here's a concrete detail to consider. Every picture of female common blue on this site shows a two-tone fringe, with a slightly greyer or browner inner half and a paler, whiter, outer half. Every picture of male chalkhill blue shows a pure white fringe (crossed with black, obviously, but that can be very minimal).

This individual shows a two-tone fringe, perfect for female common blue.

Guy

Hi All,

Happy to go with the concensus (although rather dissapointed I must admit!) but I wish i had managed to get a shot of the underside as it had no hint whatsoever of orange and was very much like a male Chalkhill. I managed to get three almost identical shots before it disspaeared through a fence and I lost it.

Pippa

Pippa wrote:although rather dissapointed I must admit!

But you can get a Chalkhill any year. Getting an aberration this extreme is a REALLY rare event!!! If you could post this in this folder I'd appreciate it!:

gallery/album.php?album_id=305

Cheers,

- Pete

Some similar abs. in the NHM Cockayne database:

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/research-cur ... ame=icarus

Cheers,

- Pete

That's SO extreme, I simply cannot believe it.

Pete,

Have added the photo to the group you sent the link for. I wish i had got a better shot but the cloud and wind (and my haste in all the excitement) meant it was rather a poor capture!

Pippa

Pippa wrote:Pete,

Have added the photo to the group you sent the link for. I wish i had got a better shot but the cloud and wind (and my hast in all the excitement) meant it was rather a poor capture!

Pippa

Thanks Pippa - looks fine to me

Cheers,

- Pete

You're right, David (M), she's a fantastic creature! And I agree with Pete that I'd gladly trade in a freak early sighting of a lonely chalkhill blue for this very rare, happy, healthy, girl!

Guy

Congratulations Pippa - a stunningly beautiful and very rare 'ab'. You might see more than 50,000 Chalkhill Blues in a lifetime, but I doubt you'll see more than one Common Blue like that.
Neil

Thank you everyone, I definitely feel very honoured to have seen her - and I'm tempted to go back to the same spot tomorrow (weather permitting) to see if she's there again. Do Common Blues stay within a relatively small area or are they roamers?

Pippa

I took this sometime back with ID of ab.latimargo-nigromaculata ( c/o Felix I think).... I think they may be similar but the latest one is SO extreme.. absolutely stunning... if so then male.... but could it be an Eros??? - err maybe not!!

padfield wrote:You're right, David (M), she's a fantastic creature! And I agree with Pete that I'd gladly trade in a freak early sighting of a lonely chalkhill blue for this very rare, happy, healthy, girl!

Guy

It's almost like it's trying to take on another's identity deliberately! Even now, apart from the abdomen (and the fact that late May is preposterously early for British Chalkhill Blues) I just don't see female Common Blue. I'd have been more influenced by suggestions that it was a hybrid.

I recall SussexKipper found a Chakhill/Adonis hybrid last year , is a Chakhill/Common Blue hybrid possible ?