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I found this roosting at Denbies today. Then the sun came out and it flew away. Earlier in the day I had seen Adonis but they were too flightly to photograph and prior to finding this chap I had found another roosting common blue. I had assumed this was a common blue until I got it home and looked at the wing margins on the computer. The black lines are there but don't go all the way through.

I'm out of practice and really am not sure if my initial ID of common blue is correct.

Can someone enlighten me please?

Thanks

I'll stick my neck out and say Common Blue, on the basis of the double fringe. Although the 'inner fringe' appears chequered, the 'outer' is plain white, which indicates Common to me. I think an Adonis would show more sign of the iridescence, too

I agree though that, at this stage of the season, we need to get our eye 'in'.

Mike

I'm confident this is a Common Blue.

Thanks, Mike and David.

It always amazes me just how rusty I am at the start of the season.

Yes, but it doesn't take much to get your eye back in.

I did a butterfly ID exam in March and only got one wrong. To my great embarrassment it was the underside of a peacock that caught me out, probably because i'd spent so much time revising the rarer species. Taught me a lesson anyway.