www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Is this a Southern Small White? Photographed in Capri Italy August 2017.

I think not, even though there doesn’t seem to be a fork in v7 (it’s possible there is a tiny fork just visible). Do you have any other pictures - even bad ones you’re ashamed to post ?

My issues are (a) it just doesn’t look like southern small white, a butterfly that is common where I live and (b) the hindwing scaling is too sparse and irregular. But I’m not 100% on this one view alone.

Guy

Thanks for the info. I only have 3 other similar photos. Not sure if they are any clearer. Would it be an ordinary Small White or something else?
I'm not able to attach the other photos. The computer says no.

I'd be inclined toward mannii.

1) the fork (absence thereof)
2) the external edge of the unf cell spot is very flat - usually a strong pointer
3) the unh just doesn't look yellow enough for rapae

Hard to tell from one underside photo. Any view of the forewing upperside would be conclusive.

Roger

Call me stupid, but isn't it a Large White? (preparing to feel stupid )

It's a curious beast for sure!

What struck me was how white the legs are.

Kip wrote:Call me stupid, but isn't it a Large White? (preparing to feel stupid )

That's why I phrased my own reply in the negative, Kip! I couldn't be sure it wasn't a large white - I just felt pretty confident it wasn't southern small. But as Roger says, a single view can be very deceptive.

Guy

We'll call you Kip! What I'll call myself is another matter.

It's so easy to miss the obvious, especially when there is a choice of two very similar species. At least I was right that it wasn't rapae.

Roger (somewhere in the Vanoise with a car that overheats and won't go up mountain roads without a struggle - nearest Hyundai garage five days away)

It's the very round hind wing that made me think it might be a Southern Small White. Other photos on the web of SSW look similar to my photo.

When I saw the title of this post, I'm sure I wasn't the first to click on it to see if we had a new addition to the British list

Can't be long now!

Cheers,

- Pete

Pete Eeles wrote:When I saw the title of this post, I'm sure I wasn't the first to click on it to see if we had a new addition to the British list

Can't be long now!

Cheers,

- Pete

Don't say that Pete, I've only just finished my mission! (Having said that I was religiously checking every Small White I saw on my last visit into Sussex, there were a lot!)

Pete Eeles wrote:
Can't be long now!

Let's hope so....although 'Southern' Small White would be a bit of a misnomer were it to colonise the UK.