Silver Washed Fritillary and green beetle on Greater Burdock Butterflies are solar-powered. So they must seize the moment, and so must we. The track through the wood is puddled after overnight rain and the morning is humid. Sunlight pours down through the canopy to spot-light fading bramble flowers. Hemp Agrimony and Greater Burdock have fresh flowers which attract butterflies, hoverflies and beetles. Whites are on the wing, Green-veined white most abundant. Ringlet, Speckled Wood and Meadow Brown are in flight. The weather is unsettled and frogs and toads are abroad.
This is peak-flight time for Silver Washed Fritillary, the second brood of Holly Blue, and Dark Green Fritillary. My photographic archive confirms the time is right, this is the place and I know this woodland well.
By mid-day the sun is lost in a cloudy haze. We return along the track where butterflies were in flight but all is quiet. Not only butterflies but other insects are vanished too. I do not find Dark Green Fritillary. Seize the day. I'm watching the weather and thunderstorms and heavy rain are in the forecast for tomorrow Friday, for the week-end, and into the following week. Once hatched, butterflies must feed, mate, survive predation. Rain makes this impossible so their success is precarious.
By mid-day the sun is lost in a cloudy haze. We return along the track where butterflies were in flight but all is quiet. Not only butterflies but other insects are vanished too. I do not find Dark Green Fritillary. Seize the day. I'm watching the weather and thunderstorms and heavy rain are in the forecast for tomorrow Friday, for the week-end, and into the following week. Once hatched, butterflies must feed, mate, survive predation. Rain makes this impossible so their success is precarious.
A flash of blue amongst the green and here's a Holly Blue. An exquisite little butterfly settles on a bracken frond, and lingers.
The Holly and the Ivy Blue, I don't think this name would catch on but it tells more about the butterfly.
The first brood emerges in early spring with holly leaves and buds the food-plant of its caterpillars. I've rarely seen first brood Holly Blue, perhaps because it tends to fly high about bushes and trees and distribution maps show that has been far more common south of Cumbria. Ivy is the food plant for caterpillars of the second brood, on the wing from July to September. Today, I see a single Holly Blue, perhaps two. The female has a black wing-edge, visible as the butterfly opens its wings.
The Holly and the Ivy Blue, I don't think this name would catch on but it tells more about the butterfly.
The first brood emerges in early spring with holly leaves and buds the food-plant of its caterpillars. I've rarely seen first brood Holly Blue, perhaps because it tends to fly high about bushes and trees and distribution maps show that has been far more common south of Cumbria. Ivy is the food plant for caterpillars of the second brood, on the wing from July to September. Today, I see a single Holly Blue, perhaps two. The female has a black wing-edge, visible as the butterfly opens its wings.
Silver Washed Fritillary is a strong flier and often there's only a glimpse of rapid swooping flight. The rich colour of this sylvan butterfly shows dramatically against the shadows of the woodland fringe, here in its element as the female lays her eggs beneath slivers of tree-bark and the caterpillars crawl down the tree trunk seeking their food-plant, the dog violet, at the base of the tree. Habitat management seeks to ensure that dog violets thrive amongst the bracken.
Silver Washed Fritillary is named for the silvery appearance of the underwing. My photographic archive includes images of SWF underwing, often translucent and self-shadowed so the silvery sheen isn't easy to see. The quest goes on- there's always something more to discover.
Each scale of a butterfly wing has a unique pigment and is ridged with two plates to catch and reflect sunlight at different angles, creating iridescence.
The two SIlver Washed Fritillary of the morning are nectaring on Greater Burdock, Arctium lappa, with hooked seed-heads - a strategy of seed-dispersal. Its sticky buds give it a range of folk names: sticklebacks, sticky Jack, sticky bobs and it's sometimes known as the velcro plant. Today, its flowers attract Silver Washed Fritillary and Green Veined Whites, with beetles and hoverflies.
Each scale of a butterfly wing has a unique pigment and is ridged with two plates to catch and reflect sunlight at different angles, creating iridescence.
The two SIlver Washed Fritillary of the morning are nectaring on Greater Burdock, Arctium lappa, with hooked seed-heads - a strategy of seed-dispersal. Its sticky buds give it a range of folk names: sticklebacks, sticky Jack, sticky bobs and it's sometimes known as the velcro plant. Today, its flowers attract Silver Washed Fritillary and Green Veined Whites, with beetles and hoverflies.
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