Brimstone diaphanous in sunlight 26 July 2021 Sunlight beams down through cloud and illuminates a woodland glade and all the butterflies seeking nectar from flowers. Delicate feet are poised amongst florets of hemp agrimony and a proboscis curves down deep to sip nectar. Intent on feeding. the butterfly is vulnerable to predation. Diaphanous in sunlight, the brimstone resembles a leaf, in the shape of its wings and the delicate green of the female underwing. A cryptic colouring and shape enables the brimstone to blend into its surroundings.
With open wings the comma shows bright and rich colouring. Wings closed, that scalloped edge looks jagged and confusing, the dark underwings seem to have a white eye with a sinister stare. It's the dazzle-ship strategy, baffle and confuse with bizarre pattern. What on earth is this?
Late afternoon sunlight saw many butterflies nectaring on hemp agrimony. Wings closed, peacock and comma offer a dark outline but the comma has a distinctive scalloped edge to the wing. a strikingly irregular pattern. What a contrast between the glorious colour and pattern of the upper-wings and the profile of a peacock with closed wings, showing only a sombre sheen.
Images of brimstone nectaring on hemp agrimony show the leaf-like shape of the wing and its delicate green colour. An effective disguise against predation. Sunlight falls differently on the first image. Subsequent images show the underwings in a play of light and shadow, diaphanous.
My quest throughout July has been the SIlver Washed Fritillary, the largest and most animated butterfly so the most challenging to photograph. A butterfly of the woodland fringe, to picture it sunlit against a foil of shadows denotes its habitat. Today, Silver Washed Fritillary settled to feed. Only a Red Admiral came closer when it alighted on me.
Next day there came a change in the weather and as hail hammered on windows I thought of those delicate butterflies of sunlit woodland glades. My quest to find SIlver Washed Fritillary in Cumbria began two years ago, almost to the day. All has unfolded gradually, as a quest should, one step at a time. From failing to see our target species on a day of heavy showers, to the first glimpse, learning the butterfly and its habit all the while, to days of enchantment and close-encounters shared with friends. Now I hope the jizz is embedded. It has been revelatory, like a spider's web, an intricate pattern of silken threads in the grass, made visible by overnight dew, a light shone on memories and stories that have always been there- waiting for us to discover and rediscover them= a natural history.
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