Underwing of Northern Brown Argus At Waitby Greenriggs, fragrance of flowers after rain, elusive fragrances. Marsh helleborine are a speciality but we were too early and found only flower-stems with pale buds. The surprise was globe flowers, a bank thick with them. And the white flowers of lesser butterfly orchid. There were Northern marsh orchid, tway blade, common spotted orchid, fragrant orchid, a fly orchid and hybrids various. A few tiny flowers of bird’s-eye primrose grew on the limestone bank above the disused railway line, and in the ditch. Yellow rattle in abundance. Frog hoppers lurked in cuckoo spit, like bubble wrap about flower stems.
And so to Smardale, wonderful at any season. We headed west toward Smardale Gill Viaduct, along the railway embankment fringed with trees until the landscape begins to open up. Through scrub and outcropping limestone , managed for butterfly conservation with wind-breaks of guelder rose and hazel. The height of the sward and its constituent flowers has to be precise to attract target species. Bushes of burnet rose with white perfumed flowers. Meadow cranesbill, wood cranesbill and bloody cranesbill- so many different shades as sunlight conferred colour. Meeting a man who had found Northern Brown Argus, we were alert and eager for the wind to ease and for the sun to come from behind cloud.
A cuckoo called somewhere to the south of Scandal Beck. At Smardale Gill Viaduct there was wind enough for the ghost train whistle to sound - the Aeolian harp effect of wind through the railings. We headed for the lime kilns and I noticed how a quarry face meets the wall of the limekiln. Here be butterflies.
One or two painted ladies, in contrast to last summer’s heat-wave when they were abundant. Green veined whites, orange tip and common blue butterflies. The bank was a mass of bloody cranesbill. And common rock rose, the food-plant of the larvae of Northern Brown Argus.
Upon a grass seed- head a butterfly with its wings folded, an underwing I took to be the common blue. But is this tiny butterfly the Northern Brown Argus, Aricia artaxerxes? Chocolate brown with a dark spot on the forewing. The beautiful underwing is patterned with orange, white and black. The tiny butterfly flies swift and low and you have to be alert to find it. We had timed our visit perfectly for these freshly emerged butterflies. Being with experts from butterfly conservation teaches you to be circumspect. Distinguishing these two species is tricky.
Post script Smardale resonates, keeps on giving. Bringing home a cache of images is only the beginning. My Northern Brown Argus images wing their way amongst the butterfly experts who pore over them. Bottom left, wings spread, Northern Brown Argus - that dark forewing spot is definitive. The two shots to the right are a challenge. Northern Brown Argus or Common Blue? I have a sequence of some ten shots but the butterfly has its wings resolutely closed, no hint of upper wing colour. I have another specimen but the NBA tilts on a grass stem and its wing pattern doesn't show well. I'd like the opportunity to be back at Smardale studying flight pattern. With butterflies, their season on the wing is brief and the fitful and unsettled weather this June makes time precious.
As for evolution, how has it come about that two small butterflies have strikingly different upper-wing colour and pattern and under-wings that resemble each other so closely? How close are they genetically?
Thanks to Chris Winnick and Dave Wainwright of Butterfly Conservation for confirming Northern Brown Argus for all four images.
Upon a grass seed- head a butterfly with its wings folded, an underwing I took to be the common blue. But is this tiny butterfly the Northern Brown Argus, Aricia artaxerxes? Chocolate brown with a dark spot on the forewing. The beautiful underwing is patterned with orange, white and black. The tiny butterfly flies swift and low and you have to be alert to find it. We had timed our visit perfectly for these freshly emerged butterflies. Being with experts from butterfly conservation teaches you to be circumspect. Distinguishing these two species is tricky.
Post script Smardale resonates, keeps on giving. Bringing home a cache of images is only the beginning. My Northern Brown Argus images wing their way amongst the butterfly experts who pore over them. Bottom left, wings spread, Northern Brown Argus - that dark forewing spot is definitive. The two shots to the right are a challenge. Northern Brown Argus or Common Blue? I have a sequence of some ten shots but the butterfly has its wings resolutely closed, no hint of upper wing colour. I have another specimen but the NBA tilts on a grass stem and its wing pattern doesn't show well. I'd like the opportunity to be back at Smardale studying flight pattern. With butterflies, their season on the wing is brief and the fitful and unsettled weather this June makes time precious.
As for evolution, how has it come about that two small butterflies have strikingly different upper-wing colour and pattern and under-wings that resemble each other so closely? How close are they genetically?
Thanks to Chris Winnick and Dave Wainwright of Butterfly Conservation for confirming Northern Brown Argus for all four images.
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