Summer & Butterflies

Today was the first decent day of the Summer with quite some sunshine and higher temperatures. So it was inevitable for me to go walkabout to find some butterflies. And I was not disappointed with a good variety and some of them even posing. As if they knew I would be there with my camera. The Ringlet (Aphantopus Hyperantus) in the top picture was the first of the season. I found one other picture in my archives of almost one year ago. This afternoon I made two more pictures which I like to share.

I wrote earlier that the Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais Urticae) is declining. The website of Gardener’s World describes this as follows:

The arrival of a new parasitoid fly, Sturmia Bella, in 1998 has been mooted as part of the butterfly’s downturn. Within the same decade of the butterfly’s decline, the fly (which specialises in parasitizing Small Tortoiseshell, Comma and Peacock butterflies) spread across the whole of England. It doesn’t appear to be quite that straightforward, though. Small tortoiseshell numbers went down in places where the parasitoid is currently unknown, and also in Europe where the fly is not a ‘new’ threat to the butterfly. Anyway, I was very happy to see two of these butterflies actually mating this afternoon. Keep up the good work and maybe the decline can be stopped.

 

Talking about reproduction: these two Gatekeepers (Pyronia Tithonus) on the right are almost certainly ready to mate as well. The male is higher than the female, but I am sure they will sort something out. They were actually the first Gatekeepers this season but there were a lot of them chasing each other. All very promising.

I did see a Meadow Brown (Maniola Jurtina) as well, but it was not possible to take a decent picture. So I have to do with one from my archive as shown on the left. I took this one whilst being stung by the Ivy and that happened again several times this afternoon. All in the name of art…

To finish this blog I will share a picture of a Five-spot Burnet (Zygaena Trifolii) and a Small Skipper (Thymelicus Flavus) respectively. The first one is actually a moth, but can be seen during daytime. The last one is just a beautiful little butterfly.

Finally the Summer has begun and I can’t wait to take more pictures of butterflies…and show them on my blog.