Butterflies by family (5 of 5): Hesperiidae and Zygaenidae

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In this last blog, I will tell a story of lookalikes and mistaken identity. It took me quite a while, before I could distinguish between the Large Skipper (Ochlodes Sylvanus) and the Small Skipper (Thymelicus Sylvestris), both of the family of the Hesperiidae. Because they are quite small and almost equal in size. Their colours are just the same and you even find them together in the same habitat. The Large Skipper is called Groot Dikkopje in Dutch; the Small Skipper is called Geelsprietdikkopje.

The most obvious difference is the pattern of the light brown markings on their orange wings. The Large Skipper has a more chequered pattern whereas the Small Skipper has thin, prolonged  lines.

These pictures should show what I mean. As I said, it took me quite some time to actually see the difference.

 

A much more obvious difference, because you just count the spots, is the one between the Five-spot Burnet (Zygaena Trifolii) and the Six-spot Burnet (Zygaena Filipendulae), both of the family of the Zygaenidae. They are actually moths, but they can be seen at daytime.

They both visit a range of flowers and can sometimes be seen together on one flower. The pictures below show the countable spots. In Dutch, the five-spot one is called Vijf-vlek St-Jansvlinder, and the other one just St-Jansvlinder.

This ends my series of five blogs, showing (off) my butterfly picture archive, organised by family. I hope you enjoyed it; I certainly enjoyed putting it together.

It was a hard call to choose the picture I would like to end this series with. Therefore I decided to end with the very first picture I took of a butterfly. It was taken in Butterfly World near St. Albans and it is a picture of two Monarch butterflies (Danaus Plexippus).