Thanks to volunteer Phil for his wonderful report and photos featuring just some of our lovely butterflies.
This is the 2nd of a series of articles about butterflies to be seen on the reserve in July. Part 1 gives some summary information about where to see butterflies on the reserve and the types of flowers used.
White butterflies can be seen almost anywhere on the reserve. These include large, small and green veined whites. Large whites fly quite vigorously and rarely stay in one patch for too long and consequently are not so easy to photograph. When flying they can only really be easily distinguished from the small whites by size, being noticeably large, but in pattern and colouring are very similar. I only know this photo is of a large white because I saw it flying first. Note that hindwing underside is actually a pale yellow, as it is in the small white.
Because of their size they can easily be confused with female brimstones. The brimstone is a large species of which the male stands out as a bright lemon yellow. However the females are a very pale green and can easily seem white when flying. These photos of male and female were taken near my home.
Brimstone adults, one of the longest flying butterflies of any UK species hibernate in winter but re-emerge in very early Spring sometimes being seen as early as February. They disappear for a short time after mating, with new adults typically emerging in July so we are now seeing more of these again.
Small white and green veined white are much smaller but very similar in size to each other. They have 2 broods a year with a very similar flight period and we are now into the 2nd flight period for both species. The veins are much more prominent in the green veined white especially on the underwings. These photos show a small white with open and closed wings.
These photos show green veined white with open and closed wings.
Two blue butterfly species, the holly and common blue fly on the reserve and both are now into their 2nd brood flight period of the year. Although when seen flying they show a very similar shade of blue, they can generally be easily distinguished by their habitat. Holly blue is a butterfly of bushes, shrubs and trees and always perches with wings closed. This one was seen near Jupps View.
The common blue, not so common on the reserve as its name might imply, is a butterfly of open country and flowery verges and will perch with either wings open or folded as in these photos. This photo was taken in the grassy area between Winpenny and Redstart Corner
This photo of a common blue underwing was taken on the grassy bank to the right of path shortly after you leave the main trail for Nettley’s Hide. With some brown and orange colours it shows a completely different pattern from that of the holly blue.
Also note the female common blue has a completely different upperwing pattern from the male being largely brown with a hint of blue as in this photo taken close to home.
There is very little difference between butterflies and day flying moths, after all they have exactly the same lifecyle starting with an egg and hatching into a caterpillar. So I should mention 2 moths which might be seen now. Evidence for one of these can be seen on ragwort plants in many parts of the reserve just now. Ragwort is the exclusive caterpillar foodplant of the attractive red and black/grey cinnabar moth, the adults of which can typically be seen in the early part of June.
These have very striking yellow and black caterpillars. Some ragwort plants may hold several caterpillars. Ragwort is toxic for some animals and the black and yellow striped pattern is a warning sign that the caterpillars may not be good to eat.
When seen flying cinnabar moth adults could be confused with another day flying moth which has an identical red and black/grey colour combination. Six spot burnet moths can be seen flying in some parts of the reserve just now, notably in the grassy area behind West Mead between the large deer gates. These moths have 6 red spots on each forewing and red on the hindwing and so present a very noticeable red colour when seen flying. This photo of a mating pair was taken in East Sussex near Cuckmere Haven.
Note that depending on the angle of the light the background colour can look either black or grey.
In part 3 I will look at the rarest of our butterflies, and a few that can commonly be seen throughout spring summer and early autumn.
Another interesting article