Butterflies and Moths 2023

18th April 

I walked along through the woodland part and then saw a Speckled Wood butterfly perched 

Speckled Wood 

I like the Holly Blue Zo. Never been lucky enough to see one ... 

Lovely shot Linda. The Grape Hyacinth sets the butterfly off wonderfully ...

Wll captured Trevor. Orange tips rarely seem to stay still long enough to get a decent shot. And I have only seen a  Brimstone at Butterfly World near Middlesbrough, never seen one in the wild ...

Billysdad said:

I like the Holly Blue Zo. Never been lucky enough to see one ... 

Thanks. Holly Blues like Holly in Spring cause they lay the Spring generation on Holly during spring and Then the Sumner generation on Ivy in the Summer. Wherever it’s food plants are there can be a chance one might turn up  so if you know anywhere That has holly or ivy or has any nearby you could increase your chances of seeing one cause those are its prefered food plants.

caterpillars are also known as larvae cause its the larvae stage the stage they eat a lot until there big enough to pupate at this stage it’s called a pupa  they become a chrysalis and evolve into an adult inside its crysilis  and come out when it’s ready.  once it’s fully transformed and come out of its crysilis as an adult it can’t fly until it drys its wings off after that once it’s wings have dryed off they fly off and do what there adult form does  in the case of the holly blue pollinate flowers, mate and look for its food plant in this case holly And  ivy  and  lay eggs  for the next generation of its species 

 Food plants are plants caterpillars feed on after they hatch from a butterfly. Holly Blues are actually quiet common and are one of the Butterflys that visit gardens but can be seen in other places aswell. So it might be worth looking out for them if you know anywhere with its food plants nearby. You can see them flying about, pollinating flowers or resting when They are out 

Thanks for the info Zo. I am going to keep a look out around Holly bushes see if I can spot any. I don't think they are common in my part of Lancashire, but I will endeavour to find some. We don't get any Common Blues around here, but when I went to visit my sister 50 miles away, there were loads of them.

www.yorkshirebutterflies.org.uk/
Hopefully in that link there'll be a signings page BD, that will include all sorts of info. The Dorset page is a fine resource. I'm at work so haven't checked out....ohh....nooooo..... I went Yorkshire not Lancashire!!!

The Lancashire link: butterfly-conservation.org/.../lancashire-branch