It's well overdue for starting. This is the link to last years thread
Butterflies and Moths 2023
There haven't been a lot of butterflies around here this year so far. The earliest was a fresh Red Admiral on the 3rd of january
Since then I've seen a Speckled Wood & Peacock. There have been Brimstone's about but I haven't seen them. Plenty of time left in the year to go chasing butterflies.
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
After yesterdays failure to get a decent photo of the pugnacious Swallowtail I had better photo ops on my other transect today - Got stopped by lots of people who were genuinely interested in what I was doing and seeing andI was pleased to be able to point different wildlife out
Holly Blue on Hemp Agrimony
Wall
Brown Argus the female was trying to flight off the unwanted attentions of the male and was very obviously telling hin=m she had mated - the next few photos also show how important Ragwort is as a nectar source
Painted Lady
Small Copper and Wall
My first tiger of the year
Cin J
Excellent captures Cin. I always love to see blue butteflies. There is very little of anything in my area - a few whites, Speckled Woods, Meadow Browns and the occasional Red Admiral. So it's good to see your wonderful collection and others on here ...
Great selection Caroline, didn't realise how important Ragwort is to so many other than Cinnabars!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
It's a vital source to many insects at this time of year I think there are 30 species of invertebrates that rely on it and over 200 have been recorded as nectaring on it.
Ragwort nectar and pollen has to be 'pesticide' free. Some plants can be very fussy over what is going to pollinate them. But most aren't. From a ragwort's perspective, a 'pest' would be anything that eats it before it gets a chance to reproduce. The green stuff is filled with chemicals to try to stop things eating it before that happens, be it insect, reptile, amphibian, bird or mammal. (There's a little supposition in there, regarding reptiles, amphibians and birds - but I've never seen any of them actively seeking out ragwort and eating the greenery). I don't think mammals actively seek out ragwort to eat, either.
The cinnebar moth (or, rather, their larvae) has adapted to that. And the larvae flag their (stored) toxicity to predators.