Please could someone identify this butterfly. It was very small, sorry the photo is not brilliant.
I looked it up and wondered if it was a female common blue? Any ideas welcome, thankyou.
Kind regards Jane.
Looks right for a female common blue to me too. The underwing spots match the patterns in my old reference book. The tops of the wings don't, but thats a problem with the book not your ID! Females range from brown through to this dusky dark blue with the orange pips.
A lovely butterfly, the blues are my favourites - so small, bright and exotic looking.
FM
Thank you for that. The tops of the wings looked different to the picture in my book as well. :-) This one looked quite brown as it flitted around, with an occasional flash of blue.
They are lovely, although sadly it didn't stay around for very long.
Thank you very much for taking the time to identify it for me.
Lovely photo, Jef - I managed to get a few shots myself end of last month......
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Well Graham, that is gorgeous, what a beautiful colour. The one I saw was certainly not as blue. Is that because yours is a male? I am pretty ignorant about butterflies unfortunately.
Thanks for posting it Graham, It is a stunning photograph. (And lucky for me I can pinch it)
It looks hand painted!
Cheers
AL
If its no fun Yer no doin it right!
Hi Jef,
Yes, I think Blues are my favourite butterflies. I have friends near Brighton and there are a lot of chalk hills down there. It is an area famous for the Adonis Blue. Common, Adonis and Chalkhill Blues are difficult to tell apart.
My one above, I'm fairly sure, is a Common Blue. This one, I think, is an Adonis Blue:
While this one, I think, is a Chalkhill Blue:
According to the Butterfly Conservation site the Male Common has blue wings with black-brown border and thin white fringe. Female brown, similar to Brown Argus, but with blue dusting near body.
Of course, my ID status is pretty suspect!
I have visited the Natural History Museum and London Zoo this year who both have Butterfly Exhibitions on. They were superb and I urge you to go along and visit if you can!
And of course you may use my photos!
Best wishes, Graham
They are stunning. Trust Al to get it right, "they look hand painted", is so true and is why they look so beautiful I think.
The blues are certainly outstanding, I have never had any in my garden :-((.
I hope when my flower meadow starts to get established, it will attract more species of butterfly. Thank you for saying it is OK for me to pinch your photos Graham, especially after I had cheekily copied them already! I would never pass them off as my own [as if! ] I just like to look through wildlife pictures, I find it really relaxing.
Yes, I must put London on my To Visit list. There is also a wetlands centre there I believe.
Thanks for posting the photos, they are beautiful.