Ringlet Butterfly North Fife

Ringlet butterfly 16th July North Fife. Today I counted three ringlets and two small whites. Join the national butterfly count.

tortoiseshell butterflies

This week is the start of a national butterfly survey. We are encouraged to go outside for 15mins or so and count them. My count today was 6 small tortoiseshell and a couple of small whites on the wing.

Tortoiseshell butterfly on wild scabious flower.

A rather pale tortoiseshell, weather beaten sunning and feeding today in the garden.

Small tortoiseshell thrusting its proboscis to reach the nectar in this thistle flower-head.

Small Copper Butterfly North Fife

Small Copper Butterfly at rest on a Comfrey leaf today. Over the last week or two this has been the most prevalent butterfly following Orange tips, I anticipate a good showing of Common Blues soon.


The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland [Hardcover]
Jeremy Thomas (Author), Richard Lewington (Illustrator)
Review
This is probably the best butterfly book of them all: sumptuous, readable and marvellously complete. . . I don't want to overpraise it, but it's perfect, sometimes anecdotal, and packed with the right information. --Simon Barnes, The Times

For me, this is still the best butterfly book ever written and a `must have' for every serious butterfly enthusiast. --Martin Warren, Chief Executive, Butterfly Conservation

Britain's best-loved butterfly book -- Michael McCarthy, The Independent

. . what promises to be our best butterfly book for 20 years, by our top expert Professor Jeremy Thomas and acclaimed butterfly artist, Richard Lewington --Peter Marren, The Weekend Telegraph

There are many books on British butterflies, but this is the ultimate butterfly handbook, with all the detail one could possibly want. . . . Richard Lewington's illustrations are absolutely astounding. How can anyone paint so well?
--Steve Gantlett, Birding World

RRP: £24.95
Price: £22.35 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery.
If you love butterflies then this is a must. The Butterflies of Britain and Ireland

Comma Butterfly North Fife

Comma Butterfly in the garden today, the first I've seen in Scotland.


Underwing showing the distinct white comma marking.
The Comma (Polygonia c-album) is a species of butterfly, common in the United Kingdom and with a distribution across Europe and temperate Asia to Japan and south to Morocco. Similar species are found in the United States and Canada. It has a white marking on its underwings resembling a comma. The wings have a distinctive ragged edge, apparently a cryptic form as the butterfly resembles a fallen leaf. The caterpillars are also cryptic, resembling a bird dropping.

In the 19th century the British population of comma butterflies crashed, and by 1920 there were only two sightings. The cause for this decline is unknown, and from about 1930 the population recovered and it is now one of the more familiar butterflies in Southern England, and is now resident in Scotland and in North Wales.

The caterpillars will feed up on hops, and they will also eat stinging nettle, elm or currant leaves, and in other parts of its distribution (e.g. in Sweden) also sallow and birch leaves.

The species survives the winter in the adult stage, and adults are of two forms. The form that overwinters before reproducing has dark undersides of the wings, whereas the form that develops directly to sexual maturation has lighter coloured wing undersides. Both forms can arise from eggs laid by the same female, depending mainly on the photo-periods experienced by the larvae, but also with an influence of host plants, temperature and sex of individuals.

Butterflies North Fife.

Of the Butterflies, a few weeks ago the main garden visitors were Painted Ladies, Large and Small Whites and Orange Tips. Red Admirals now predominate and vie with Hoverflies, wasps and Bumblebees for Cotoneaster nectar.