Adonis Blue. Photo: Penny Hawes

Adonis Blue. Photo: Penny Hawes

Two photos from Penny sent in saying:

I was SO excited at Perryfields this afternoon, 29/08/2024.  Could this be my first ever Adonis?! I have been searching for 12 years since I first acquired my camera, and have never seen one. This one was a noticeably much brighter blue than the Common Blues flying near it. But I’m still not sure, as it has quite a tattered border – I’m hoping the black lines reach the edge?

EDITOR’S NOTE:  I too wanted this to be an Adonis Blue for Penny but to be certain decided to refer the photos to one of our Dorset BC “verifiers” and he responded as follows:

Though it was very tricky to see the underwing spots, I’m now pretty certain that it’s an Adonis Blue. Did lots of comparing with photos on UK Butterflies website and match to Adonis is much stronger – also colour of underwing looks brownish whilst it tends to be much greyer with Common Blue. Definitely not the best example and very hard to ID.