Spectacle Moth. Photo: Mark Pike
Spectacle Moth. Photo: Mark Pike
This Spectacle Moth was captured in Mark’s moth trap in Motcombe on 16/08/2017.
Mark commented that he thinks it’s a comical looking spectacle (is that a play on words Mike?) as it looks like it’s wearing a pair of glasses when viewed head-on.
Spectacle moths fly at night and readily come to light traps. It generally has one generation in the UK but in the South there is a second generation, late July-early September. It feeds on flowers, Red Valerian and cultivated Sage especially.
Posted on: 21 August, 2017
Common Blue. Photo: Brian Arnold
Brian photographed these mating Common Blue butterflies at Durlston on 15/08/2017.
This is one of Europe’s most adaptable species, and this photograph shows the frequent variation in colour and size which the Common Blue displays.
Posted on: 21 August, 2017
Grayling. Photo: Dom Greves
Dom photographed this mating pair of Graylings on Stoborough Heath during the first week of August 2017.
Dom, our super Techie who has helped in a big way to make sure this website looks as good as it does, has achieved a very detailed shot of these masters of disguise. He noted how perfectly still they sat on the gravel path, convinced of their ability to blend into their surroundings and go undetected by predators such as birds, dragonflies and even lizards.
Posted on: 20 August, 2017
Adonis Blue. Photo: Brian Arnold
Brian photographed this beautiful Adonis Blue on Ballard Down on 16/08/2017.
Brian tells us:
At about 6pm I went up to Ballard Down to see if 2nd brood Adonis Blues were out and there were loads of them all settled in the grass getting ready for the night. As I walked through the undergrowth lots of them came up into the air in a small cloud of blue butterflies. Maybe this will be a really good year for them similar to a few years ago when there were thousands of them at Ballard.
Brian paints a lovely picture with his description of his experience that evening and is one that Butterfly Conservation with the help of volunteers strives to replicate when managing habitat suitable for the various species of our UK butterflies.
This is a butterfly that occurs on chalk downland in the south but is becoming increasingly rare in the UK.
Posted on: 20 August, 2017
Brown Argus, aberration. Photo: Mark Pike
Mark photographed this mating pair of Brown Argus butterflies on 13/08/2017 on Ballard Down, Swanage.
Mark says he has never come across one with white patches on its wings before and feels sure it is an aberration. It is the male butterfly which is showing this difference to the norm.
Posted on: 20 August, 2017
Silver-washed Fritillary.Valezina. Photo: Lynda Lambert
Linda says:
I saw this Valezina form of the Silver-washed Fritillary at Alners Gorse on 13/08/2017. A photo of this species was taken on 10/08/2017, also at Alners Gorse and was added to this gallery recently. As you can see, my photo shows this butterfly has very little damage, just a small nip off of the bottom of it’s hind -wings, whereas Elaine Conlon’s image taken 3 days earlier showed extensive loss of wings. This shows that there was more than one of these butterflies present at Alners Gorse. Hopefully this gave butterfly enthusiasts a better chance of spotting one.
Posted on: 17 August, 2017
Silver-spotted Skipper. Photo: Mark Pike
After a 3 hour search Mark found three of these Silver-spotted Skippers at Fontmell Down on 10/08/2017.
A beautiful little butterfly which many people mistake for a moth, as can be the case with all skipper butterflies. Fontmell Down is the perfect habitat for this species as it requires open flowery habitat with short grass containing Sheeps Fescue, it’s principal larval food plant.
Posted on: 17 August, 2017
Grayling. Photo: John East
Grayling. Photo: John East
John spotted these Grayling butterflies at Morden Bog on 11/08/2017 and says:
We only moved to Dorset earlier this year from East Sussex where there is just one site in the county for Grayling and numbers there are declining so my wife and I decided to visit Morden Bog yesterday morning to look for them in Dorset.
We set off in sunshine but by the time we got there a fairly stiff breeze had sprung up and the sky was largely overcast – not ideal for seeking out an often difficult to see butterfly. As the weather conditions for finding Grayling were far from good, we felt that we could at least have a good walk so off we went across the heathland without too much hope but eventually spotted our first Grayling about 30 minutes later.
During the course of the next 90 minutes we saw at least 20 Grayling in a number of different spots here.
John was very lucky to get a photograph showing the lovely colour of the underside of the fore-wing. It is even more difficult to obtain photographs of them with all wings fully open. This is because they rest, usually on the ground, showing only their under hind-wings. This behaviour allows them a degree of safety from predators.
The Grayling has extremely variable wing markings and marked variation in size due largely to local ecological conditions, such as types of soil.
Posted on: 17 August, 2017
Buff-Tip Moth. Photo: Mark Pike
This Buff-Tip was caught in Mark’s moth trap at Motcombe on 24/06/2017.
A beautiful little moth which it is often said resembles a Silver Birch twig, which is so much nicer than a cigarette butt which has also been suggested.This lovely photo shows how well camouflaged it would be in the wild.
Posted on: 17 August, 2017
Brown Hairstreak. Photo: Gerry Traves
Gerry and Lyn are members of the Ringwood Natural History Society: the group were shown round our Alners Gorse Butterfly Reserve by our Reserves Manager, Nigel Spring, on 27/07/2017. They write that they enjoyed the morning very much, and sent us the full list of butterfly and other species they recorded on the visit, which you can see here.
Posted on: 17 August, 2017
Brown Hairstreak. Photo: Colin Burningham
Colin took this photograph of a female Brown Argus with some wing damage on 10/08/2017 at Lydlinch Common.
He tells us that it is a butterfly not often seen at this site, and was pleased to find it especially on the same day as another rarely seen butterfly at Lydlinch Common, the Brown Argus.
Posted on: 17 August, 2017
Buff Arches. Photo: Mark Pike
Mark caught this moth on 24/06/2017 in his moth trap at Motcombe.
Who said moths are boring? Mark has been running his trap for some time and is used to seeing this species but a newcomer to moth trapping would be very excited to see this.
Posted on: 17 August, 2017
Marsh Fritillary web. Photo: Lynda Lambert
Devil’s-bit Scabious. Photo: Lynda Lambert
Lynda found this web and two others at Alners Gorse on 13/08/2017, at the base of some Devil’s-bit Scabious, which is the foodplant for the Marsh Fritillary caterpillars.
Sunshine is a prerequisite for the health of the species at the caterpillar stage which explains why some years numbers are better than others even when the site is managed with this fritillary in mind as well as for other species.
Devil’s-bit Scabious is a pretty perennial plant which grows quickly to a height of approximately one metre, flowering from June until October. It is a good source of nectar and is visited by many types of insects as well as butterflies. Wild Honeysuckle and Small Scabious are also plants used by the Mrsh Fritillary caterpillars, but Devil’s-bit Scabious seems to be the preferred plant in the UK.
Posted on: 17 August, 2017
Clouded Yellow. Photo: Mark Pike
Mark photographed this gorgeous Clouded Yellow at Fontmell Down on 10/08/2017
This is another of the migrant species that visit the Uk. It likes a flowery habitat and hot weather. This species always feed with their wings closed as this photo shows, indeed it is very difficult to get a photograph of it with its wings open. A challenge to most photographers.
Posted on: 16 August, 2017
Brown Argus. Photo: Colin Burningham
Colin took this photograph of a female Brown Argus on 10/08/2017 at Lydlinch Common. Colin tells us that this species is not often seen at this site and knows this because he walks it regularly for Dorset Butterfly Conservation.
It is a very difficult butterfly to identify unless you have clear sightings of the unf, under fore-wing. The difference between this species and the Common Blue, which it can be mistaken for, is the lack of a black spot near the base of the unf. This is an excellent photograph as if there was a black spot present. it would be clearly visable.
Posted on: 15 August, 2017
More photos: Gallery Archive
