Single Colours Dominate Butterflies
Holly Blue
Flies often above head height
Larvae and pupae produce secretions attractive to ants
Parasitised by wasp Listrodomus nycthemerus
Possibly causes 6- or 7-year cycle in abundance
Possibly benefited from climate change
In wider countryside needs foodplants in sheltered hedgerow, scrub and open woodland
Has survived main landscape changes in latter 20th C.
Ringlet
Favours tall grasses mainly in damp situations
Only use vigorous uncut / ungrazed grasses for egg laying
Eggs dropped by female from perch at top of tall grass stem
Declined in 19th C then expanded in 20th C
Possibly affected by atmospheric pollution
Massively affected by 1976 drought
More generally might benefit from climate change.
Gatekeeper
Named for its habit of congregating on brambles and other flowers at field gates
Eggs laid in tall grassy vegetation close to shrubs
Open grassland with short vegetation avoided
Has suffered more than most butterflies from hedgerow removal
Bramble favoured source of nectar
Can fly on wet days
Not an urban species.
Small Copper
Little known of pupae stage – ants possibly involved
Thrives in hot sunny conditions – but suffered badly in 1976 drought
Populations crash in cool wet summers
Found in flowery hillsides, heaths & woodland rides
Will colonise waste ground and roadside embankments
Suffers from agricultural intensification
But is reasonably mobile
Nectars on Common fleabane (yellow).
Brimstone
One of oldest butterfly names (mentioned in Petiver’s 1695 catalogue)
Never basks with wings open
Distribution matches that of Buckthorn and Alder buckthorn – its two foodplants
Adult stages lasts up to 11 months. (By contrast Orange-tip’s can be as short as one month)
Emerges from hibernation in early spring
Has an unusually long proboscis – which works well with buddleia and runner beans; and teasels.