In pictures: UK butterflies (part two)
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|13:36 UK time, Thursday, 7 July 2011
Time for the second part of our run-through of all the UK's species of butterflies using photos from the Springwatch and Summerwatch photo groups. Last week it was A-C (adonis to common blue), this time it's D-H (dark green fritillary to holly blue). Hope you'll all agree, stunning images of stunning creatures...
As I said on the last post I'd strongly recommend using Butterfly Conservation's online identifier. Type in where you saw it, its size, colour and markings and it will tell you what butterfly you spotted.
I'd also point you to two articles Butterfly Conservation's Richard Fox wrote for us: UK butterflies: Winners and losers and Why the UK's butterflies are in trouble.
And most importantly of all, remember the Big Butterfly Count starts on 16 July. One for all the family to enjoy and help science at the same time.
Update 8 July: Turns out I got three species incorrect - the dark green fritillary, the gatekeeper and the Essex skipper. These have now all been corrected. Big thanks to all those who pointed them out.
Comment number 1.
At 21:11 7th Jul 2011, rimo wrote:'Essex Skipper' is actually Large Skipper (dark shading on the rear of the forewing, heavy sex brand, 'c' of white spots on the forewing) and 'Gatekeeper' is a Meadow Brown (single white spot in the black spot on the forewing, no eyespots on the hindwing, gently-shaded colours on the hindwing). Some nice shots though!
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Comment number 2.
At 21:39 7th Jul 2011, jeztorrance wrote:@rimo, thanks for that. Other eagle-eyed folks have pointed the errors out too. Great we have such a knowledgeable audience! Will change them both tomorrow.
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Comment number 3.
At 16:34 8th Jul 2011, semma3 wrote:i have not seen many common blue's or red admiral's this year but there seem to be loads of meadow browns in west cumbria is it a bit soon yet or are there numbers down this year.
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