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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Identification of Butterfly Please (1 Viewer)

L

Lancey

Well-known member
Dear all,
The butterfly photographed below had become trapped in the garage today and I have just released it into the wide blue yonder. I'm not a butterfly enthusiast, but the wings were ornate enough for me to recognise it as something unusual, at least to me. I live in a suburb in the SE of London if that adds anything to the sighting.

Could you identify it for me please and give me an indication of its status.

Thanks for your help,
Lancey
 

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A lovely looking Comma Lancey.

I've noticed more of them around over the last few years, even up north. I haven't seen any yet this year though. Usually they appear in decent numbers once the Buddleas come into flower - pretty soon now.
 
Thanks

Marmot and Ian F,
Thanks for your quick identification of this butterfly. I wondered if it might have been something exotic what with it's ornately shaped wings - but a Comma is new for me anyway.

Thanks again,
Lancey
 
I just love seeing Commas!
Click to expand...
Me too. I had the first this year in the garden today.

Slightly off topic. My wife and I went to Lydden Temple Ewell near Dover yesterday. Clouds of Chalkhill Blue's plus Common Blue, Marbled White, a few Silver-spotted Skipper and a few others. Camera was working overtime. Apparently the Adonis will be about in a week or so.

Well worth a visit.
 
robinm said:
Clouds of Chalkhill Blue's plus Common Blue, Marbled White, a few Silver-spotted Skipper and a few others. Camera was working overtime. Apparently the Adonis will be about in a week or so.
Click to expand...
A real treat that is! Yesterday I was 'butterfly walking' and there was a Silver-washed Fritillary harassing a mating pair! Seem to be loads of Silver-washed Frits about in all the woods right now.
 
Andrew said:
A real treat that is! Yesterday I was 'butterfly walking' and there was a Silver-washed Fritillary harassing a mating pair! Seem to be loads of Silver-washed Frits about in all the woods right now.
Click to expand...

Lucky you Andrew, there hasn't been a Silver-washed Fritillary in my neck of the woods since the mid 1800's.

Harry
 
Harry,

Like buses. I was told of one at Aylesbury Common and went to find some. Got a brief glimpse as a lifer then a few days later at Yarner with Grousemore I could have touched them. Then the woodland walk yesterday and that harassing fritillary. Rest assured, I consider myself lucky.

It is amazing to think the upper wing (just one half) is the same size as a Small Copper. That is striking to me as they are two of my faves!
 
Andrew said:
Harry,

Like buses. I was told of one at Aylesbury Common and went to find some. Got a brief glimpse as a lifer then a few days later at Yarner with Grousemore I could have touched them. Then the woodland walk yesterday and that harassing fritillary. Rest assured, I consider myself lucky.

It is amazing to think the upper wing (just one half) is the same size as a Small Copper. That is striking to me as they are two of my faves!
Click to expand...

Ah well,
I suppose I'll just have to put up with looking at my two resident Fritillaries, the Small-pearl Bordered and the Dark Green. However I'm quite smug in the knowledge that you aren't going to see a Large Heath anywhere in your vicinity, whereas I know where I can see them by the hundred. In fact I saw several hundred just today, and I have a witness as well. Lol.

Harry
 
Lancey said:
Dear all,
The butterfly photographed below had become trapped in the garage today and I have just released it into the wide blue yonder. I'm not a butterfly enthusiast, but the wings were ornate enough for me to recognise it as something unusual, at least to me. I live in a suburb in the SE of London if that adds anything to the sighting.

Could you identify it for me please and give me an indication of its status.

Thanks for your help,
Lancey
Click to expand...

Hi Lancey,
The Comma was well distributed over most of the British mainland and southern Scotland until the late decades of the 1800's. For some reason it then declined rapidly until it could only be found in one or two counties on the English/Welsh Border. Since the 1920's it has again expanded it's range. It returned to Northumberland as a breeding species in the mid 1990's and is now found all over southern Scotland again and has been seen further north than Edinburgh. Several other species of butterfly have moved their known range northwards in the past 40 years as have several Dragonfly species. E.G. The Emperor Dragonfly was unknown north of the Wash as late as 1990 yet it is now breeding in Northumberland, Durham and Yorkshire and there are many sightings of it from southern Scotland.

Harry
 
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