I must have taken 100s of photos of Purple Emperor larvae over the years, but this one, from today, is probably my favourite ... showing just how camouflaged a fully grown larva is against a leaf of its foodplant (Salix caprea, Goat Willow, in this case).

A cool day on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social False Apollo tour resulted in an impromptu photography workshop (20 minutes that turned into 2 hours thanks to all of the great guest questions!), with a Small Copper then appearing as things warmed up. A favourite species for the last 50 years!

I am planning this year's butterfly trips using this excellent book..

This male Orange-tip wasn't taking 'no' for an answer, despite the female clearly rejecting him by raising her abdomen, as many species in the Pieridae family do! It was nice to see so many of them flying today, along with Holly Blue in numbers not encountered for several years!

Just back from another very successful @greenwingstours.bsky.social tour in Greece! I'm not sure why, but this photo of a Green-underside Blue seems to evoke something about the place that I just can't put into words ... answers on a postcard!

Another great day on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social False Apollo tour. Lots of lovely Grecian Copper, including an aberrant female with elongated spots. Finding the rare Krueper's Small White was the icing on the cake!

A fantastic start to the @greenwingstours.bsky.social False Apollo tour. Not only did we find adults, but also managed to locate a few batches of False Apollo eggs on its main foodplant, Aristolochia hirta.

Gosh - a Dingy Skipper forewing with a Chequered Skipper hindwing ... what a butterfly! I had to check that it wasn't April 1st!

Pearl-bordered fritillary caterpillars are coming along nicely in Devon. Spent the day at Haldon Forest, poking around pockets of violets along the broken edges of bracken litter @bcdevon.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Word of the day: pharate. This term describes a fully formed larva or adult when inside the cuticle of the previous developmental stage. Behold a pharate Purple Emperor caterpillar within its egg case and a pharate male Silver-studded Blue adult within its pupal case!

Orange-tips are nearly upon us and, surprisingly, Green Hairstreaks were seen today in Cheshire! www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/viewto...

This week's challenge is to identify the species whose pupae are represented here - one from each of the 6 butterfly families ... the final two in a reply to this post! I'll give it a few days before providing the answers!

And this week's challenge is to identify the species whose larvae are represented here - one from each of the 6 butterfly families ... the final two in a reply to this post!

📣 New paper 🎉 Proud to have helped with this nice study by @wlangdon12.bsky.social showing a trade-off between nutritional quality & microclimate of host plants for Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas). Here in England, they choose warmth over nutrition resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Here's a random selection of butterfly eggs - 1 from each of the 6 families (Papilionidae, Hesperiidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae, Riodinidae, Lycaenidae). Having spent some time looking at them 'up close' I can only conclude that they are really quite beautiful! How many can you identify? Larvae next!

Our most recent review, by Harry E. Clarke, of Butterflies of the Western Palaearctic (volume 1) can now be found at www.dispar.org/reference.ph...

As well as seeing adult butterflies coming out of hibernation today (Peacock and Brimstone for me!), I also enjoyed finding several Marsh Fritillary larval webs, with larvae taking their first nibbles of Devil's-bit Scabious, & communally basking to raise their body temperature, which aids digestion

Still time to grab a spot on this superb trip. It makes for a lovely way to begin your spring butterfly watching campaign... greenwings.co/our-holidays... A donation from this and *all* our butterfly tours also goes to support the conservation work of @europebutterfly.bsky.social too.

With temperatures on the rise, I'm looking forward to a 'spring break' in Northern Greece with @greenwingstours.bsky.social (greenwings.co/our-holidays...). Some photos from last year, a trip that led to Martin Partridge's interesting article on the False Apollo: www.sbbt.org.uk/latest-news/....

Here’s a Swallowtail larva exposing its ‘osmeterium’, an organ found in the 1st segment. Victorian entomologists remarked on its ‘pungent smell’, similar to rotting pineapple. Having found a bottle of pineapple juice left in my car (courtesy of a grandson) I can confirm that this is absolutely true!

A review by Pete Smith of the most recent book on European butterflies: Butterflies of Britain and Western Europe and their Caterpillars! www.dispar.org/reference.ph...

Congratulations to Mark Searle, winner of the 2025 UK Butterflies Photo Competition, with his image of a Dingy Skipper - clearly an inappropriate name for a butterfly that can appear quite beautiful! Winning entries can be seen at: www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/competition_...

A refreshingly positive 'good news' story by M.S. Warren, S. Rich, and N. Haywood regarding the fortunes of the Silver-studded Blue over 50 years at Studland Heath National Nature Reserve, Dorset, UK. Detailed article at www.dispar.org/reference.ph... @martinswarren.bsky.social

The UK Butterflies 2025 Photography Competition is now open for entries and closes on November 30th. The winning photos will be announced in early December and the overall winner will receive a signed Richard Lewington print. See www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/viewto... for more info. Good luck!

The UK Butterflies 2025 Photography Competition is now open for entries and closes on November 30th. The winning photos will be announced in early December and the overall winner will receive a signed Richard Lewington print. See www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/viewto... for more info. Good luck!

Given the number of sightings of Marsh Fritillary away from their core sites, as well as personally seeing them fly through woodland, I’ve always thought that they disperse further than people think and this study is a step to proving that theory!

The new European Butterfly Red List is published today, with worrying findings. Over 1/4 (28%) of Europe’s 442 species are threatened with extinction or are close to being so. The situation is far worse for our 148 endemic species, 40% are now threatened or nearly so www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?...

It also has a Donate button if you want to support our work saving butterflies and moths across Europe

Check out our new website, packed with new features, including updated project and EU policy pages + butterfly species pages with all known hostplants courtesy of Harry Clarke and downloadable country lists. Big thanks to Peter Eeles @ukbutterflies.bsky.social for all his help www.bc-europe.eu

"Only a fool will go chasing a male Orange-tip in the heat of the day!" (Paul Atkin) ... we're having a debate at UK Butterflies that will allow us to create a 'Guide to Responsible Butterfly Photography' so do join the conversation at www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/viewto.... 📷 Neil Freeman

Here's our concise summary of events regarding the Southern Small White - keep yer eyes peeled! ... www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/webpage.php?...

Congratulations to William Brame @landguardbirder.bsky.social for realising this was a different white butterfly. Now confirmed by @chrisvanswaay.bsky.social as a Southern Small White - the first seen in England. As it is a female let's hope it has been laying eggs. @matthewberry.bsky.social

Given the weather today, we focused on the ecological aspects of our butterfly fauna; geology (chalk, clay, sand/gravel), habitats (grassland, woodland, heathland), flora and fauna. Here are some of the butterfly eggs we examined - White Admiral, Small Blue and Small Copper (library pics).

Enjoyed a fantastic walk guided by the hugely knowledgeable Peter Eeles, over a neighbouring estate doing extraordinarily good & innovative things for wildlife. Truly exciting. Learning to spot caterpillar webs in the fields, & tiny white admiral larvae in the woods! @ukbutterflies.bsky.social

When I started UK Butterflies in 2002, I had no idea that it would attract such interest! This is a 'shout out' to Vince Massimo, who has spent over 2 decades curating our image library from over 450 contributors. This recent image from Neil Freeman did make me laugh - name that species!

Now is a great time to seek out the immature stages of some of our rarest butterflies; 2 of my favourite targets shown below, plus parents! Locating these is hard work and time-consuming, as anyone who actually does field work (rather than posting the work of others) can attest, but is so rewarding.

What an incredible year for our Lepidoptera - so many species have benefited from this good weather and I just stumbled upon some lush semi-shaded nettles growing behind my greenhouse and found 3 Red Admiral larvae, 6 Comma larvae and, I'm sure, 12 Comma eggs !!! Time to grow more nettles! Library 📷

Good grief - in normal years, the last 2 species to emerge in Britain are Brown Hairstreak and Silver-spotted Skipper. And yet I've seen reports today of both flying ... in June! This is, without doubt, a very unusual year!

A grand finale to the @greenwingstours.bsky.social Italian Alps tour - with several Poplar Admiral sightings (what a beast!) and several photographable subjects. A fantastic ending to a fantastic tour. Do consider joining Ben Greenaway (below) and I next year greenwings.co/our-holidays...

More from the @greenwingstours.bsky.social tour to the Italian Alps where, today, we had an extreme form of female Spotted Fritillary that had a steely-blue sheen to its wings; a hybrid between Adonis and Chalk Hill Blues, known as polonus; and a cleodoxa form of High Brown Fritillary. What a place!

Another amazing day on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social Italian Alps tour. Today had an ecology air to it, as Southern Swallowtail was found laying eggs on a member of the Apiaceae, with a maximum of 7 eggs found on one plant. Spotted Fritillary was also seen laying on Perennial Yellow-woundwort.

With 78 species seen today on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social Italian Alps tour, it's no wonder that all coppers we could expect to see were found; Small, Sooty, Scarce, Purple-edged & Purple-shot. Male & female of Purple-shot and Purple-edged below. Such beauties & hard to resist photographing!

Another incredible day on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social tour in the Italian Alps. Among the 57 species found today, it was the Apollos that really provided the 'wow' factor - a nice male showing all of its red spots & a mated female with a 'sphragis' on her abdomen that prevents further pairings.

An amazing start to the @greenwingstours.bsky.social tour to the Italian Alps with 69 species seen thus far, including mating Large Blues, lots of 'puddling' fritillaries and Black-veined White, and lots of Apollos to boot, including this Clouded Apollo. I wonder what day 2 will bring!

This flagship tour of ours is a long running firm favourite. And next years will be very special - led by a hugely experienced & talented lepidopterist team of Dr Michael de Courcy Williams & Peter Eeles @ukbutterflies.bsky.social

New digital publication available for free on our website! A checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles (2nd Edition): covering all British macro-moths, micro-moths and butterflies, this is an indispensable reference for any serious lepidopterist. www.benhs.org.uk/publications...

Celebrate #WorldSwallowtailDay this Sunday 8th June. Post your favourite pictures of Swallowtail and Birdwing butterflies with #WorldSwallowtailDay Checkout our website at sbbt.org.uk for lots more information about Swallowtails

Nice piece on the dioecious Goat Willow (Salix caprea) by @bbcspringwatch.bsky.social on BBC1 right now. It's also the primary larval foodplant of the spectacular Purple Emperor butterfly 😀

Each year I focus on a few species so that I don't get distracted! This year includes the Wood White and I've now witnessed 5 pairings. I can confirm that a receptive female will 'present' her abdomen to a male and that mating is a rapid affair (the time between the first 2 photos is 5 seconds!).

#SaveTheDate! This April, we're participating in the #BigGive #GreenMatchFund 🦋 Between 22-29 April, any donations made in our #BigGive campaign will be DOUBLED! This a great opportunity to fund vital research for the #endangered #LargeBlue to thrive. Read more 🔽