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 🔽

Some more specialties from Greece on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social False Apollo tour include lots of Nettle-tree butterflies, Eastern Baton Blue, Gruner's Orange-tip and, best of all, several Scarce (Yellow-legged) Tortoiseshells flying alongside the numerous Large Tortoiseshells. Happy days!

A fantastic start to the @greenwingstours.bsky.social False Apollo tour in northern Greece. Tens of False Apollo seen, with specialties such as Grecian Copper also putting on a great show 😀

My most recent post on Speckled Wood reminded me of this incredible photo by Neil Freeman - a female rejecting a male by 'playing dead'. Neil also took a superb photo of an egg-laying female and has also contributed an impressive photo of a female Orange-tip rejecting a male by raising her abdomen!

It's not always obvious but, in general terms, the first butterflies we see each year are those that overwinter as adults, then those as pupae, then larvae, then eggs. The Speckled Wood is unique among our butterfly fauna in that it overwinters in one of two stages - either as a larva or pupa.

I do love caterpillars! When distinguishing larval instars, did you know that a fairly consistent feature is the size and shape of the head capsule?! Here's an example of the Large Skipper, whose larva is usually tucked away within a construction of silked-together grass leaves.

Quiz time! Variation isn't just exhibited in adult butterflies - it can also appear in immature stages. So - what species are shown here? The harder question is: WHY does this variation happen? Nature, as ever, is amazing 😃

What a start to the year for those finding Large Tortoiseshells in Kent! Its eggs are brown, since they're laid on bark, rather than the green of Nettle-feeders. I was also lucky enough to be in the company of @wlangdon12.bsky.social and Matthew Oates when Will found larvae on Portland (below)!

As well as the emergence of our hibernators, early records are also turning up migrant Lepidoptera species, including the Painted Lady. This Thistle-feeding species is one of the world's greatest migrants, with individual butterflies able to fly a distance of over 1,000 miles during their lifetime!

Growing up in Gloucestershire, I was fortunate to always have the Comma as a familiar friend. I had no idea that, at the time, it was a national rarity. It's so good to see that this species has bucked the trend and has expanded its range significantly since ... and is spectacular in all its stages!

It's no wonder that there have been several attempts at introducing the European Map to Britain. It displays extreme seasonal dimorphism, lays its eggs in strings to mimic nettle flowers, and is the only European nymphalid to overwinter as a pupa. And what an underside, from which it gets its name!

Given that 2024 was an awful year for butterflies, I thought about our most maligned, which is surely the Dingy Skipper (terrible name). But the way it wraps itself around a dead flowerhead in the evening, with its egg changing colour, like that of an Orange-tip, makes me love them nonetheless! 1/2

Well, we've finally deactivated our Twitter account for good, thanks to the actions of its owner. On a lighter note, here's a real emperor 😀

Most butterfly species overwinter as larvae (www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species_phen...). One memorable encounter was finding an overwintering Silver-washed Fritillary larva on its silk pad. I like to think that one of my heroes, Frohawk, would have appreciated this photo (his illustration attached)!

The Wood White settles with its wings closed, so how can you tell male from female when the diagnostic black spot, found on the apex of the upperside forewing, cannot be seen? Well, the male has a white patch on the inside of the tip of each antenna that is brown in the female - male & female below!

The immature stages of many Lepidoptera are known to fluoresce when showered with UV radiation - but what is the evolutionary advantage of doing this? An article, by Ben Greenaway, may explain why: www.dispar.org/reference.ph.... Purple Emperor pre-pupation larva and pupa photos below.

Between 2014 & 2016, I studied the Chequered Skipper in Scotland. One memorable encounter was watching a larva spin silk between the edges of a leaf. As silk dries, it contracts, and this pulled the leaf edges together to create a protective tube. Amazing! More at www.dispar.org/reference.ph...

One of our best examples of camouflage is found in the Purple Hairstreak larva, which has evolved to look like an oak bud, making them extremely difficult to locate. Early entomologists advised that the easiest way to find larvae was by touch, rather than sight!

Who cannot love the markings on the pupal cases of our two Ceononympha species - the Large and Small Heaths? Just beautiful! And, in addition to the adult butterfly, did you know that taxonomists may also consider the similarity of immature stages when classifying species? And rightly so 😀

The larvae of many Lycaenids (coppers, hairstreaks, blues) have a close association with ants, a phenomenon known as 'myrmecophily'. The relationship may be parasitic (e.g. Large Blue eating ant grubs) or symbiotic (in exchange for a level of protection, ants get sugary secretions). 1/3

In insects, the first cell division of a fertilised egg results in one cell that controls the development of the left side of the body, & the other the right. If this division goes wrong, we can end up with an individual that is male on one side & female on the other; a bilateral gynandromorph. 1/2

Both Small (below) and Essex Skippers are quite unusual in that they lay their eggs within a grass sheath. Watching a female 'shimmying' down a stem while probing for an opening is quite a sight! But suitable sheaths might be in short supply, and the small egg batches are sometimes found together!

In 2018, it was a privilege to rear Large Blue (under license) from egg to final (4th instar) larva on Wild Thyme. But the most amazing photo (in 'Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies') is, I think, that of a larva eating an ant grub, taken by Marcin Sielezniew. Gruesome but incredible!

The Bath White is one of the rarest migrants to Britain. With an influx of c. 700 records in 1945, sightings of this butterfly are now few & far between (c. 20 since 1956). Any influx is dependent on conditions at the butterfly's continental origin & those have clearly not been met for some time.

Here's a longer video showing the full life cycle of the White Admiral butterfly. Filmed over 2 years in Sussex woodland. Guest starring several parasitic wasps! 🎥🦋🐝 @ukbutterflies.bsky.social @sussexwildlife.bsky.social @europebutterfly.bsky.social @gavinbroad.bsky.social youtu.be/SJjjYmyjzoM