Tour update 🚨 With another place reserved today, our Autumn Exotica in Andalusia tour this coming September now has just 3 places left available to join legendary Spanish lepidopterist Miguel López Munguira in search of some outrageous autumn #butterflies. www.mariposanature.com/tours/butter...

Great to be back in France again and catch up with some old friends. This one is an Ilex Hairstreak Satryium ilicis looking resplendent on Wild Thyme in Burgundy region @europebutterfly.bsky.social

Our Holly Blue caterpillars on the Alder Buckthorn have now acquired a couple of Black Garden Ants in attendance. The ants feed from the caterpillar’s honey gland. @bcwarwickshire.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

A summary of the migrants recorded here in St Mellion, SE Cornwall, between 21st May to 1st June. That was without doubt the largest and most varied migration of insects from North Africa that I can remember. Striped Hawk (livornica) & Small Mottled Willow (exigua) numbers are mind blowing #teammoth

Enjoyed this beautiful Swallowtail at NWT Hickling yesterday. Also counted 253 Painted Ladies on a 75m stretch of brambles. It's an epic migration year! There are a couple of places left on my Swallowtail tour @greenwingstours.bsky.social next Tuesday 10th. Join us! greenwings.co/our-holidays...

With numbers of Painted Ladies (distelvlinder, V cardui) rising on Dutch Butterfly Monitoring transects, it's a good moment to put this invasion in perspective. The graph shows a small influx, comparable with 1996 and 2003, and smaller than 2009 and 2019. But lets see how it continues.

England just had its warmest spring on record. The record was last set in spring 2025. Before that, spring 2024. 9 of the 10 warmest springs have occurred since 2007. It's almost like there's a long-term driver causing this... www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...

Wonderful butterfly spotting at Alners Gorse this weekend on a @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social walk lead by @martinswarren.bsky.social Photos by Derek Righini.

The Marsh Fritillary is coming to the end of its season and some eggs were seen at the highly successful Alners Gorse Open Day on Saturday. Many thanks to @[email protected] for leading www.dorsetbutterflies.com/2026/06/mars...

Good morning and welcome to a new week! Our featured tour this week is Spring Butterflies of the French Pyrenees. Running next May, generating a donation to support @europebutterfly.bsky.social , it's understandably a perennial favourite with guests. www.mariposanature.com/tours/butter...

Its one month until the start of the core survey season for the Wider Countrsydie Butterfly Survey. This citizen science scheme monitors butterflies across the UK landscape. Want to get involved? Check out our Volunteer Opportunities page - volunteer.butterfly-conservation.org/opportunitie...

Lots of Peacock larvae now showing around Dorset. At this rate they will hatch as adults early July and maybe fit in another generation @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

Some 40 days after I found 4 eggs the last adult southern small white has emerged this morning (3 males, 1 female). #butterflies

3 new for year #butterfly species seen @bcwarwickshire.bsky.social Ryton Wood Meadows today. Small Tortoiseshell didn't stop for a portrait but the Meadow Brown and White Admiral did!!

A first family outing to Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire this morning. What a place. Plenty of Black Hairstreaks, one newly-emerged White Admiral and a Norfolk Hawker. All put on iRecord. @bc-cambs-essex.bsky.social @britishdragonflies.bsky.social

Extraordinary in every sense of the word!

A modest 55sp of 111 moths at Corfe Castle last night. At last a Small Mottled Willow as well as a nice Blood Vein, Light Emerald and Clouded Silver @dorsetmoths.bsky.social @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social #teammoth

YIKES

STOP PRESS: White Admiral reported from Alners Gorse yesterday. Could that be earliest ever record (30th May) @richardfoxbc.bsky.social @ukbutterflies.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Two firsts of the year today, a Meadow Brown at Alners Gorse @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social reserve and Silver-studded Blue at Higher Hyde Heath @dorsetwildlife.bsky.social reserve. Both ridiculously early bringing my year list to 29 already!

Over 700 species of moth have now been recorded at our Alners Gorse reserve, including several national rarities. It is a gem for moths as well as butterflies @savebutterflies.bsky.social

The island's Eastern Bordered Straw tally advances to 9 in the last two nights with 2 more from last night in our garden at the Grove; also another Striped Hawk from there.

Moth mania at Alners Gorse. Poplar Hawk and Coxcomb Prominent for starters

Duke of Burgundy eggs already hatched in North Dorset. Let’s hope they all survive so we can enjoy the adults again next spring. @savebutterflies.bsky.social @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

Day 2 has been a fabulous ‘Fritillary Friday’ for our group in the French Pyrenees today, with both Spanish Fritillary (Euphydryas desfontainii) and the beckeri subspecies of Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia ssp. beckeri) seen in good numbers. @europebutterfly.bsky.social

A nocturnal trip into my local woods with a UV torch turned up half a dozen Purple Emperor pupa shining like led’s

Brown day - 1st Meadow brown of the year and the first Small heath seen on this site in north Dorset since 2018! @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

You rarely see Duke of Burgundy taking nectar, but I have seen it quite often this hot spring. Here on Buttercup, but also on Daisy and Elder. I think they like the open flowers as they have a short proboscis ?

Thanks Paul, very interesting. I am sure that what they are going for

We've been seeing a few painted lady butterflies around in Suffolk, west of Mildenhall, but this morning every bramble patch beside ½mi of drove road was covered with them. This video doesn't do them justice as there were thousands. @bc-suffolk.bsky.social

FIRST REPORT: Black Hairstreak. 26th May. Brampton Wood

It's a Painted Lady year. Dozens at a time being reported from place to place on the East Anglian coast, more waves arriving daily and quickly moving inland. Many from early May have bred already and the offspring are only a week or so from pupating (I have one from then). @bc-suffolk.bsky.social

Excellent, this is such a great resource, well done all who contribute

Dorset Moths website update: the 2024 macro-moth records for the county have now been added to the site - www.dorsetmoths.co.uk @dorsetmoths.bsky.social @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

Many people refer to the Marsh Fritillary as the ‘stained glass’ butterfly, and in this photo you can see why. Taken on a Spotted Orchid which it seemed to be getting good nectar from, no idea if it pollinates though @savebutterflies.bsky.social @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

STOP PRESS: Meadow Brown out in Dorset

The Marsh fritillaries were really enjoying Corky-fruited water dropwort (Oenanthe pimpinelloides)nectar this morning. The eggs I watched being laid a couple of weeks ago have coloured up nicely. @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

Highlight of this mornings walk witnessing a large influx of Painted Lady 🦋. A count of 26 on 3 sections of the transect. I must assume there are many more high on the underciff, lots of nectaring opportunities before they move on. @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @migrantmothuk.bsky.social

Probable Red-veined Darter at the Dorset patch (for 2nd year), first Meadow Brown of the year. Large Skipper posing better than the first on 22/05! 6+ Painted Lady belting about in the 30 degrees heat! @dorsetbirdclub.bsky.social @britishdragonflies.bsky.social

Weymouth: Another busy night with this Ni Moth the best of the bunch. Two Bordered Straw and Small Marbled best of the rest. @migrantmothuk.bsky.social

Lovely start to the day! A neighbour's hedge is full of butterflies this morning. At least 15 Painted Lady and 6 Red Admiral just on the facing side of this one blue-flowering shrub. It's a butterfly-tastic day here in Weymouth! 🦋🦋🦋 @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social

Some showy new #moth arrivals for the year this morning (West Dorset, UK): Cream-spot Tiger and a trio of hawk-moths (Privet, Elephant and Lime). @dorsetmoths.bsky.social @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social #TeamMoth

A hearty 209/80 from the combined MV & actinic in the Upton garden last night, with Vestal, another SM Willow, 2 Silver Y, RDP, & 9 Diamondback on the migrant front, plus the season's 1st Alder Moth, Brussels Lace, Small Elephant Hawkmoth, & brace of Silky Wainscot #TeamMoth @dorsetmoths.bsky.social

Our Spring Butterflies (and orchids!) in Abruzzo tour draws to a close today. It's been a superb week, with all the principal targets seen, and some lovely bonuses besides. The 2027 edition is open for bookings, and places are already filling: www.mariposanature.com/tours/butter...

My first Silver-studded Blues of the year roosting with the Common Blues at St Gothian Sands this evening.

Not your standard view of the Cerne Giant! Who knew he had such big eyebrows! @dorsetlandscape.bsky.social #rechalking

First Privet of the year Rodwell Weymouth Dorset with low numbers of migrants @dorsetmoths.bsky.social

Alners Gorse open day this Saturday 30th May, with moth trapping the night before. Should be good, all welcome www.dorsetbutterflies.com/events/

More footage of Silver-studded Blue larva being attended by ants on Studland Heath. Here you can clearly see the pair of tentacle organs being extruded every now and then from its rear end. Seems to be signalling ‘follow me’ @dorsetbutterflies.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social