While I was photographing a Peacock Butterfly, Aglais io, in the middle of his territory, it flew off and was almost immediately replaced by a rather nice Grizzled Skipper, Pyrgus malvae, which somewhat amazingly I recognised!
Here are a few photos of it nectaring on Wild Strawberry, Fragaria vesca, a little cropped, but a nice fresh specimen.
This species is decreasing, and this is the first individual I have seen for certain. Its abdomen looks like that of a male.
The males bask, chasing rivals in fierce dogfights, and are more commonly seen than the females. However, the females can sometimes also be spotted fluttering about, investigating possible egg-laying sites.
The small bun-shaped eggs are laid on Rosaceous plants such as Wild Strawberry, Agrimony or Creeping Cinquefoil among others. They take 10 days to hatch and the first stages feed around the edges of a silken shelter, then fold leaf edges over to make tents of increasing size. Warm wet weather in July tends to correlate with better emergence the following year. The pretty chrysalis is found at ground level in silk webbings, most overwintering over 9 months, in warm springs a very few forming a second generation in August.
Preferred habitat is a mosaic of short vegetation, bare ground and taller plants, on land such as chalk, rough ground, railway cuttings and unshaded woodland glades and rides. Now rare north of the Cotswolds and Chilterns.
Here are a few photos of it nectaring on Wild Strawberry, Fragaria vesca, a little cropped, but a nice fresh specimen.
This species is decreasing, and this is the first individual I have seen for certain. Its abdomen looks like that of a male.
The males bask, chasing rivals in fierce dogfights, and are more commonly seen than the females. However, the females can sometimes also be spotted fluttering about, investigating possible egg-laying sites.
The small bun-shaped eggs are laid on Rosaceous plants such as Wild Strawberry, Agrimony or Creeping Cinquefoil among others. They take 10 days to hatch and the first stages feed around the edges of a silken shelter, then fold leaf edges over to make tents of increasing size. Warm wet weather in July tends to correlate with better emergence the following year. The pretty chrysalis is found at ground level in silk webbings, most overwintering over 9 months, in warm springs a very few forming a second generation in August.
Preferred habitat is a mosaic of short vegetation, bare ground and taller plants, on land such as chalk, rough ground, railway cuttings and unshaded woodland glades and rides. Now rare north of the Cotswolds and Chilterns.
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