Grizzled Skipper at White Hill

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. 

Dingy Downs

A nice Dingy Skipper, Erynnis tages, on Fackenden Down - I wish I'd found my own, but very gratefully received anyway! This is a butterfly in trouble nationally, and I've only seen a very few, and only singles at any one time. It might be worth repeated visits to try to hit the peak.

Its not at all bad patterning when you get up close. I like the abdominal edging and the antennal stripes. This one might be a male (left hand forewing):

Its quite a hairy butterfly on the underside - I wonder if that helps it to collect warmth from the ground?

And this is a slightly better view of the underside of the wing:

This species lives in fairly small colonies, say of 50 adults at peak flight time, and is relatively sedentary, a few individuals flying perhaps a few km from the original colony. Meta-populations may not remain very effectively linked as habitats become increasingly fragmented and distant. The species is a priority species on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.

Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil Lotus corniculatus is the usual foodplant in all habitats. Horseshoe Vetch Hippocrepis comosa is also used on calcareous soils, and Greater Bird’s-foot-trefoil L. pedunculatus
is used on heavier soils.

Eggs are laid singly on young leaves of the foodplants and females choose the longest shoots of large plants growing in sheltered situations. The larvae hide in tents formed by spinning the leaves of the foodplant together and feed through the summer months. When fully grown, each larva spins more leaves together to form a hibernaculum in which to spend the winter. Pupation occurs the following spring in the hibernaculum, without further feeding.


It was great to see the cowslips, Primula veris, out

The dark blue of the Germander Speedwell, Veronica chamaedrys