Disturbed a small butterfly out in the back alley at home today. The upperwings were all brown, and as the females of several of the ‘blue’ species are brown, I assumed it was a female common blue. Being a cloudy day though, she perched on this fence for long enough for me to go and find my camera, come back and take a few shots. The pattern of spots on the underwing is also very similar in several of these species, but that distinctive figure-of-eight at the leading edge of the hindwing makes this a brown argus rather than a common blue – the two spots are there in the common, but noticeably further apart.
I found this small clutch of eggs on a leaf in the garden. I always think these small batches are shield bug eggs, although I can’t really remember where I got that idea from – I’ve done a bit of Googling and I still think so though.
In fact I will go further and say I think these are eggs of the common green shield bug.
The tiny insect below is an interesting one – this is the woolly aphid, basically a blackfly in a fleece. They are pretty common, but it’s only the second one I have ever seen, and like the first, I caught it in my hand as it winged its way lazily across our back garden.
Listen to Chalkhill Blue at Bandcamp.com!
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See also:
See the Chalkhill Blue CD at:
Rock Bottom Records, Whitstable
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