Butterflies 2011

trebor28

Motman,
whats the white butterfly/moth with the red/orange wing tips that i saw the other day?

Mothman

trebor28 wrote: »

Motman,

:eek:

trebor28 wrote: »

whats the white butterfly/moth with the red/orange wing tips that i saw the other day?

Orange Tip, a butterfly
reasonably early, but not surprising considering the fine weather.

littlebug

I've had the first small tortoiseshell in my garden over the past few days, seeing quite a few of them around and about.
Other than the (lots of) Brimstone I saw last week I also spotted a few white flutterings but not close enough to id.

There is lots of butterfly information on the Butterfly Ireland website and you can submit your 2011 sightings.

trebor28

sorry bout the typo Mothman.

Birdnuts

Lots of tortoiseshells emerging here in the last few days:)

V Bull

Some more Butterfies & a Ladybird..:)

wgsten

Orange Tip (female) picture taken on 10th April.

Cardynal

Two Orangetips in the Garden today

wgsten

Green Hairstreak

thebishop

V Bull

Peacock Butterfly ??..

Mothman

I think this male Orange-tip had just emerged


Also saw 2 Red Admiral today

Birdnuts

Great to see so many Orange Tips on the wing in these parts in recent days:)

littlebug

A few from Clonbur today.
Peacock


Speckled Wood


Small White rather than Orange tip I think, though there were lots of Orange Tip around too.


There were also quite a few Brimstone but I couldn't get a good shot.

Cardynal

Orange Tip and Cuckoo Flower , unusually high No of Orange Tips around today.

V Bull

Red Admiral..

trebor28

are we allowed post caterpillars in here?


these guys are on nettles as ye can see.
when you move your hand over them they "stand" up and
"wave" in unison, kinda like a mexican wave. presume its some kinda defence tactic.
is this common among caterpillars?
whenever your ready Mothman.:p

Mothman

trebor28 wrote: »

are we allowed post caterpillars in here?


these guys are on nettles as ye can see.
when you move your hand over them they "stand" up and
"wave" in unison, kinda like a mexican wave. presume its some kinda defence tactic.
is this common among caterpillars?
whenever your ready Mothman.:p

I'm going to move this to your Butterfly thread :P

Small Tortoiseshell.

trebor28

moving it to "my own" thread!:p

nilhg

Butterfly on bluebells by cilldara, on Flickr

Not quite sure of the species here, orange stripe on the leading edge of the wing is confusing me.

trebor28

Mothman,
i saw what i think was a butterfly today, though could be a moth, anyway it was on wet ground in rushes by a little stream.
its wing was about half an inch long, not very big, but it was a reddish pink colour.

i was looking on that irishbutterflies website but didnt see it.
any ideas.

Mothman

Small Copper would be the only butterfly that may fit your description.

Mothman

nilhg wrote: »

Butterfly on bluebells by cilldara, on Flickr

Not quite sure of the species here, orange stripe on the leading edge of the wing is confusing me.

I don't know whether this is Small or Large White

littlebug

Mothman wrote: »

Small Copper would be the only butterfly that may fit your description.

Would Cinnabar moth be flying yet? Though it maybe bigger than Trebor28 described.
Cinnabar

Mothman

littlebug wrote: »

Would Cinnabar moth be flying yet? Though it maybe bigger than Trebor28 described.
Cinnabar

Thats a good call and yes it has been on the wing for a couple weeks and are often seen by day.

trebor28

actually that looks pretty much like what i saw.

i remember seeing another colour but thought it must have just have been the underside of the wing.

very pretty moth!

littlebug

trebor28 wrote: »

very pretty moth!

One of my favourites We see lots of them (by day) on Inis Mór and lots of the caterpillars all over the place (inc front door, walls etc:D).

Durnish

Can anyone explain the whole Marsh Fritillary survey problem? I occasionally send records to the DNHC after visits to Donegal and so have received a mysterious email about EU directives, threats of legal action from landowners if the Marsh Frit is found on their land, and tenders for a 2011 survey. Bizarre.

mgwhelan

Birdnuts

Haven't seen a buttefly for weeks thanx to the incessant cold/windy weather!!:( - looking forward to the fine spell next week which should improve things:)

littlebug

Birdnuts wrote: »

Haven't seen a buttefly for weeks thanx to the incessant cold/windy weather!!:( - looking forward to the fine spell next week which should improve things:)

.. and they're out again I saw quite a few whites and Orange tip this morning.

Cardynal

Speckled Wood from Lady's Island.

Durnish

Last weekend I went to Sheskinmore dunes to take pics of any Small Blues I could find. I know one sheltered path in the old dunes where they like to lie about in any sunshine available. Imagine my dismay when I hauled myself up into the hollow only to find that the marram grass was burnt from the local wildfires and was now covered in blown sand from last week's storms. The warm path was a disaster zone. Even the moss and lichen underneath was scorched.

We walked on in silence.

trebor28

Mothman,
found this/these on a blackthorn bush. the caterpillar is about 2 inches long!

Mothman

trebor28 wrote: »

Mothman,
found this/these on a blackthorn bush. the caterpillar is about 2 inches long!

Small Eggar. The larvae are gregarious living in and amongst the larval tent.

Would you pm me location with grid ref if possible?
Outside of the Burren region, they are quite scarce

trebor28

Mothman wrote: »

Small Eggar. The larvae are gregarious living in and amongst the larval tent.

Would you pm me location with grid ref if possible?
Outside of the Burren region, they are quite scarce

i didnt see that many in the web though.

the guy in the photo was inside and lucky for me decided to come out and say hello.

mgwhelan

not too sure if this is a butterfly or a moth.

Mothman

mgwhelan wrote: »

not too sure if this is a butterfly or a moth.

A moth, one of our daytime species though does fly at night.
Latticed Heath, often in the company of Common Heath, another day flyer.

mgwhelan

Mothman wrote: »

A moth, one of our daytime species though does fly at night.
Latticed Heath, often in the company of Common Heath, another day flyer.

It looks like a butterfly what makes it a moth the fact that it flies at night as well.

Mothman

There are plenty of moths that only fly during day...many more species than there are butterflies.

There are some basic differences but there are exceptions!
All butterflies have a knob at end of antennae...some people say they are clubbed. The moth above does not have this. The exception is the Burnet moth family which are day fliers. The most common is Six-spot Burnet

There is one difference that I think is consistent across all moths and butterflies, but is not visible to naked eye. This is a hook like structure that joins the hind and forewings in moths. Called a fenulum...I think. Butterflies do not have this.

mgwhelan

Ringlet i think



Common blue

littlebug

Lots of butterflies out and about today.

mgwhelan

Is this a common or little blue butterfly.

littlebug

mgwhelan wrote: »

Is the common or little blue butterfly.

Common blue. The small blue is more brown on the upperwings.

mgwhelan

more blue :pac:

littlebug

mgwhelan wrote: »

more blue :pac:

Ha! Brain working faster than fingers!

The differences are well illustrated on the Butterfly Ireland site.

The small blue is much more brown on the upperside than the common blue

thebishop

Medow brown.(Maniola jurtina--iernes)

thebishop

Clouded yellow.(Colias croceus) This was from a few years ago.Anyone seen any this year yet?

V Bull

Not sure what this guy is..

littlebug

V Bull wrote: »

Not sure what this guy is..

It's a moth, Six-Spot Burnet. Nice pic.

E39MSport

FYI
BBC4 featured something last night on UK moths and butterflies.