16 June 2025 JP meadow butterflies



A pink hillside... a meadow of wild Marjoram with Hemp Agrimony highlighted with purple Knapweed – a feast for butterflies. Here


 a Common Blue with fabulous, almost metallic, shot-silk effect wings of blues tinged with purple drinks deep. The Small Heath

 looks very different: they always rest with their wings closed revealing the underside of their wings.

Bob Drower’s wonderfully clear photos show the amazing detail of butterfly wings – hairs and scales. These tiny scales overlap like roof tiles and create the colours and patterns. These are the ‘dust’ that you might see falling from the wings when a moth attracted to the light collides with a window, or if you touch moth or butterfly wings (best not to as scales are part of efficient flight). Through a microscope, butterfly and moth wings appear like the scales of a lizard or the feathers of a bird – reflected in their group name: Lepidoptera: derived from the Greek Lepido = scale, ptera = wing.

Each scale can be a different colour, and thus the distinctive pattern is built up from a mosaic (Marbled White


Small Copper

 Some colours are due to pigment, but other colours, like blue of the Common Blue (2) are created by scale structure. Colour emerges a bit like oil floating on water or the underside of a DVD, or another way is by light bouncing off a ridged surface and being split into rainbow colours as with a prism.

In the natural world there is little to compete with the surprise and joy of being in a flower meadow as butterflies and other insects drift, skip and swoop between a dazzling variety of wildflowers.


 Hoverfly on Wild Basil


 Smoke Plume Moth; 


 


Bath Asparagus our special ‘local plant’


YOU TOO can experience the excitement and discovery of special plants and dramatic butterflies and insects... and hear about the amazing restoration work done by local volunteers. Be guided by experts in our own unique wild meadow + oak and cherry copse


 + new tree planting and enjoy the spectacle while sitting on the newly restored stone seat...


Wednesday 18th June, 6.30 pm

at

John Presland Nature Reserve.


Meet at the bench at the top of the meadow.

walk follows

The Opening of a New Path to a Dry Stone Wall and Hidden Seat at the Reserve.


Wildlife Gardening Tips – Many of these meadow plants and their attendant insects can pop up in your garden, given a little space and encouragement! Plants below all flourish in our garden...

Knapweed; wild Marjoram; Bath Asparagus.

Hemp Agrimony but maybe with this one remove some developing seedheads before they scatter seed as it can spread a little too optimistically in a flower bed and has resilient roots!

... And buttercups (it’s a good year for them!), complete with beetles


Photo Credits: 1-9 Bob Drower; 10 Nicolette Scourse







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