Meadow Cut Time! Butterfly ID’s

 

Meadow Cut Time! Butterfly ID’s

Wildlife Gardening Tips



A beautiful Common Blue butterfly drinks from a meadow marjoram flowerhead – a flower that is never without butterflies when the sun shines. This Summer, clumps of Marjoram have offered a continuous food supply to masses of brown meadow butterflies. Less flamboyant, but intricately patterned members of the meadow community, they can be difficult to tell apart




Which are which? Compared to the Meadow Brown



the Gatekeeper (2 & 3) is smaller, has more orange on the wings (very obvious in flight) and has two dark framed white spots on its forewing. The larger, browner Meadow Brown only has one framed white spot (5 this butterfly has a damaged wing - a narrow escape from a predatory bird peck!).

But there has been another brown butterfly about the meadow and in the flower border – 




It is a notoriously difficult one, and it has a doppelganger. Variable amounts of blue scales at the base (or even entirety) of the wings... or virtually none; orange spots along wing edges, but of variable prominence; maybe a black spot near centre of fore wing... all pretty vague, but female Common Blue Butterflies are like that... very individual and doing their own thing! BUT it could also be a variable close relative, the Brown Argus – a bit smaller than the Blue, primarily brown wings without blue scales; more prominent and extensive orange spots round wing edges. If you can only see underside of the wings, it gets worse!... all depending on two dots making a figure of 8 on one, or an additional spot on the other, both surrounded by other dots... just to baffle this faint-hearted amateur! But this photo 

is definitely a female Common Blue I reckon!

The brown butterfly


 is easy to recognise – a creature halfway between a moth and a butterfly. The Skipper is small, thread-like antennae ending in knobs, spreads its wings like moth... and they obligingly skip at speed from plant to plant!


 The last is the Ringlet, another ‘brown’ and also very easy to recognise.

Wildlife Gardening Notes: Don’t forget that marjoram, wild or cultivated is a great culinary herb for us as well as the butterflies! The pinkish flowers amongst the marjoram in 2 is Soapwort, easy to grow and beloved by pollinators!

And do keep your wild wall plants like Ivy-leaved Toadflax and ferns for now... they or their progeny may be vital for a possible pending project in the near future!

MOST IMPORTANT! Meadow cutting time is now coming upon us... and long ‘no mow’ grass. Leave the seedheads for a few days then rake and remove the dead stuff so it doesn’t slowly decompose through autumn and winter and fertilise the meadow. Too much nutrient is no good for orchids and other flowers of traditional meadows.

Photo credits: Bob Drower 1 - in Murhill NR. Others: Nicolette Scourse in her wildlife garden.

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