The Special Butterflies of Cumbria

Cumbria has some rare habitats which are home to some special species of butterflies. The fells provide a home for our only truly montane species of butterfly in Britain. The lowland bogs provide the right breeding requirements for a wetland specialist and the limestone outcrops provide a refuge for one of our rarest and most threatened butterflies.

 

 

High Brown Fritillary (Argynnis adippe)

 

Back in the middle of the 20th century, this butterfly was a common and widespread species in England and Wales but since then it has fallen into a catastrophic and largely unexplained decline. It is now one of our rarest and most threatened butterflies. Its remaining populations now hang on in Devon, South Wales and Cumbria.

 

I took the following photographs in 2012.

 

Males.

 

 

 

Females.

 

 

 

Large Heath (Coenonympha tullia)

 

This is a wetland specialist and in Cumbria this species only occurs on lowland blanket bogs. There are three named forms of this butterfly in Britain and it is form davus that occurs in Cumbria. 

 

I took the following photographs in 2011 & 2012.

 

Female (ab.lanceolata)

 

 

Males.

 

 

 

Small Mountain Ringlet (Erebia epiphron)

 

This delightful butterfly is our only truly montane species in Britain and to see it entails a fell walk up to about 1200 feet and beyond. Unsurprisingly, the only colonies you will find outside of Scotland are in Cumbria.

 

I took these photographs in 2014 & 2017.  

 

Males.

 

 

Female.

 

 

 

Scotch Argus (Erebia aethiops)

 

As its name suggests, this is predominantly a Scottish species but it does occur in just two outpost colonies in Cumbria.

 

I took the following photographs in 2012.

 

Males.

 

 

Female.

 

 

 

Northern Brown Argus (Aricia artaxerxes)

 

This species is distinct from its southern cousin the Brown Argus (Aricia agestis). The differences between the two are subtle. The Northern Brown Argus (A. artaxerxes) occurs as two subspecies; the Cumbrian populations are of ssp. salmacis and those in Scotland are of ssp. artaxerxes with its distinctive white wing spots.

 

I took the following photographs in 2012 & 2014.

 

subspecies salmacis.

 

Males.

 

 

Females.

 

 

Male (ab. unicolor)

In this aberration, the orange marginal markings and central black spots of the forewings are absent.

 

 

 

Mating pair.

 

 

subspecies artaxerxes.

 

Males.

 

Blood Moon

With the prospect of clear overnight skies across south-east England, I set my alarm for 0500hrs in order to see the total lunar eclipse.

This photograph of the moon was taken at 2330hrs on 20th January 2019

These photographs were taken at about 0515hrs on 21st January 2019 with the eclipse just starting to recede from totality.

Chequered Skipper

Expecting to see all of the British butterfly species on your local patch is a forlorn hope, wherever you happen to live in the UK. Many of our species are habitat specific in their breeding requirements and when those habitats are rare, this can mean that some of those species are extremely localised and restricted to particular regions. In order to see these species, you need to travel to where they occur.

 

One such species is the Chequered Skipper (Carterocephalus palaemon). This attractive Skipper used to occur at a few sites in the English Midlands but those populations became extinct during the 1970's. Since then, enthusiasts have had to make the journey to its Scottish breeding sites.

A project is currently underway to return the species to its former English sites.

 

I took the following photographs in 2013. 

 

 

Chequered Skipper (Carterocephalus palaemon) 

 

Mating pair

 

 

 

Female

 

 

Male

 

Out with the Old, In with the New

The overnight temperature on 30th December was forecast to be no lower than 9 degrees and so I decided to run my last moth-trap of 2018. When I checked the contents on the morning of the 31st December, there was just one moth present. It was not the expected Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata) or Mottled Umber (Erannis defoliaria) but a fresh emergent for the new season.

 

The Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) is one of our earliest moths to emerge and is generally on the wing from January to March. For a grey moth, it is quite attractively marked and the abdomen has a pinkish hue. The females are flightless. 

 

 

Pale Brindled Beauty (Phigalia pilosaria) (male)