Saturday, 19 January 2019

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




 

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