Large Tortoiseshell

My friend Bob has always been very good at keeping me in the loop, whenever he finds an interesting butterfly. When he happened upon his second Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros) of the year, on his local patch on Sunday, he kindly gave me a call. 

Bob is very used to me not having my mobile 'phone switched on but we exchanged texts about his find later that evening and I decided that it would be worth an early morning visit to the location the next day.

I was on site by 0745hrs and it wasn't long before a beautiful female polychloros appeared and I had her to myself for 3 hours.


The Large Tortoiseshell has had a curious history as a breeding species in Britain. During the first half of the twentieth century, it occurred in relative abundance, interspersed with long periods of scarcity. During the second half of the century, it became a very scarce butterfly and was eventually presumed to be extinct. From then on, sightings of single specimens were generally regarded as being of doubtful provenance. However, during the last few years, sightings have started to increase in regularity and there appears to have been significant migration events during the springs of 2019 and 2020, culminating in evidence of breeding this year.

The appearance of this species in Britain always generates excitement amongst lepidopterists.

Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros) (female)