First sighting of this year. A pair of mating Brimstones taking advantage of the first warm sunny day. I am so pleased that I was in the right place at the right time!
And my first sighting last year was on the 12th February as well... but it was a single male.

Marbled Whites have finally exploded in my nearby meadow. One day there were none and the next there were too many to count!

Thanks a lot David You’re right - I’ve seen both kinds of Speckled Woods here and most commonly they are definitely all more orangey!

I can’t quite believe I’m asking if this is a Speckled Wood or a Wall Brown. I know it should be more orange if it’s a Wall; but the markings didn’t look quite right for a Speckled Wood. Photo taken yesterday. The second photo is a Wall Brown taken in October last year. Help appreciated!

First butterfly of the year. Brimstone. Seen first yesterday but he did not stop still for a second. More amenable today. Sunny after very frosty starts this past week in Brittany.

I came across this whilst walking in the forest yesterday and once I’d realised it was a moth, rather than a piece of fallen lichen, I thought it might be of interest here. I have never seen anything like this before.
A moth parasitised by a Cordyceps fungus.

Thanks David. A great way to finish this butterfly year for me!

Two Clouded Yellows, Four Small Coppers, a Red Admiral, four Speckled Woods and a couple of Whites... and it’s the end of October. I’m hoping that someone will confirm that the Small Copper is a caeruleopunctata!

Still mild temperatures in Brittany. I have 10 Swallowtail caterpillars on my Fennel. Some skin shedding overnight which I’ve never seen before. One is more advanced than the rest having changed to what I think (?) is 4th instar. The rest have changed/are changing into 3rd instar if I’m correct. The...

Hi. I have 8 Swallowtail caterpillars on my fennel (NW Brittany). They are small - first and second instars. I’m wondering about their chances of making it to pupating as the temperature/weather becomes less good? Is there anything I can feasibly do to help them along? Thanks for any experiences/adv...

In the Lucerne/clover/grass field close by. Still seeing Common Blues - nearly all males though. Just this one, lovely female.
Short-tailed Blues, Small Coppers, 3-4 Clouded Yellows, Small Heaths, a couple of Peacocks and a Painted Lady. The Comma was in my garden.

Common and Short-tailed Blues today in the Lucerne/Clover next to my garden. Both still looking very fresh.

Butterfly heaven indeed, Deborah! Can't be many unexpected appearances better than a female Brown Hairstreak. You must have been overjoyed. She was sitting on a chaenomeles japonica leaf. There’s a lot of Blackthorn here, but the Brittany butterfly atlas doesn’t show any recorded sightings in my ar...

Butterfly heaven for me yesterday. In very breezy sunshine and showers a second Helice Clouded Yellow, about 800 metres from where I saw the one I posted on 19th August. The same one?? Then back home and a female Brown Hairstreak in the garden close to the house. First ever sighting of one and compl...

What a day! I saw 6 Clouded Yellows in the Lucerne/Clover/Grass field next to my house, Short-tailed Blues, Painted Ladies, plenty of Hummingbird Hawk Moths, and Large and Small Whites... and a White which turned out to be a lifetime first ever Helice Clouded Yellow. I’ll be spending the best part o...

Pleased and surprised to find Short-tailed Bluesin a patch of Lucerne/Clover/grass and dock close to home yesterday. Also 4 Clouded Yellows and several Hummingbird Hawk Moths.

Matsukaze wrote: ↑Sun Aug 14, 2022 1:45 pm Is that female Sooty Copper slightly aberrant?

Don’t know how to get both quotes in the post so thanks David M too!
I probably have more photos. There are a quite a few Sooty Coppers in my little patch. But I don’t know what to look for.

Field alongside my garden has given me Sooty Coppers, Small Coppers, Common Blue, Small Heaths, Clouded Yellows as well as fading Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns. And yesterday it also unexpectedly gave me a Long-tailed Blue.

Thank you. I’d hoped (ridiculously) for Plebejus... but Common Blue is still good!

The chances of this not being a Common Blue are slim... and if it’s a Common Blue that’s good because I’ve not seen them here before...
But, is this possibly something else? Field next to my garden. Grass, clover, dock, ragwort etc. Acid soil. Very dry this year.

Thanks for any help!