White-letter ab.

[greenanrol]

I photographed a White–Letter Hairstreak in Bedford Purlieus (Cambs) which is an aberration.

I can’t seem to find any info of it in books or on the web, anyone any ideas on this one?

Cheers

Greenanrol

[Mark Tutton]

What a great sighting -well done.
I can't find anything similar in Cockayne, Russworm etc. but Pete will probably have the best insight.
Kind Regards
Mark

[David M]

It's an unusual one for sure.

Thanks for posting the image.

[Trev Sawyer]

I can't find an ab. pallida in the Cockayne collection, but would have thought that might be a likely candidate?
Bedford Purlieus has an excellent population of White-Letter Hairstreaks and there is a good photo of an ab. albovirgata from the same venue 5 years ago on the Cambs and Essex BC webpage: see 4th July on this page... http://www.cambs-essex-butterflies.org. ... ul2010.php

Trev

[Pete Eeles]

Fantastic find! It's not a named aberration according to the definitive text, Goodson and Read. The White-letter Hairstreak abs. are small in number and are all documented here:

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/aberrati ... es=w-album

Cheers,

- Pete

[Neil Hulme]

Wow!
Congratulations. That's very different, and well worth naming!
BWs, Neil

[Goldie M]

What a fantastic find, it's beautiful as well Goldie

[Pauline]

Fabulous!!! Thanks for sharing.

[greenanrol]

Thanks for your replies everyone,

A case of right place at the right time!
It looked a totally different WLH when I first saw it - really light in colour. My heart was in my mouth until I managed to get a pic of it! It was flitting around on different flowers until it settled enough to get a pic, even then it was off after about a minute!

Greenanrol

[peterc]

Fantastic - well done. It's hard enough finding any WLH close up never mind an aberration of one

ATB

Peter

[MikeOxon]

I wonder if this is an example of leucism? I have seen examples in birds but it can occur throughout the animal kingdom.

According to Wikipedia: "Leucism is a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy colouration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes. Unlike albinism, it is caused by a reduction in multiple types of pigment, not just melanin"

There is an example of a leucistic Small Copper from Holland, shown at https://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2015/0 ... el-island/

It would be interesting to know if the brown colour seemed to be missing from the upperside of the wings as well - perhaps visible in flight?

Mike

[Testudo Man]

I wonder if this is an example of leucism? I have seen examples in birds but it can occur throughout the animal kingdom.

According to Wikipedia: "Leucism is a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy colouration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes. Unlike albinism, it is caused by a reduction in multiple types of pigment, not just melanin"

There is an example of a leucistic Small Copper from Holland, shown at https://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2015/0 ... el-island/

It would be interesting to know if the brown colour seemed to be missing from the upperside of the wings as well - perhaps visible in flight?

Mike

Fantastic image of a very unusual WLH.

As Mike has suggested, it does have that Leucistic look about it.
I came across a Leucistic adult Slow Worm in 2012, captured some nice images of that too

Going to the other extreme, i have also sighted/photographed Melanistic(black) Adder and Common Lizard.

Cheers Paul.

[Pete Eeles]

I'm not so sure. The pale colouring is specifically targeting the otherwise-normal-orange/red band. I'd say this is more like a schmidtii Small Copper. Perhaps this should be named ab. alba.

Cheers,

- Pete

[greenanrol]

My first thoughts when finding this butterfly was it had very similar colours to a Small Copper schmidtii

I was also thinking along the lines of a name - something to do with albino, being so pale, so alba seems a good choice of name.

A good description of the differences from ‘type’ – underside ground colour a significantly paler shade than normal; the usually orange area along the rear margin of the underside hind wing, adjacent to and above the tails is off-white.

Can I therefore name it as Satyrium w-album ab. alba (WYLDES 2015) ?

Thanks

Greenanrol