Adonis aberration

[eccles]

I spotted this one at Hazelbury yesterday. The check marks on the white wing borders are very pale, almost non-existent, but there's no doubt in my mind that this is an adonis. It also has odd spots on the lower wing, a little like those on a female. It was a very aggressive individual too. A common blue unfortunately decided to adopt a territory that encroached on that of this one, and there were frequent tussles with the adonis wrestling the common to the ground before releasing it.

DSC02900.jpg (74.53 KiB) Viewed 1122 times

[eccles]

Having just seen chalkhills at Hazelbury, the dark circular marks on the rear wings reminded me of this one. I've heard that adonis and chalkhill can sometimes hybridise. Could this be a hybrid from last summer's mating, do you think?

[Pete Eeles]

The hybrid is polonus. However, this looks like a regular Adonis Blue to me.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Piers]

The dark spots on the hindwing are a regular Adonis feature, and sometimes they extend onto the forewings too.

Polonus emerges with the first brood Adonis in May/June.

Felix.

[eccles]

June was when the above photo was taken, Felix, which is why I wondered if it was a hybrid. This thread has been around a while. Thanks for the comments, both.