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Silver-studded Blue - Favourite Photo of 2019

Week 15

So here we are deep into January and the start of the season tantalisingly close – so now is the time to start brushing up on your ID skills ready for the new season. What better way to do this by finishing off your selecting for the final few Faves posts?

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos as then it will be easier to keep track of things? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As in previous years details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome as would any accompanying stories and anecdotes or other observations of behaviour and interesting other points.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Here is a male from the south of France on the 8th of June. Chris

I attended the BC field trip on 23 May in Cornwall primarily looking for Grizzled Skippers, a Silver-studded Blue lava was a fantastic bonus as was what I believe to be the first record in UK of an adult Silver-studded Blue. He had only recently emerged and yet to make his first flight. Both the lava and the adult had attendant ants.

Most of my SSB have a pinky/purpleish heather background so this one stands out for me. He's also quite well endowed in the studd department .

I am lucky to have a variety of reliable locations for this exquisite little blue butterfly within a relatively short distance, all within the county of Surrey. They display quite a bit of variety, and I always seek out fresh females in particular because of their amazing iridescence. Considering they are basically a small brown butterfly...

Fairmile Common is probably easiest to get to.Dawneys Hill is always worth a visit, as there may well be some early Graylings as well.Thursley Common is a bit further. Dave

Another species I didn't see in the UK in 2019, but there are plenty on the continent, although I rarely concentrate on them individually.

This image was taken purely because it shows the difference in unh ground colour between Silver Studded Blue (on the left) and Idas Blue:

Silver-studded Blue

Some years we’re privileged to witness clouds of Chalkhills and at Slop Bog in 2019 there was the Silver-studded Blue equivalent, not exactly Cumulonimbus but more Cirrocumulus. They were everywhere I looked and whilst a fantastic sight to behold it meant selecting one was ridiculously difficult. In the end I searched for the most different looking individual and could still only whittle it down to two which I couldn’t decide between.
The first is a male which didn’t of sport the more usual banding along the margins of white, then ‘black’ then the electric blue of the ground colour. This one did have the banding but the black layer continued on further into the hind wing forming large spots something I can’t recall noticing before.
The second was a diminutive female. She wasn’t exactly pristine but what she lacked in freshness she made up for by glittering golden in the evening sun. Something I’ve definitely never seen before! Have a goodun

Wurzel