Large Tortoiseshell - Favourite Photo of 2022

[Wurzel]

Large Tortoiseshell - Favourite Photo of 2022

Week 9

Fingers crossed the recent cold snap will have knocked various parasitoids on the head so there will be one less pressure on the butterflies next year. While we wait we can always slect6 our favourites…speaking of which if you haven’t already it might be a good idea to think about your overall favourite now so that you don’t ‘use it up’ in the species specific threads…

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

[David M]

Saw quite a few of these in spring trips to NE Greece and N Spain.

This one is from Potamoi in Greece on 10 April:

[millerd]

This could well be the only time I get to post anything on this particular thread of a year's favourites!

I was extraordinarily lucky to come across a Large Tortoiseshell on my local patch on 10th May 2022. I had initially mistaken it for a Comma, and only turned the camera on it as I had not had a record shot for the day of the latter species. The closer scrutiny this involved led to one of those "Is it? Surely not... Bloody hell, it is!" moments, followed by attempts to take further shots without hands shaking. In the end, I was not able to get as close as I would have liked, but I did get a view of the elegant grace this species displays in flight before it sat on the ground in front of me briefly (at an annoying angle to the sun) and then set off at speed into the distance. The photos I managed show a very worn individual, but nevertheless, an amazing find. As someone commented to me, what is the chance of this butterfly appearing in front of someone who is (a) able to identify it and (b) has a camera ready to record the event? I regret not having come across it earlier, is all...

First look: definite Comma-like ragged outline

Hang on a minute...

That's not a Comma...

So it can only be...

Dave

[Goldie M]

I would have thought the same Dave, I would certainly have been shaky Goldie

[David M]

Me too, Goldie. The only time I've ever seen this species in the UK was after a tip-off, so I was kind of expecting it.

Had I stumbled across one randomly I think I'd probably be at risk of cardiac arrest.

[Maximus]

Large Tortoiseshell, seen in our garden in Normandy France, 19th March 2022. This butterfly was very obliging allowing me time to go indoors and get another camera to take some more shots.

With Lumix FZ150.

and with Lumix FZ1000.

[Padfield]

Just to comment on Dave Miller's large tortoiseshell: It's telling that you first took it for a comma. That's exactly what large tortoiseshells look like in flight: not large small tortoiseshells but large commas. When people wonder if they've seen a small or large tortoiseshell, I assume it is a small tortoiseshell, because the large variety is so completely different you would simply never wonder that. You would either think, 'What the Dickens is that?' or 'What a ginormous comma!'

Guy

[millerd]

Just to comment on Dave Miller's large tortoiseshell: It's telling that you first took it for a comma. That's exactly what large tortoiseshells look like in flight: not large small tortoiseshells but large commas. When people wonder if they've seen a small or large tortoiseshell, I assume it is a small tortoiseshell, because the large variety is so completely different you would simply never wonder that. You would either think, 'What the Dickens is that?' or 'What a ginormous comma!'

Guy

Many thanks for that interesting angle on Large Tortoiseshells, Guy. I had no previous experience at all with the species, but I never once thought that what I was looking at was a Small Tortoiseshell. Once Comma had been ruled out (as I mentioned) only one thing remained, however stunning that revelation was. One thing that did strike me, despite the condition of this individual, was just how orange it looked in flight. Thinking back, I can now recall having seen something fly past me at speed (more than once) in the same general area earlier in May that was a similar colour. I could not immediately identify these sightings, and to be honest LT wasn't high on the list of possibilities without a closer view. Too large and fast for a Small Tortoiseshell, too bright and large for a Comma (the bigger brighter hutchinsoni form would not be emerging for another few weeks), the wrong colour for a Peacock or Red Admiral... Knowing what I know now, I was probably seeing the same butterfly, and in the future (should I ever be so lucky again) I will more than likely recognise what I'm looking at.

I wonder how many go unnoticed?

Dave