Butterfly Recognition.

[Brian Brown]

Hello. Could anyone please tell what the attached butterfly is?

https://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/~ukbutt ... &id=240869

[David M]

Red Admiral, Brian.

[Brian Brown]

Hello David. Thanks for the reply. I am puzzled because all the books I have show the attached picture which appears different. Do you suppose the butterfly in my original post appeared different because the wings were not fully open?

[David M]

Yes. The hindwings were not visible in your images as the butterfly had lowered its forewings over them, thus you couldn't see the broad, red marginal band on the lower wings.

[Brian Brown]

Many thanks David. I think I was too hasty. I should have thought of that before. Brian.

[millerd]

Hi Brian - it's probably worth mentioning that a lot of older books showing "pinned" specimens from the days of collecting butterflies give rather unrealistic images for establishing an ID in the field. Photographs of live insects (as found in abundance on the UK Butterflies species pages for example ) provide a much better guide to identifying what you may see in the wild.

Cheers,

Dave