Consistently small adults
Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 5:07 pm
Peacock has been perhaps the easiest butterfly to find since I moved to this part of northern Scotland (Nairn) in July and I have plenty of opportunity to watch them on local buddleias and gardens. Yesterday in Cawdor Castle gardens, they loved the flowers of inula (picture – not mine – here : Peacock has been perhaps the easiest butterfly to find since I moved to this part of northern Scotland in July and I have plenty of opportunity to watch them on local buddleias and gardens. Yesterday in Cawdor Castle gardens, they loved the flowers of inula (picture – not mine – here http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0200/1 ... e.jpg?1048) : that plant is a must for my own garden.
I can say that I have seen sufficient Peacocks here to conclude that they are noticeably smaller than S. England example. Here the males are barely Small Tortoiseshell size. This could be the result of unfavourable weather during the larval period this particular year and in other years the butterflies might be of more normal size. I cannot say. Is there any others evidence of smaller Peacocks in the north of Britain? Incidentally, old distribution maps show blanks in this area for Peacock and it is not a butterfly that is easy to overlook. So they are presumably relatively new colonists. They most certainly are not scarce in this area today.
I wait for Commas to appear here. Can’t be long.
Jack
I can say that I have seen sufficient Peacocks here to conclude that they are noticeably smaller than S. England example. Here the males are barely Small Tortoiseshell size. This could be the result of unfavourable weather during the larval period this particular year and in other years the butterflies might be of more normal size. I cannot say. Is there any others evidence of smaller Peacocks in the north of Britain? Incidentally, old distribution maps show blanks in this area for Peacock and it is not a butterfly that is easy to overlook. So they are presumably relatively new colonists. They most certainly are not scarce in this area today.
I wait for Commas to appear here. Can’t be long.
Jack