Lullingstone Butterflies

Small Skipper, Thymelicus sylvestris.  Lullingstone Country Park, 4 July 2016.

A few butterflies that I saw in Lullingstone Country Park, all on differently coloured flowers.  It was a sunny morning and I saw dozens flying around the meadows. 

The Small Skipper above is a male.  The diagonal mark on the wing is known as the sex brand, and it's the origin of its pheromones. 

Common Blue, Polyommatus icarus.  Lullingstone Country Park, 4 July 2016.

This Common Blue, conversely, is a female.  Female Common Blues are often brownish, sometimes nearly all brown except for a blue tinge to the body hairs.  The males are always a bright blue, so at least the name is partly right - unlike the Small Blue butterfly, in which both sexes are always completely brown.

Small Tortoiseshell, Aglais urticae.  Lullingstone Country Park, 4 July 2016.

I only saw this one Small Tortoiseshell, feeding on a Field Scabious.  It was the most colourful butterfly of the day.

Marbled White, Melanargia galathea.   Lullingstone Country Park, 4 July 2016.

On one of the meadows, these Marbled Whites were everywhere.   I also saw Meadow Browns and Ringlets, but didn't get any photos; and I saw a few Fritillaries.  Lullingstone is known to have Dark Green Fritillaries, but I could not get close enough to tell the species, and they never seemed to come to rest, even though I blundered around the grassland for 15 minutes following them.  I finally took this blurry shot below, which is enough to show that my object was a Fritillary, but not which species.  This is just a slice of the photo.

Grassland with flying Fritillary.  Lullingstone Country Park, 4 July 2016