Near Saltbox Hill

Brimstone, Gonepteryx rhamni, male, on a dandelion.  Monad 4061, 19 May 2014.

So, I was out doing some botanising for the London Flora Project, but I couldn't resist some of the invertebrates that were also out there.  This butterfly looks very like a greenish leaf when it puts its wings up, though it's such a pure yellow from another angle that it has been said that this is where the "butter" part of the name came from.

Cream Wave, Scopula floslactata.  Monad 4061, 19 May 2014.

To my surprise, I saw three different moths along one short path between a small wood and the Saltbox Hill Local Nature Reserve.  This subtly marked Cream Wave, which is rare in light traps, was just resting near the ground.   I caught another smaller and brighter moth in my hand as it fluttered and photographed it in a plastic tube that I usually carry with me for such a possibility.

Alabonia geoffrella.  Oecophoridae.  Caught in my hand in a hedgerow in monad 4061.  19 May 2014.

But it's not all lepidoptera.  I took this last one because it looked good.  It's the developing berry head of a Cuckoo-pint, which I showed the flower of as recently as the end of April.  By now, the leaves are dying back, and these berries will be bright red and vermilion later on.

Developing berries of Cuckoo-pint, Arum maculatum, and blue flowers of Germander Speedwell,
Veronica chamaedrys.  Monad 4061, 19 May 2014.

The blue Germander Speedwell is a common and pretty grassland flower, here joining the Cuckoo-pint under a hedgerow.