Queendown Warren, May

Adonis Blue, Lysandra bellargus.  Queendown Warren with the Orpington Field Club, 24 May 2014.

I am well behind posting about various trips and photos, so here are some, not necessarily in date order.  These photos are from Queendown Warren, a nature reserve on the chalk grassland that is so productive in Kent.  The walk was organised by Irene Palmer and led by the local warden, Selwyn Dennis.

These butterflies, Adonis Blues, have males that are just a bit more sky-blue than our other blue species.  They are not at all common.  The caterpillar feeds only on Horseshoe Vetch.  Specialised feeding requirements lead to rarity all too often.  In other ways they are very like Common Blues:

Common Blue pair mating.  Polyommatus icarus.  Queendown Warren with the Orpington Field Club, 24 May 2014.

With very similar underwing patterning. 

The reserve, a fairly plain hillside in a panoramic view, was full of colourful sights closer up.

Leaf Beetle, Cryptocephalus aureolus.  Queendown Warren with the Orpington Field Club, 24 May 2014.

Yellow Bulbous Buttercups with iridescent green Cryptocephalus leaf beetles.  One of the fields on the opposite hillside was covered with these buttercups.

Meadow Clary, Salvia pratensis, with bumblebee, Bombus pascuorum.
Queendown Warren with the Orpington Field Club, 24 May 2014.

A purplish-blue wild Salvia, another scarce species, being investigated by a bumblebee, Bombus pascuorum.

Scoparia pyralella.  Queendown Warren with the Orpington Field Club, 24 May 2014.

Several small colourful moths in the hedgerows.  This one is a bit over 1 cm long.

You can see more photos from this trip in Irene Palmer's write-up of the visit on the Orpington Field Club website, here: Orpington Field Club Visit to Queendown Warren.

Hound's-tongue, Cynglossum officinale.  Queendown Warren with the Orpington Field Club, 24 May 2014.