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| Meadow Brown butterfly, Maniola jurtina. Nymphalidae. West Wickham Common, 6 June 2014. |
Just a few photos taken during my weekly butterfly transect on West Wickham Common. It's not actually a great spot for butterflies, but there are always some, and other things to see as well. There are patches of different sorts of environment, and this Meadow Brown is usually seen among grass, as its name suggests.
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| Tree Bumblebee, Bombus hypnorum. West Wickham Common, 6 June 2014. |
The Tree Bumblebee is a new arrival in Britain, and it is certainly doing well. There were lots of them on this bramble patch.
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| Fly, Broad Centurion, Chloromyia formosa. West Wickham Common, 6 June 2014. |
This iridescent fly caught my eye. The photo is a bit blurry because I could not get very close to it.
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| Oedemera nobilis. Female. West Wickham Common, 6 June 2014. |
The males of this beetle have large, swollen thighs, but even the females are easy to identify; their green iridescence, and the way their wing-cases don't properly cover their wings, tell you what they are. There is a similar species with which they might be confused, but that is browner, smaller and doesn't have such a big wing-exposing gap.
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| Common Blue Butterfly, Polyommatus icarus. Lycaenidae. West Wickham Common, 6 June 2014. |
It was good to see some blue butterflies on the common. They turn up occasionally on a patch of heath but I don;t see them every time I visit.
Just started following your blog.
ReplyDeleteYou have some lovely photos of Butterflies here, I still haven't managed to see a Common Blue yet, but did see my first Comma of the year at the park today, another lovely butterfly.
Amanda x