More fun with Pearl-bordered Fritillaries

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

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Yesterday I visited Rewell Wood twice. Firstly at 9am to catch the Pearl-bordered Fritillary with open wings, then at 6pm to find them roosting.

There was a strong breeze blowing in the morning and I visited a glade which has been good the past two years. However, it was overgrown and I didn’t see any PBFs. On the way back along the track I found plenty of PBFs nectaring on Bugle which gave me excellent open wing shots. This provided better backgrounds than the open area I had been visiting previously where they landed on dead bracken which is a very messy background. Two PBFs had rather different markings to normal and are aberrants. One is a known aberrant that is shown on UK Butterflies site. I also found other interesting insects and a lizard which scuttled across the path.

I found a few insects on the leaves:

moth, possibly Adela reaumurella

Hawthorn Shield Bug Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale 

Wasp Beetle Clytus arietus

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

dark aberrant form of Pearl-bordered Fritillary

aberrant form of Pearl-bordered Fritillary (ab.transversa)

Fluttering around each other

In the evening I found five PBFs roosting on one buddleia, three on one dead flower:-