More adonis/common blue

[Colin Pumfrett]

Hi, i have just returned from the Holies in Berkshire where i looked for adonis blues, i could not find any but i met a woman who was doing a butterfly transect for berkshire butterfly conservation who kindly showed me their location, it was a small south side slope of chalk down. There was a colony of about 50+ adonis blues, many mating all flying slowly only inches above the ground and not leaving this small area. I took lots of shots but some could be common blues according to others. I know what common blues look like and i thought that these were adonis, more lustrios sheen blue than common and i would not think the butterfly conservationist would be wrong.Take a look at some photos.

[Naturenutz]

Hi Colin,they are not easy to tell apart are they,but i think these are common blue.Adonis usually have black segmentation lines in the outer white edges and the blue sheen doesnt look as bright as it should,although that could be the high midday sun.Hope i am wrong though .wait for further id's

[Susie]

They look like common blue to me.

[fissidens]

Well, to buck the trend, I think at least the middle and right-hand top row are Adonis. If you look carefully you will see the black veins do extend through the white border and they get wider as they do so. In Common Blue the black veins are much less distinct or get less pronounced as they cross the margin. Secondly, Common Blue usually shows a grey inner margin to the white border (the inner third or half of the border is pale grey) and this usually shows well in photographs. Thirdly the wings are too uniform powder blue, Common Blues when fresh have the veins well picked out in that colour blue but the remainder of the wing has a darker hue. I can't explain why the chequered margins don't show better but sometimes its difficult to get a good picture in strong light.

Hope that helps!