possible painted lady

[eeyore]

Today we were surrounded by clouds of these while working on the island in north willen lake - could some one put a definite id on them for me ? I tend to think that they are painted ladies but the resident know all on another forum says that they are tortoiseshell.





apologies for the photographic quality - I was running a fencing work party (great idea in this heat ) so only had my little f10 along.

[DL]

Yes Painted Lady. A Small Tortoiseshell has much darker underwings and no circles.

[cherrybee]

Looks like painted lady to me nice pics.
checked with google and found this hope it helps you
http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il...intedlady.html

[Mr Mag00]

yep, defo painted lady big migration ive heard

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Mr Mag00

yep, defo painted lady big migration ive heard

must be we had upwards of 50 arround us - is teasel the main food plant ? or is this just a target of opportunity due to the fact that the island is covered in em.

Incidentally we also had loads of little blue jobs about 1/3 the size of a painted lady with a pale border on the wing - any idea what these were ? They were way to skittish to photography unfortunately

[cherrybee]

Originally Posted by eeyore

must be we had upwards of 50 arround us - is teasel the main food plant ? or is this just a target of opportunity due to the fact that the island is covered in em.

Incidentally we also had loads of little blue jobs about 1/3 the size of a painted lady with a pale border on the wing - any idea what these were ? They were way to skittish to photography unfortunately

Possibly Common Blue or Holly Blue

[Mr Mag00]

teasle are great food plants fullstop. With the pale blue edge winged jobs were the upperwings dark blue/brown/black toward the edge,if so prob a 2nd gen holly blue!
more info for full id plz

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Mr Mag00

teasle are great food plants fullstop. With the pale blue edge winged jobs were the upperwings dark blue/brown/black toward the edge,if so prob a 2nd gen holly blue!
more info for full id plz

upper wings were pale blue (airforce blue), the edge margins were much paler almost white.

[Mr Mag00]

probably common blue polymattus icarus which has a very long flight period and many over lapping gens/broods. Holly has dark blending to the wing edges,esp in 2nd gen

tell your resident know all on other forum they're an idiot for thinking anything other than painted lady, what forum by the way?

[Tiggrx]

Common Blue or Holly Blue are the only two species of blue butterfly which I would expect to see around Willen Lake. I would think it would be Common Blue - there are a lot about at the moment.