#small tortoiseshell butterfly

[i-eat-butterflies-when-im-alone]

ŠMĀŁŁ TØRTÖÎŚĘŠHÉŁŁ BÙTTĘRFŁŸ

it is small!!!!!!!

wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[michaelnordeman]

Comma/vinbärsfuks, Painted lady/tistelfjäril, Small tortoiseshell/nässelfjäril and Small (cabbage) white/rovfjäril. Värmland, Sweden (August 1, 2019).

[samirafee]

#AGLAIS URTICAE - SMALL TORTOISESHELL - KLEINER FUCHS🦊

@samirafee

[critter-catcher]

You got it! It's absolutely a small tortoiseshell butterfly! A very pretty one at that too, and these are some lovely pictures!

Also, while researching it yourself is very important I highly recommend iNaturalist if you find a critter you're unsure of. It's sort of like the 'what is X' reddits, which can be very helpful, but iNaturalist has a lot of professionals and well auto recommend what it thinks your critter might be!

@critter-catcher Found this little guy when I was on a walk in 2013...

Did some research and it could be a small tortoiseshell butterfly...

Here are some other pics from the same walk I found this little guy on... https://flic.kr/s/aHsjHfNz98 - Bear in mind this is UK contryside here... :) I'd love to go back again once it gets to being Summer again!

[heather-rajendran]

Small tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae) photos I took 12/05/2024, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK

[wildlifegermany]

[wailveid]

~

[snufflysam]

A small tortoiseshell that I encountered a few days ago that needed water

my Frank Frankly moment

[annyo-d]

Polymer clay pin: Small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) 👉👉🪲🐞🦋🌿🐝🌳

[dansnaturepictures]

Some thoughts and findings about my contributions to the Big Butterfly Count 2024 and photos from the three weeks

I have well documented over the years my enthusiasm for Butterfly Conservation’s vital summer survey to assess the health of butterfly and day-flying moth populations with since 2020 and working from home allowing constant access to Lakeside Country Park, Eastleigh close to our house meaning I did multiple counts during the survey. Since 2022 at the end of the count just for fun I’ve put all of my results which I keep a written record of after submitting to the count on the days I do them into a spreadsheet and made a leaderboard of the species and amounts I saw overall. It always interests me to look for trends and confirm anything I might have noticed during the counts and this year I thought I’d share some findings. As ever the place I did most counts this year was Lakeside with some in Winchester on office working days too, with visits to Rutland Water for the Global Bird Fair, Durlston in Dorset and visits further afield in/to the edge of Hampshire falling inside the count dates adding a bit of variety.

Overall my top five species in rank order were Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Small White, Ringlet and Marbled White and Speckled Wood tied in fifth. This is as predicted and much as I normally get, especially the top two. I do a separate leaderboard just for Lakeside counts which saw Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Speckled Wood, Six-spot Burnet and Small White make up my top five. The Lakeside leaderboard not too different to the overall one bar most of my Speckled Woods seen during the count being there and a good year for Six-spot Burnet for me.

The big theme we’ve heard so much of this year and during the count is of course the lack of butterflies and the concern this brings. I started putting my spreadsheet together yesterday morning knowing I’d likely get more counts in before the end of the survey and at that stage my data really reflected the lack of butterflies with 599 butterflies seen with an average of 16.64 per count down from 872 and 20.27 last year. However we then went to the very well managed butterfly haven Stockbridge Down yesterday afternoon and saw clouds of butterflies including my highest ever count for any species in a count of an incredible 80 Meadow Browns. Then today at Perham Down and Shipton Bellinger we saw loads of butterflies especially Meadow Browns with Common Blue and Peacock seeming to increase in numbers in recent days. This late surge pushing my figures up massively to 878 butterflies/moths in total with an average of 20.90 seen per count marginally ahead of last year! I saw 305 butterflies/moths with an average of 19.06 per count in the Lakeside counts compared to 423 and 22.26 last year.

Overall I counted less than last year of ten of the twenty species in the survey. Small White a focal point of the decreasing numbers with only 55 counted this year compared to last year’s 202; yet it only went from second to third in my overall leaderboard which says a lot I think. Red Admiral also a notable decrease but expected after the year with unprecedented numbers of them last year. I didn’t manage to see a single Small Copper in the count and other than a maybe sighting (of possibly seeing one flying very quickly I couldn’t quite tell) I’m yet to see one in Hampshire this year. One Jersey Tiger moth this year as I saw last year meant no increase or decrease for that one species and of the nine that I saw more of in the count overall this year than last most just seem down to chance. The increase in Six-spot Burnet I spotted from last year where I seemed to see more than ever is interesting, in both years particularly seeing lots at Lakeside.

As ever Marbled White and Ringlet which I did see more of than last year is interesting to look at my results for. Initially I put the increase down to the fact they seemed to first emerge in the year later than last year. I have been thinking over the last few years how this key summer pair with relatively short seasons traditionally should be at their peak in the three weeks the Big Butterfly Count is on from July into August, but as the years go by I seem to see my first in a year earlier meaning their seasons are waning with less and eventually none about into the count. Evidence of how the seasons are shifting in our changing world with the butterfly year a bit ahead of itself now. The impact of weather which has led to the troubles for insects this year possibly delaying their emergence a bit to put these two species’ season a bit more into their traditional place, Ringlet in particular I felt I was seeing at Lakeside later into the count than I’m becoming used to. However a check of my year lists this morning revealed the dates I saw my first of the year of them in June didn’t differ greatly to last year actually, in 2023 it just felt they’d been out a little while before I saw my first compared to this year when there seemed to be a lull in insects emerging in June and I first saw these species in a surge of butterfly sightings with some sunny weather. Another possible factor is that without further afield visits west to Martin Down and Durlston where the season seemed a bit behind with particularly Marbled White still out a lot during the count I may not have seen as many.

Purely for my amusement really I also compiled from my regular trip sightings lists a list of other species of butterflies and moths seen out in the day that I spotted during the days I was doing counts and I was pleased to see twenty different species to the ones in the count. Purple Hairstreak, Lulworth Skipper, Small Skipper, Essex Skipper, Silver-spotted Skipper, Large Skipper, Chalkhill Blue, Silver-studded Blue, Silver-washed Fritillary, Dark Green Fritillary, Small Heath, Wall Brown, Common Grayling, Mint moth and my first ever Magpie moths and Purple Bar among the highlights.

The photos in this set are of; Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown and Peacock at Stockbridge Down, Ringlet at Lakeside, Red Admiral at Egleton, Rutland Water, Brimstone and Comma at Martin Down and Large White, Speckled Wood and Holly Blue at Lakeside.

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Small Tortoiseshell – Aglais urticae

Photographer: Robert Felton

[theoniprince]

🥺❤️🦋

[michaelnordeman]

Spring. Värmland, Sweden (April 10, 2020).

[samirafee]

#AGLAIS URTICAE - SMALL TORTOISESHELL in NATURE & ART🧡🟢

@samirafee

[madbirdwoman]

[lilylonewolf]

Butterflies in the garden