Dear Readers, I hope that you can stand yet another insect-related quiz (the last one for a few weeks, I promise!) This week, I thought I would ask you not only to identify the species of the butterflies in the photos below, but what sex they are – I will give one mark for the species, and one for the sex. If the sexes are identical, you can say ‘both’. I suspect this is pretty tricky (though every week I am amazed), so good luck!
So, if you think the butterfly in photo 1 is a holly blue, your answer is 1) a). If you want to hazard an answer as to the sex, it will be 1) a) m (male), 1) a) f (female) or 1) a) b) (sexes identical).
a) Holly blue (Celastrina argiolus)
b) Brown hairstreak (Thecla betulae)
c) Camberwell beauty (Nymphalis antiopa)
d) Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus)
e) Silver-washed fritillary (Argynnis paphia)
f) Painted lady (Vanessa cardui)
g) Purple emperor (Apatura iris)
h) Clouded yellow (Colias croceus)
i) Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni)
j) Large white (Pieris brassicae)
k) Small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)
l) Adonis blue (Polyommatus bellargus)
m) Small white (Pieris rapae)
n) Small pearl-bordered fritillary (Boloria selene)
o) Orange tip (Anthocharis cardamines)
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
You have a pretty selection here. Two or three look similar to species we get here, although they are obviously quite different for I do not recognise their names. Am bowing out of this one and look forward to seeing how well your contestants do.
I see picture 7 is missing but, by the process of elimination, I think I have it (but I’m not going to give any clues as to which it is, yet anyway… 😉) Answers to come.
Thanks for the heads up Mike – photo 7 now posted 😊 hope your answers still work!
I’ve taken pictures of most of these myself, so identification (I hope) shouldn’t be a problem, but you’ve opened up a whole new dimension with the male/female/both (i.e. the same) question. So here goes 🤞🤞:
1 h male
2 i female
3 j female
4 m male
5 o female
6 g male
7 f both
8 k both
9 n female
10 e female
11 c both
12 b female
13 a female
14 l male
15 d male
And didn’t you do well 🙂