Painted Lady
Dear Readers, here at Bug Woman’s Adventures in London I’m always up for something that involves audience participation, so I was delighted to hear that Butterfly Conservation are inviting people to vote for their favourite British butterfly. Well, that’s a bit like choosing your favourite child, in my opinion.I love the early ones, the Brimstones and the Orange Tips…
Orange Tip
I love the ones that crop up on my Buddleia, the Peacocks and the Red Admirals…
Peacock
Red Admiral
I love the Speckled Wood, fluttering in a woodland glade…
Speckled Wood
And I love the Holly Blues and Gatekeepers that turn up in the garden…
Gatekeeper (female)
Holly Blue on Green Alkanet
But I think on balance I would vote for the Painted Lady. It isn’t as showy as its close relatives, the Peacock and the Red Admiral, but it does fly over the Atlas Mountains and the English Channel in order to breed in the UK, and to end up feeding on my Buddleia in the late summer, so it deserves a round of applause in my opinion.
I am a little disappointed that there are no moths, because the Hummingbird Hawk Moth or the Jersey Tiger are both favourites of mine. Maybe next year!
Hummingbird Hawk Moth
Jersey Tiger
So, do go and vote. I will be very interested to see which butterfly wins!
https://britainsfavouritebutterfly.co.uk/
And if you aren’t sure, you can take the ‘Which Butterfly Are You?’ quiz here. Apparently my closest match is the Scotch Argus.
Fun quiz! My closest is Brown Argus (89%), although the next 4 were in the 80s, so kinda close.
I don’t think I should vote, as I’m on the US west coast, but I do love the hummingbird hawk moth, which we see here.
As you say, it’s hard to choose just one, but I’m a big fan of the Small Copper, due to the vivid orange and fabulous markings. The Comma also deserves a mention too for those amazing wings.
I’ve voted for the Silver Studded Blue. I once saw a cloud of them on the dunes in St Ives Bay, which was a spectacular sight. They can often be spotted on the ground there, adding a touch of blue to the red and yellow of the bird’s foot trefoil.
As a child they were all just butterflies with no memory of particular species, later my favourite for years was the Peacock. More recently it has become the species I have at long last learnt to clearly identify in the field. The Brimstone, also loved for its early appearance, then the Orange Tip which I don’t remember at all from childhood, the Speckled Wood, the Brown Argus and the latest, so my current favourite is the Green Veined White. My first answer was actually Jersey Tiger but I quickly realised my error.