Summer generation Holly Blue

The first Holly Blue of the summer generation. This butterfly has two main larval foodplants: spring generation females lay their eggs on the buds of holly, whereas summer generation ones lay on the buds of Ivy. Unlike the other blues, the Holly blue tends to fly high near trees and bushes.

Fresh Holly blue shows its tongue

July is peak time for butterflies. What up to mid June seemed like a poor butterfly year is gearing up to a great one. Just today I watched 8 species locally. The most striking of them was this freshly emerged Holly Blue male. It is the first individual of the second generation I see this year. It basked in the morning sun in a front garden, and - unusually for this species - it sat with wings fully open for a while. Once warm, the butterfly closed its wings and fluttered onto another perch and stretched its tongue.

A more usual sitting posture for a Holly Blue, with closed wings

The butterfly with its short tongue stretched

Tongue length in butterflies is correlated with body length, so it is not surprising Lycaenids, the family to which the Holly Blue belongs, being small butterflies, have short tongues, around 8 mm. Whites and Brimstone and the Nymphalids have longer tongues, around 15 mm. For their length, some moths (such as the Hummingbird Hawkmoth) have very long tongues, 28 mm. The following table from Pollination and Floral Ecology by Pat Willmer illustrates the length differences between some butterflies and moths.

Tongue length determines the maximum depth of a flower corolla that a butterfly can take nectar from. Short tongued species prefer shallow flowers, often composite ones like brambles, tansy, hemp agrimony or dandelions.

Big Butterfly Count

In the last few days, I have been carrying out surveys for the Big Butterfly Count. I did a count in my garden (5 sp.), two in a local wildlife garden (5 and 6 sp.) and two in a local cemetery (3 and 6 sp.). Given the weather, mostly cloudy with some sunny spells, I am quite pleased with the results. Their results website is quite good with an interactive map where you can check the results submitted at a local scale or for a particular species (over 10,000 surveys already submitted) here. The following photos illustrate my results.

 A Common Blue male today, feeding on oregano. The male regularly patrolled his territory in the wildlife garden, stopping occasionally to feed.

Gatekeepers were plentiful today. This female rested on a Knapweed plant.

My local cemetery has a thiving population of Speckled Wood. Lots of territorial disputes were going on yesterday.

This Red Admiral took advantage from a brief sunny spell yesterday near a buddleia growing in the local cemetery.

This is the first year I see Small Coppers in the wildlife garden.

A Holly Blue feeding on lavender

A Common Blue female on Oregano.

Two small whites courting, the females abdomen raised meaning 'not interested'.

Two female Small Whites sunbathing.

Holly Blues

The last week of April or the first week of May sees the emergence of the first adult generation of Holly Blues (Celastrina argiolus) from their hibernating chrysalis in our area. Almost invariably, they are fluttering around Holly trees. The Holly is the larval foodplant for the first brood and it is relatively easy to spot females laying their eggs on the tender flower buds of Holly in the spring (above). Males also flutter around holly and sunbathe on it, and adults feed also on the tiny holly flowers. The second brood feeds on Ivy. I have found very little published information on the behaviour of this butterfly despite being a common butterfly in gardens.

This male was feeding on Viburnum tinus this morning

The adults feed on a range of nectar producing plants, I have compiled this list from several sources:
Aubrieta, Choisya, Buddleia, Hebe, Hyssop, Red Valerian, Ragwort, Garlic Mustard, Viburnum tinus, Bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.), Bugle (Ajuga reptans), Buttercups (Ranunculus spp.), Forget-me-nots (Myosotis spp.), Holly (Ilex spp.), Honeydew / Sap, Ivy (Hedera helix), Privet (Ligustrum vulgare), Thistles (Cirsium spp. and Carduus spp.) and Water Mint (Mentha aquatica), Hemp-agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum), Rosebay Willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium).

This is the weekly distribution of my records, clearly showing the presence of two flying generations: