Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes

But due to the cool spring we have not seen many butterflies yet. Out of hibernation appeared quite a horde of peacock butterflies, but there has been precious little besides.

There were a few commas, though I had to rely on a photograph from last autumn as the cold spring winds soon finished this lovely orange insect off. The comma was feeding on blackberry juice.

First of the season's speckled woods came out of their chrysalis cases in the ground by mid April this year. Not many, but they always give a cheerful start to the season, fluttering gracefully down the woodland glades often in dense shade, well camouflaged from predators by those speckled wings which always remind me of fallow deer.

This butterfly was originally called "The Enfield Eye" in that curious old book Papilionum Britanniae. The early 18th century entomologist Petiver was the first person to describe the insect when he saw it near Enfield. Then it became The Wood Argus.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette May 27