Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes

Both were photographed by Brian Henham of Fishbourne on the Downs near Chichester. These two insects are not that uncommon but are easily overlooked.

The Duke of Burgundy is not in the fritillary family at all, but looks as though it should be. The name fritillary was given to that family of butterflies because they had chequered patterns across their wings, rather like dice boxes used by 18th century gamblers which were also called fritillaries from the latin fritillus, to subdivide minutely.

The Duke of Burgundy got its name from that ruler probably because of the famous 15th century painting by Van der Weyden of Charles the Bold which shows many chequered patterns on the palace floor and in the faces of hovering courtiers upon whom Charles also treads.

The Duke hangs out, like modern day hoodies on street corners, on the intersections of deer paths through the scrub of the Downs where cowslips or primroses also grow.

Here the males display to each other like blackcocks at the lek (gathering of males for the purposes of a competitive mating display). They await the females often by claiming big luscious leaves on which she may like to lay her eggs.

This is the only British member of the metalmark family. The other 1,500 species live in South America. They are called metalmarks because some of them have bright metallic gleaming plates on their wings.

For full story see West Sussex Gazette June 20