Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes- July 30 2008

It isn't very brown, being mostly white. But the Browns are a huge family with many different cousins varying between white, black, and brown.

Our ancestors just couldn't understand what the marbled white was up to. Why wasn't it white like all the 'cabbage' whites (except for their wing tips)?

Nor was it all over brown like all the normal Brown family.

So it was known as the 'Half- mourner' in 1717. Half is mourning and half is glad tidings.

People were puzzled by it '“ well, those few who ever noticed insects.

Other names were the Marmoris or Marmoress. Marbled whites have been steadily increasing over the past 20 years and it is no longer uncommon to see one in the long grass of the Downs in June and July.

I also usually see them at Birdlip on the steep hills above the Severn valley, also on the Mendips, Exmoor and Dartmoor.

There is even a small colony on the Wirral and another in Yorkshire.

You won't find it in either Scotland or Ireland. But you will see it throughout France, Italy and Germany and on to Iran and Asian Turkey.

It likes bright sunlight and a south- facing slope, and then it looks a quite brilliant butterfly and very eye-catching because of that beautiful bright marbling.

They rather remind me of those remarkable geological specimens of crack marble displayed in the National History Museum in London brought over from Italy.

If you are lucky enough to travel into southern Europe and on into north Africa you may see some of the other brands of marbled white to be seen in high summer. Spain has four different sub-species alone.

I sometimes see one or two in Portugal where my son lives. As they flicker by in the long grass I can't tell one from another. You certainly have to have the Collins guide to hand and open at the right page, and you may also have to catch the thing in a net before letting it go.

Just to see how that draughts board pattern is arranged. Go to Italy and you'll have to start all over again because they have their own special one as well as two others.

You could do worse. You could spend your time playing marbles for instance. At least you wouldn't lose your marbles, having nothing to do.