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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
This is a female Green Hairstreak (Callophrys rubi) depositing eggs onto the flower buds of a gorse bush. It was taken in late May many years ago and has been scanned from a slide. Hence there is some noise remaining in the picture. I thought I would post it none the less, bacause this is not a sight regularly seen and it may be of interest to some despite its imperfections. Anyway, there is very little left of the season here for new butterfly pictures.
The Green Hairstreak never displays its brown upperside except when in flight. The green colour of the underside, like that of the blues and coppers, is not made up of pigments, but is produced by light refracting and reflecting form a microscopic lattice within the wing scales. The colours seen vary with the angle of view and the directional qualities of the light. The Green Hairstreak can thus appear to be metallic apple-green, turquoise or emerald, when viewed from various angles. Some individuals have plain undersides, but on others, the hindwings are marked with a row of white dots. The sexes are almost identical, but the male has a patch of scent scales in the discal cell of the upperside forewing, and the wings are not quite so rounded as those of the female.
The main foodplants are Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), Broom (Cytisus scoparius), Common Bird's-foot-trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), Common Rock-rose (Helianthemum nummularium), Dyer's Greenweed (Genista tinctoria) and Gorse (Ulex europeaus). Bramble (Rubus fruticosus), Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), Cross-leaved Heath (Erica tetralix) and Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) are also used.
The butterfly occurs throughout most of the British Isles, but is quite localised, being mainly found on scrubby hillsides or warm sheltered valley bottoms. In southern England it particularly favours the lower slopes of south-facing hillsides where there are hedgerows of hawthorn, blackthorn, elder or gorse. It also occurs in lesser numbers along disused railway cuttings, in woodland clearings, old chalk quarries, and on dry heathlands. In northern Britain the butterfly is found, sometimes in large numbers, on moors, sphagnum bogs and wet lowland heaths. There are also many small colonies around the northern shores of Scottish lochs.
Information from ukbutterflies.co.uk. There is even more there, thanks to Peter Eeles.
Shot has been cropped and sharpened a little, with a small amount of dust removal from the original scan. |
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