Speckled Wood Butterfly

We’ve seen several Speckled Wood Butterflies (Pararge aegeria) on the site over the last couple of weeks.

They may be brown, but they’re rather beautiful. In mid-Summer, when there are aphids available, they tend not to be seen as they are high in trees and hedgerows, but at this time in late Summer they come down to sup nectar from our flowers - particularly keen on the rudbeckia and echinacea at the moment.

The UK Butterflies website shows several sub-species, but I’m struggling to even confirm the gender so I’ll stick with just knowing it as a speckled wood butterfly! The caterpillar is bright green and, as mentioned below, their foodstuff is not the same as ours, so a most welcome visitor.

Original post: April 2012

We found this nice looking butterfly. He (I think it's a male) was resting on the stone pile around the edge of the site.

This one's larvae should steer clear of our plot and eat more hedgerow-type plants - including couch grass! So he's a welcome visitor!
As usual, thanks to UK Butterflies for the information