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Reposted by UK Butterflies

Butterfly Conservation Europe @europebutterfly.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

We are delighted to be supporting the next Symposium on the Ecology and Conservation of Butterflies and Moths. In Girona, Spain 6-10 April 2027. Early Bird bookings open now. Don’t miss it. esdeveniments.udg.edu/148395/detai...

esdeveniments.udg.edu

Ecology and Conservation of Butterflies & Moths International Symposium

6-10 april 2027 Girona The Ecology and Conservation of Butterflies " />

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Another foodplant first! This time, of Holly Blue using Kidney Vetch as a larval foodplant, with an egg followed through to final instar larva by Maggie Zebroski. This is, I believe, the first record of the use of Kidney Vetch, not just for the UK, but for the whole of Europe! Well done Maggie!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Well done Naomi Addleton on finding a Holly Blue larva feeding on Erica cinerea (Bell Heather) in the New Forest. This is the first record of the use of this foodplant in the UK. Just look how pink the larva is - perfectly matching the plant! And a Lasius ant to boot!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Monk Sherborne is just 10 miles from my house, so no excuse for not seeking out the Queen of Spain Fritillary there. I see this species every year in Europe when guiding for @greenwingstours.bsky.social, but seeing them on my local patch was special. And it was great to put lots of faces to names!

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Craig Jones @craig63jones.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Sometimes the butterfly gods smile down on you... A bilateral gynandromorph Common Blue at Grafton Wood, Worcs 1/8/26. @westmbms-99.bsky.social @worcswt.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social @ukbutterflies.bsky.social

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Reposted by UK Butterflies

David Element @davidelement.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

I have just uploaded this film of a male Brown Hairstreak Butterfly Thecla betulae drinking from a chalk stream @markbravery.bsky.social @rlewington2.bsky.social @ukbutterflies.bsky.social, taken this am: youtu.be/9Y-CYk65OLs?.... It is possible that this behaviour may not have been filmed before.

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

White Admiral seems to have had a good egg lay at Kintbury Chase in West Berkshire, with 6 eggs and 25 caterpillars found in the space of 2 hours this morning. I do love those little 'hairy golf balls'!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Just wow! More from the @greenwingstours.bsky.social Italian Alps tour. We revisited a mating pair of Apollo early this morning to observe the development of the sphragis - a wax-like mating plug that the male deposits onto the female's abdomen to prevent further pairings. And then they did this 😀

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Great to catch up with Southern Swallowtail (Papilio alexanor) on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social Italian Alps tour. Despite our usual sites being extremely arid, the swallowtails seemed to be in their usual numbers and a delight to see as they fed from whatever nectar sources they could find.

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Incredible numbers of Apollo on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social Italian Alps tour, with Clouded Apollo showing well too. However, I did feel sorry for this Camberwell Beauty we found today, that not only had very worn wings, but was missing half an antenna. Still, a delight to see nonetheless!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Great to catch up with the Scarce Fritillary (Euphydryas maturna) at an area new to us, on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social Italian Alps tour. This very restricted species feeds on Ash in its early larval instars, before hibernating in ground litter, and subsequently switching to a herb-based diet.

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

A 'brilliant' start to the @greenwingstours.bsky.social Italian Alps tour, with 5 species of 'copper' seen - Scarce, Purple-edged and Purple-shot Coppers shown here (Small and Sooty also seen). Along with a very obliging Large Blue.

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Another fantastic day on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social tour of Northern Greece, with some very special butterflies seen, including Lesser Fiery Copper, Map, Yellow-banded Skipper and Blue Argus; hard to choose a favourite given all we've seen. What a wonderful part of the world!

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Greenwings Wildlife Holidays @greenwingstours.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Glorious butterflies in Greece, on one of our longest running & exclusive tours, designed by us back in 2013 and led by brilliant & incredibly knowledgable naturalists Peter Eeles & Dr Michael de Courcy WIliams. Join us next year! greenwings.co/our-holidays... @europebutterfly.bsky.social

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

A Papilionidae family day today on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social tour of Northern Greece, with all of our targets seen, namely Eastern Festoon, Clouded Apollo, Scarce Swallowtail and Swallowtail. All in beautiful surroundings in a beautiful country!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Two's company, three's a crowd, four's a ... ??!! This mating pair of Black-veined White, photographed on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social tour of Northern Greece, were photobombed by not one, but two males that were both trying to disrupt events. I didn't realise they were forming an orderly queue!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Love is in the air! Wonderful to watch a courting couple of Southern White Admiral today, on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social tour of northern Greece, along with a mating pair of Sooty Copper and literally thousands of Nettle-tree Butterflies going about their business!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

I must have taken 100s of photos of Purple Emperor larvae over the years, but this one, from today, is probably my favourite ... showing just how camouflaged a fully grown larva is against a leaf of its foodplant (Salix caprea, Goat Willow, in this case).

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

A cool day on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social False Apollo tour resulted in an impromptu photography workshop (20 minutes that turned into 2 hours thanks to all of the great guest questions!), with a Small Copper then appearing as things warmed up. A favourite species for the last 50 years!

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Paul Grennard @pembsbikingbirder.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

I am planning this year's butterfly trips using this excellent book..

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

This male Orange-tip wasn't taking 'no' for an answer, despite the female clearly rejecting him by raising her abdomen, as many species in the Pieridae family do! It was nice to see so many of them flying today, along with Holly Blue in numbers not encountered for several years!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Just back from another very successful @greenwingstours.bsky.social tour in Greece! I'm not sure why, but this photo of a Green-underside Blue seems to evoke something about the place that I just can't put into words ... answers on a postcard!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Another great day on the @greenwingstours.bsky.social False Apollo tour. Lots of lovely Grecian Copper, including an aberrant female with elongated spots. Finding the rare Krueper's Small White was the icing on the cake!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

A fantastic start to the @greenwingstours.bsky.social False Apollo tour. Not only did we find adults, but also managed to locate a few batches of False Apollo eggs on its main foodplant, Aristolochia hirta.

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Gosh - a Dingy Skipper forewing with a Chequered Skipper hindwing ... what a butterfly! I had to check that it wasn't April 1st!

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Max Anderson @maxando.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Pearl-bordered fritillary caterpillars are coming along nicely in Devon. Spent the day at Haldon Forest, poking around pockets of violets along the broken edges of bracken litter @bcdevon.bsky.social @savebutterflies.bsky.social

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Word of the day: pharate. This term describes a fully formed larva or adult when inside the cuticle of the previous developmental stage. Behold a pharate Purple Emperor caterpillar within its egg case and a pharate male Silver-studded Blue adult within its pupal case!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Orange-tips are nearly upon us and, surprisingly, Green Hairstreaks were seen today in Cheshire! www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/viewto...

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

This week's challenge is to identify the species whose pupae are represented here - one from each of the 6 butterfly families ... the final two in a reply to this post! I'll give it a few days before providing the answers!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

And this week's challenge is to identify the species whose larvae are represented here - one from each of the 6 butterfly families ... the final two in a reply to this post!

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Richard Fox @richardfoxbc.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

📣 New paper 🎉 Proud to have helped with this nice study by @wlangdon12.bsky.social showing a trade-off between nutritional quality & microclimate of host plants for Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas). Here in England, they choose warmth over nutrition resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Here's a random selection of butterfly eggs - 1 from each of the 6 families (Papilionidae, Hesperiidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae, Riodinidae, Lycaenidae). Having spent some time looking at them 'up close' I can only conclude that they are really quite beautiful! How many can you identify? Larvae next!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Our most recent review, by Harry E. Clarke, of Butterflies of the Western Palaearctic (volume 1) can now be found at www.dispar.org/reference.ph...

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

As well as seeing adult butterflies coming out of hibernation today (Peacock and Brimstone for me!), I also enjoyed finding several Marsh Fritillary larval webs, with larvae taking their first nibbles of Devil's-bit Scabious, & communally basking to raise their body temperature, which aids digestion

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Greenwings Wildlife Holidays @greenwingstours.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Still time to grab a spot on this superb trip. It makes for a lovely way to begin your spring butterfly watching campaign... greenwings.co/our-holidays... A donation from this and *all* our butterfly tours also goes to support the conservation work of @europebutterfly.bsky.social too.

greenwings.co

False Apollo & Spring Butterflies 2026 - Greenwings Wildlife Holidays

False Apollo & Spring Butterflies. A unique Greenwings butterfly tour in northeast Greece, led by Michael de Courcy Williams & Peter Eeles.

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

With temperatures on the rise, I'm looking forward to a 'spring break' in Northern Greece with @greenwingstours.bsky.social (greenwings.co/our-holidays...). Some photos from last year, a trip that led to Martin Partridge's interesting article on the False Apollo: www.sbbt.org.uk/latest-news/....

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Here’s a Swallowtail larva exposing its ‘osmeterium’, an organ found in the 1st segment. Victorian entomologists remarked on its ‘pungent smell’, similar to rotting pineapple. Having found a bottle of pineapple juice left in my car (courtesy of a grandson) I can confirm that this is absolutely true!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

A review by Pete Smith of the most recent book on European butterflies: Butterflies of Britain and Western Europe and their Caterpillars! www.dispar.org/reference.ph...

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Congratulations to Mark Searle, winner of the 2025 UK Butterflies Photo Competition, with his image of a Dingy Skipper - clearly an inappropriate name for a butterfly that can appear quite beautiful! Winning entries can be seen at: www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/competition_...

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

A refreshingly positive 'good news' story by M.S. Warren, S. Rich, and N. Haywood regarding the fortunes of the Silver-studded Blue over 50 years at Studland Heath National Nature Reserve, Dorset, UK. Detailed article at www.dispar.org/reference.ph... @martinswarren.bsky.social

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

The UK Butterflies 2025 Photography Competition is now open for entries and closes on November 30th. The winning photos will be announced in early December and the overall winner will receive a signed Richard Lewington print. See www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/viewto... for more info. Good luck!

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Given the number of sightings of Marsh Fritillary away from their core sites, as well as personally seeing them fly through woodland, I’ve always thought that they disperse further than people think and this study is a step to proving that theory!

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martinswarren.bsky.social @martinswarren.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

The new European Butterfly Red List is published today, with worrying findings. Over 1/4 (28%) of Europe’s 442 species are threatened with extinction or are close to being so. The situation is far worse for our 148 endemic species, 40% are now threatened or nearly so www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?...

Front cover of the European Butterfly Red List, showing Polyommatus humedasae. The report can be downloaded at https://www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?name=red-list-butterflies-2025

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Butterfly Conservation Europe @europebutterfly.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

It also has a Donate button if you want to support our work saving butterflies and moths across Europe

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Butterfly Conservation Europe @europebutterfly.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Check out our new website, packed with new features, including updated project and EU policy pages + butterfly species pages with all known hostplants courtesy of Harry Clarke and downloadable country lists. Big thanks to Peter Eeles @ukbutterflies.bsky.social for all his help www.bc-europe.eu

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

"Only a fool will go chasing a male Orange-tip in the heat of the day!" (Paul Atkin) ... we're having a debate at UK Butterflies that will allow us to create a 'Guide to Responsible Butterfly Photography' so do join the conversation at www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/phpBB/viewto.... 📷 Neil Freeman

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UK Butterflies @ukbutterflies.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

Here's our concise summary of events regarding the Southern Small White - keep yer eyes peeled! ... www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/webpage.php?...

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Butterfly Conservation Suffolk @bc-suffolk.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

Congratulations to William Brame @landguardbirder.bsky.social for realising this was a different white butterfly. Now confirmed by @chrisvanswaay.bsky.social as a Southern Small White - the first seen in England. As it is a female let's hope it has been laying eggs. @matthewberry.bsky.social

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