European Gardening: Male Gatekeeper, 1 by wallaby1

wallaby1 wrote:
Has anyone else seen a Gatekeeper butterfly?

I saw one last year on my dwarf dahlias, it was a female. Lately I have seen a small butterfly flitting about, today I got some pics. It is the male gatekeeper, which is smaller and brighter than the female. It flew onto my Forsythia Fiesta, did a dance with another one, they both settled for a while. I think they are both males, their flight period is from early July to late September, they only have one brood and they hibernate as a young caterpillar in ground vegetation.

The eggs are laid singly on grass leaves. The caterpillars feed on perennial Ryegrass, Timothy grass, fescues, bents and others, active at night, concealed on the ground by day.