Male Gatekeeper

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.

The pair on the Forsythia, the right one might be a female but the one I saw last year was much paler.

You can see how small they are, hardly more than an inch across.

Those are nice photos Janet. I've not seen any Gatekeepers here yet this year, but there were lots last year. At the moment the garden is full of Burnet moths and a few Small Skippers, Tortoishells, and Red Admirals. Plus the usual Small white and Large whites going for the cabbages.


Have you seen my photos on the Moth thread? It was good to see the Speckled Wood butterfly again. We only see them occasionally.

Pat

Hi Pat, I will take a look.

I had a Small Tortoiseshell last year and only saw it once, but got some good pics. It has returned, I got some pics yesterday. The blue bits around the edges are not as bright, I'm not sure if the adult from last year is still around and it has faded.

Their flight period is from mid May to late Sept., and again after hibernation from Feb or March to May. So do they lay eggs from Feb to May, then these are the hatched ones?

They have 2 or 3 broods, lay eggs in batches on the undersides of young leaves. I saw a batch of white eggs under a lower camellia leaf when looking for scale insect, there is a few leftovers of them still egging up. I left them there, I'm sure they are a butterflies eggs, I saw a Red Admiral last year drop a white egg.

I have a campanula mix I grew from seed, it was feeding from one.

It's inside having a feast...

I also saw the Speckled Wood again earlier this year, it was around a lot tlast year. The first time I saw it it was OK, the second it had a piece out of it's wing.

I had seen a blackbird sneak up on it when it sat on the side of a pot I had waiting to go in the new bed, it darted just as it got to it and the blackbird was flying in the same jerky manner. It did escape but I haven't seen it since this shot, that was the of May

That is a beautifully marked butterfly, even if he has had a bit eaten. I've never seen one with so prominent cream border - very striking.

I've just come in from watering the garden and it is a beautiful day. The garden is swarming with hover flies, lots of butterflies and the Burnet moths are still all over the place.

I was just going to take a photo of a newly hatched Comma butterfly, but my camera battery needs recharging so I'll have to try again later. There are quite a few meadow browns around as well today which look freshly hatched.

Pat

I have lots of newly hatched ones today, got a Comma pic, the Brimstone visited and I got a shot but it is very sunny, so it might be too bright.

The little male Gatekeeper is around al lthe time, they are supposed to be shy, I love the way they fly.

I have had a brownish one with a small spot on the wing, I haven't seen it before. I wonder if it's a male Meadow Brown, there is a pic of a female in my book and the back of the wing looks like one I saw this morning.

I saw one this morning about the size of a Small White, the centre of the wings was a pale yellow, with a darker edging which looked greyish blue bleeding in. It didn't settle and went over the fence, if the neighbour wasn't there I would have followed. I also saw a House Martin clinging to the wall under the eaves just above her door, it would be nice if it nested but I wouldn't trust her not to knock it off.

The brown one, there is also a white to the top right which I didn't see when I took the pic.

This one's different, it has some orange near the spots and a shaped wing bottom, I think the female Meadow Brown.

The Red Admiral was around yesterday and again today. I had a pair last year, the back of wing on one was mostly brown shades but like old Velvet with beautiful sheens. The other had colour at the tip of the forewing, blue and red mostly, with the white marks along the edges a little stronger than the other one. I have got pics.

This one has a lot of colour, the white along the edges looks brighter, and there is a lot of blue on the rear wing. I love the way their heads seem to lift up.

The Comma also has less dark reverse colours, I saw it this morning with a piece out of it's wing, unless it was another but I think the same one.

The Ringlet I took yesterday in the greenhouse

Is your budleia flowering already Janet? Mine are only just sending their buds out.

We seem to be a couple of weeks behind you here. The first batch of Gate Keepers have hatched this weekend and there are quite a few new Commas. I saw the first dragon fly yesterday too, although I didn't get a good enough look to identify it - it was some kind of Hawker though.

I'm finding rather a lot of Small White butterfly caterpillars on the rather chewed cabbages. They are so difficult to see even when you know something is eating the leaves, they match the cabbage colour exactly and usually lie in a straight line along one of the leaf ribs.

Another unwanted insect(s) a wasp nest in the hut I store the hen food and straw in. It started off golf ball sized and is now the size of a coconut. They weren't agressive at first, but I had to run for it this morning. I only just managed to get a scoop of hen food when they all came out to get me. They will have to go.

The blue one is, it's got a lot bigger this year. I have a pink just starting to burst, bought these with no name years ago as a package. I have a Royal Red half open and Black Knight and Harlequin which is mostly gone green still to come. The Royal red and Black Knight are a bit smothered and have grown tall but not developed well.

There are lots of the Gatekeepers around, I haven't seen the Brimstone again and thought I'd got a pic of it on the Delosperma but not so. Lots of Small Whites and some Large Whites, I saw I one laying eggs on a cauliflower plant, a small one at the end but I only had 5 plants so I feel like leaving them, they are butterflies. They're Mayflower sown late. I don't have room for many greens, but sowed some late cauli seed to go in after new spuds.

I have another one I couldn't match in the book, I looked at the Butterflies and Hummers forum and a link was put on a thread for butterflies in a certain area, a few hundred, it was there and is a Common Ringlet.

There was a Peacock on the blue buddleja today, very dark backs but I got some later of the tops, not downloaded yet, but it's colour is darker than the ones last year, I had 3 that I knew of and they were different to each other but not this dark.

I got stung on the back of my arm the other day, wasp I think, if you have chilli pepper and rub the inside of that on it stops the sting. I have nearly one full dried one left of Georgia Flame from last year, it's good for eczema, stings, and I use it on my glands on my head when they get bitten or too swollen and watery, it does the job. Awaiting the next crop of peppers!

This is the Common Ringlet, which I thought might be a Small Heath but the other matches better, not certain about the tops of wings, and as it's not in the Collins guide perhaps not here either!

Open wings

Looking at the Common Ringlet again, it has too much grey around the spot, so this is a Small Heath? I'm getting confused, they are so similar and I've never had so many 'browns'.

A gatekeeper I saw on the Buddleja had an irridescent green and blue glow on the edge of the pale wing edge, I tried to capture it on a pic but it kept moving so the sun wasn't showing it up the same.

A different Red Admiral

The undersides of the peacock from yesterday.

Some of the top pattern of Peacock

Greenveined White, taken on 7th May. I released it from a cobweb in the neighbours greenhouse a few days ago, yesterday it was there again and dead. If it was the same one, must have been a pair around.

I had a pair of Orange Tips around in May also, got a pic of one, I don't think I've seen them before, or if I have it was a few years ago.

Taken 5th May

The newly hatched Green-veined white were about yesterday, probably children of the dead one. I caught them at it! He had several tries, I suppose he was new at it so needed practice. On about the 5th attempt it was all over in a jiffy, the shots I got were all a couple of inches off and revving up!

Again

And again!

This looks like a Meadow Brown but is very dark, I took another shot with the sun on it and it looks lighter but it was mcuh darker than the others.

The sun shot

Lovely photos!

We have Gatekeepers here too.

Butterflies everywhere today,

The Brimstone visited yesterday and had a really long drink from this dahlia. I got lots of shots and ended up leaving it! It didn't seem to notice me there, perhaps its momma from last year told them I was an OK sort of person. They were quite shy last year but got used to me.

Today the pair kept coming to the lily Bellingham Hybrid, I don't know what they were trying to drink. The feeder kept going to the red spots, over the edges of the petals, then it would creep further in and looked to be picking something up from the neck. There looks to be some small raised bits down the throat. Whatever it was they were attracted to it.

I thought this shot interesting. A Large White butterfly ejecting itself from a Lythrum salicaria. It shows the reverse action, the left of the pic is blurred with it and the right focused.

Every day I am stood amongst hundreds of butterflies. I see new ones which I think are a different type, then discover they are another one with a huge variation in colour.

There are a lot of Speckled Wood butterflies now, I though I was seeing something else. There was one 'kissing' another on the ground, it was laid on it's side and I didn't see the second one until I investigated. The top one flew, the bottom one was on it's side with wings folded, it looked really much smaller and paler on it's under-wing. It looked dead, so I went to pick it up and it flew! They must have been in a mating ritual, I had my camera, it's a shame I didn't snap them.

This one I was convinced was a male, it's only been around a short while and it looked like the one that was over the smaller one today. It had a really glistening brownish-gold sheen to the upper wings on top. Neither of them look like the others I have had around! I find the same with other butterflies, the size and colour differences are wide ranged, even the shapes differ in one species.

With open wings, it's shape looked more 'angular' than the other Speckled Wood butterflies.

The one I thought last year were a Small Tortoiseshell I am not so sure about, as it wasn't huge, but neither was it small. According to my book it had to be a Small Tortoiseshell by the colouring.

A couple of days ago I saw one with the same colouring but it was TINY compared. Difficult to believe the male and female would be so big a difference in size.

This is of a 'big' one with the 'Small' colouring

This is the 'small' one with the 'Small' colouring also.

Stunning photos Wallaby!

Baa, I seem to be permanently stood under the Buddleja! It's a sight to see and I just stand there smiling, camera shooting away of course.

There was a pair of Green-veined Whites mating yesterday within easy reach, I took several pics but the sun was glaring through some cloud, I couldn't change angle. This male seemed more experienced and gentle, he even gave the 'kiss' afterwards. I'm wondering now if this is a procedure to produce a chemical which will help the fertilisation process. They took no notice of me.

I will post pics anyway as they are interesting, I managed to get them looking reasonable with much lessening of brightness and icreasing of contrast. See the females body in a vertical positon.

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The 'kiss'

After visiting this thread, I felt like sharing my pictures of butterflies.

This one, I took some days ago of a Papilio machaon.
I had not seen this one since my childhood, so I was really thrilled at the visit of this one on my butterfly bush, which I have never planted but came by itself rooting in the wall and seemingly only thriving on a diet of bricks!