Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Year of the ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)

This year I have seen more ringlet butterlies than at any time during my life and in some places they are more abundant than the ubiquitous meadow brown (Maniola jurina).

The ringlet tends to like rather damp grassland along woodland edges, but I would not have thought the wet summer had anything to do with this year's abundance as many of the factors causing it would have occurred before the wet set in. The hot, dry April would not, I would have thought, have suited the butterfly or its grass-feeding caterpillars.

The example in the picture flew from this bramble leaf into the medlar tree that canopies Medlar Wood alongside Emthree, so I shall record it from there rather than from the Square Metre itself.

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