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Project Noah Nature School
aglais urticae urticae
These striking butterflies were basking in the early evening sunlight on the meadow path I was walking on. These butterflies have suffered a recent decline and numbers fluctuating, one of the reasons proposed is the increase in production (possibly due to global warming) of a parasitic fly (sturmia bella) that lays its eggs on the foodplant where the butterfly larvae are feeding.
found in Low common Meadows owned and maintained by the Yorkshire wildlife trust.
The nominate subspecies was first defined in Linnaeus (1758) The population in the British Isles is represented by this subspecies.
Spotted on Jul 9, 2013
Submitted on Jul 10, 2013
2 Comments
Thanks Kathleen and Manuljie, I think I prefer the marbled white shots though myself :-)
Beautiful!