summer butterflies

Garden Butterflies
Many of the more common butterflies drop into the through the year together with a few occasional visitors from the surrounding countryside. They are shown below by their butterfly 'families'. This is obviously the laziest form of butterfly spotting, and can easily be combined with wine, olives and newspaper reading. A full checklist is here...and yes all these photos were taken in the garden.
*Nettle feeders (vanessids)* 1: Painted Lady, 2: The Peacock, 3: Red Admiral,



	4: Small Tortoiseshell. Often overwinters in a dry corner to emerge on a really hot spring day 5: Comma - distinctive ragged wings
White Butterflies

6 : small or common white, pretty but too fond of Italian cabbage for my liking.	7: the green-veined white, a intricately marked slow-fluttering butterfly, associated with the damp and shady..and not at all interested in cabbage.
8: the orange-tip. A rare May visitor from the hedgerows.
Brown Butterflies
	10: Meadow Brown - a butterfly of the fields and long grasses- obviously finds our unkempt lawn to its liking.
11: The Gatekeeper - likes to bask in sunny spots in the Mediterranean garden
	12: Small Skipper - a common sight along the field edges
Blue Butterflies
13: Holly Blue - buzzes around the garden making the occasional stop for nectar

Garden Checklist = regular (seen every year) = occasional, =rare 1: Small White (artogeia rapae) 2: Large White (pieris brassicae) 3: Green-veined White (artogiea napi) 4: Orange-tip (anthocharis cardamines) 5: Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) 6: Holly Blue (Celastrina Argiolus) 7: Common Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) 8: Common Blue (Polyommatus iacrus) 9: Red Admiral (Vanessa Atalanta) 10: Peacock (Inachis io) 11: Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais Urticae) 12: Painted Lady (Cynthia cardui) 13: Comma (Polygonia c-album) 14: Meadow Brown (Maniola Jurtina) 15: Gatekeeper (Pyronia Thithonus) 16: Small Skipper (Thymelicus Flavus)
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