July is prime time for
Marbled White and my quest to unblock this species on both my County and VP list was still heading nowhere. That is, until I got news from Clive Biddulph to say he had found one off the Causeway at VP. I was working my way along the arable field hedge row (road side) and it must have been a full 20 mins before we got back to the spot he had seen it.... Unbelievably, it was still there - on the same flower!!
Gotta be one of the smartest underwings and indicative of a female.
Giving a glimpse of the black and white chequering (and I'll come back to that proboscis!!)
Eventually a couple of full upperwing shots - not exactly easy with a wire fence and grassy vegetation in the way!!
Now the interesting bit and one I'd never seen before. On emergence the butterfly proboscis is in two halves and needs to develop into a feeding canal which normally 'zips' itself together to form a tube through which it can take nectar. This individual may not have developed correctly and is left with a forked proboscis and unless it can realign quickly, probably doomed?
Whatever, a fantastic fresh individual which was flying free for at least its first day on the wing...
