Monday 10 May 2010

Orange Tip Butterfly

I was out in the garden, about to follow my own advice by removing spent flowers from my little patch of Dog's Tooth Violets, when I spotted this little lady, and I nipped in to get my camera and amazingly she was still there when I got back, so I was able to get a few pictures. I would normally recognize an Orange Tip Butterfly, as they are pretty much what they sound like, little white butterfly with orange tipped wings. I've noticed quite a few of them around the lanes this year, but apparently, as I found when I looked it up, the females don't have the orange wing tips. This wonderful pattern is on the underside of the wings.
Orange Tips feed on dandelions and bramble flowers, and lays eggs on garlic mustard, of which there is an abundance everywhere at the moment. Needless to say I never did get round to dead heading the Dog's Tooth Violets.
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3 comments:

  1. Gary11 May 2010 at 03:32

    How luck (and quick) you were !!! Great picture - G

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scented Sweetpeas11 May 2010 at 15:02

    Fab photos! Well done for running in and out of the house fast enough to capture her on camera :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. cottage garden farmer11 May 2010 at 17:23

    Thanks guys, I wasn't as quick as all that, so I think she must have been resting...

    ReplyDelete

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