Comma

Vibrant and showy with gorgeous orange wings. What a fabulous butterfly!

The Comma's fortunes have fluctuated over the years as in the 19th century it was widespread, then having a major decline in the early 20th century. However, since then the species has recovered and is quite common throughout England. 

Their numbers are apparently controlled by the hours of daylight experienced by the caterpillars, with those in June and early July emerging in a paler form called hutchinsoni constituting 30-40% of the total. If the daylight is decreasing then they will appear in their normal form. It is the hutchinsoni which mate and produce the normal form which are emerging now to September. The rest of the spring brood develop more slowly, emerge late July and don't mate but feed up for hibernation. 

Why hutchinsoni? Named after Emma Hutchinson, 1820-1906, an eminent lepidopterist from Herefordshire who was especially interested in the life of the Comma. Her collection of 15,000 specimens of moths and butterflies are now in the Natural History Museum.

A pause here at the moment but it feels more like a full stop on finding new species at the moment as it's getting more like autumn and the butterflies I want are being elusive! Still great weather for getting out and about though and Poppy just loved it!