Silver washed

Gosh it was hot today!
I went back to Knepp to try to see the purple emperor again, but they were warm and flighty and stayed tantalizingly close up in the tree tops, refusing point blank to come down and land (see second extra) .
After 2 hours of heat and horseflies I gave up and moved on to Marlpost woods where I was horrified to find the rides had already been mowed!!! All the woodland flowers, Common spotted orchids, etc etc gone! Whoever sanctioned this must have absolutely no idea about wildlife - I will need to investigate. As a result the butterfly population was well down on previous years with just a few flying around, but all the beautiful ringlets and meadow browns - gone!
My main shot shows a female  Silver-washed fritillary Argynnis paphia, one of only 3 that I saw basking in the late afternoon sunshine.  The Silver-washed fritillary is a large and graceful butterfly, which spends most of it's time swooping gracefully (and quite speedily) along woodland rides. It is widespread here in the south but listed as declining (I wonder why?!!). My other extra is of a Comma Polygonia c-album who I just had to include as they do such an amazing impression of  a fritillary even the most hardened butterfly watcher sometimes gets fooled!