Aberration

With storms forecast, I went out this morning to search the ivy hedges around the village for inverts before the rain arrived. It was already very windy, and my subjects were skittish, so most of the time I used my ring flash to try to freeze the action.

This was one of two Red Admirals I watched having a butterfly battle for possession of a neighbour's hedge. Having seen off the opposition, it sank down to bask on the warm stone of this bridge parapet, where it was bright enough for me to turn off the flash and shoot by the available light. I notice that it has a white spot in the red band on each forewing, which is one of the more common aberrations in this species, and is referred to as 'bialbata'. Some authorities say that the term should only be applied to males with this white spot, because it's always present in females, but according to the authoritative UK Butterflies site, this is not the case in this country. I wouldn't like to commit myself as to the sex of this individual: Red Admirals aren't especially dimorphic, and this isn't a good angle from which to judge the shape of the wings.

By mid-afternoon the weather had properly set in, with lashing trees and torrential rain, and the view from my study window was distinctly unenticing. Tomorrow is forecast to be better though, and I can only hope that all today's subjects found adequate shelter, and make it through the storm.

My second-favourite invert of the day has gone up on my Facebook page, if you'd care to take a look.