Greenish

It was a dour and fairly cold day, and invert activity was minimal. I went out for coffee and cake in Stratford with R, which was good, and then went shopping for supplies for some batch cooking I'm about to do, and a weekend visit by the Boy Wonder.

Back at home I decided it was probably time to break out the flash gear, and I was rewarded by some decent images of the first Green-veined White I've seen this year. Sadly the blackthorn blossom in Tilly's field is going over fast now, but I'm still quite pleased with this. As pointed out by British Butterflies, this very common species is easy to mistake for a Small White, unless it obligingly shows you its distinctive underwings. 

Seen in close-up detail like this, it's obvious that there's no actual green involved in those markings, and that any illusion there might be is caused by the sprinkling of black among the cream scales around the veins. Personally I've never thought that they looked even vaguely green, but for some reason I'm never consulted when the entomologists name insects. I'm aware, of course, that all colour perception is subjective, but I frequently think the namers could do better - in fact sometimes I wonder if they deliberately do things like calling a red bee tawny, and a tawny one buffish, just to be annoying.

Buffish! It won't be happening when I get put in charge. And don't even get me started on the subject of the Norfolk Hawker...!