Speckled Wood butterfly - Pararge Aegeria

• 14 May, 2022
• 3 likes

Butterfly number 2 on my walk today.

This species is common in woods, scrub and tall vegetation throughout southern England and lowland Wales, and appears to be recolonising eastern and northern England and Scotland.
You can often see males perched in pools of sunlight or fluttering upwards in a band of sunshine in an otherwise shady woodland ride. Females lay single, white eggs on a variety of grasses along the sunny edges of woods, rides and hedges.
The caterpillars are bright green with faint, darker green and yellow stripes. They pupate after about 10 days, with the chrysalises suspended beneath grass blades. Unlike any other British butterfly, speckled woods are able to hibernate as either a caterpillar or chrysalis.
Adults feed on aphid honeydew. They are rarely seen on flowers except early and late in the year when there are few aphids. Caterpillars eat various grasses, including false brome, cock's-foot, Yorkshire fog and common couch.