JamesO'Neill
Cryptic Wood White
I call it the Exam-butterfly. Every year, it just starts to hatch out when my exams are imminent, which is of course the worst possible time, as I have to choose between going out and seeing these, and studying for exams. Hard choice, eh?
wink emoticon
Its real name is the Cryptic Wood White (Leptidea juvernica), a small, delicate butterfly found in Ireland but not in Great Britain. It's a frail thing; a light breeze will keep it down sheltering in the grasses; and when it does fly in the sunshine, it does so with a slow floppy character as though its wings were made of cherry petals.
I am fortunate enough to have a small, newly formed colony of these in the field where I live - they only survive in good quality unimproved grassland. The weather didn't seem to know what to do today, one minute raining, the next sunny; sometimes both at once. This made for nice conditions to photograph this female CWW on an old dandelion seedhead.
Cryptic Wood White
I call it the Exam-butterfly. Every year, it just starts to hatch out when my exams are imminent, which is of course the worst possible time, as I have to choose between going out and seeing these, and studying for exams. Hard choice, eh?
wink emoticon
Its real name is the Cryptic Wood White (Leptidea juvernica), a small, delicate butterfly found in Ireland but not in Great Britain. It's a frail thing; a light breeze will keep it down sheltering in the grasses; and when it does fly in the sunshine, it does so with a slow floppy character as though its wings were made of cherry petals.
I am fortunate enough to have a small, newly formed colony of these in the field where I live - they only survive in good quality unimproved grassland. The weather didn't seem to know what to do today, one minute raining, the next sunny; sometimes both at once. This made for nice conditions to photograph this female CWW on an old dandelion seedhead.