Red Admiral
Red Admiral is the only butterfly in the whole of Europe that is full-on red. We have a few red moths such as Burnets and Cinnabar, but in non-tropical butterflies it is a rare colour. This hadn't occurred to me until I read Peter Marren's excellent "Rainbow Dust: Three Centuries of Delight in British Butterflies". In France it is known as Le Vulcain, after Vulcan, blacksmith of the gods, with the dark forge, fire and splashes of blue-white hot iron. It has always been a butterfly of unpredictable numbers as it migrates from further south and builds up its numbers over each summer. Nabokov (author of Lolita and a great butterfly enthusiast) recalled how vast numbers appeared across the Russian steppes up to the Arctic Circle in 1881, the year that Tsar Alexander II was assassinated which threw the state into disarray. The butterfly was thought as a messenger of death when people noticed a rather shaky figure of eight with a one below (these are the blue bits on the hindwings, clearer in some individuals than others) so has 1881 at the bottom of its wings.
Red Admiral
Red Admiral is the only butterfly in the whole of Europe that is full-on red. We have a few red moths such as Burnets and Cinnabar, but in non-tropical butterflies it is a rare colour. This hadn't occurred to me until I read Peter Marren's excellent "Rainbow Dust: Three Centuries of Delight in British Butterflies". In France it is known as Le Vulcain, after Vulcan, blacksmith of the gods, with the dark forge, fire and splashes of blue-white hot iron. It has always been a butterfly of unpredictable numbers as it migrates from further south and builds up its numbers over each summer. Nabokov (author of Lolita and a great butterfly enthusiast) recalled how vast numbers appeared across the Russian steppes up to the Arctic Circle in 1881, the year that Tsar Alexander II was assassinated which threw the state into disarray. The butterfly was thought as a messenger of death when people noticed a rather shaky figure of eight with a one below (these are the blue bits on the hindwings, clearer in some individuals than others) so has 1881 at the bottom of its wings.