Kitchen Garden Forum

Recorded 25 butterflies and three moths. Also saw a ladybird which looked suspiciously like a harlequin going to get identification chart out.

Yes pretty sure it's a harlequin looking closer the spots are more uneven than the native ones quite a lot of spots and the large white patches on its head. I've not seen many ladybirds this year after an early cluster of 7 spots.

Has anyone else done the count it lasts until August

You mean 25 different species of butterfly, PP? That's a great result.

I have not done the count yet yet, but i think we would be lucky to make it into double figures this year. We lost most of our grassland butterflies (small copper, common blue, large and small skipper) in the 2012 summer and it's still a bit too early for us here for the second generation of small tortoiseshell, red admiral, peacock and comma. At the moment it's mainly just ringlet, meadow brown and the occasional large or small white. Even the flowering buddleia are not attracting many butterflies this year.

Sorry not species they ask for the number of each species and put the total at the end. Funny but there have been more butterflies and different ones today. It says you can do the count again so I think I will do it again in a week or two.

It seems to be a good year for small tortoiseshells and gatekeepers