Butterflies

[#1]

Hardly seen any for the last 3 or 4 years but this year we have had lots of them, a number of plants in the garden attract them but the main one has been a couple of buddleia bushes.

Good to see them as I thought they might have been gone for good.

[#2]

Staying with my son at the moment in France and the number and variety of butterflies on his buddleia shrubs are just amazing. One you would swear was a tiny humming bird, others have stripes and look like they are flying backwards!

[#3]

@gleneagles  coincidence today when walking the dog passed a garden with a buddleia bush and when I got home remarked on the number of butterflies around it.

A case of great mnds thnk alike or fools never differ?

[#4]

Bees, we've got loads of Bees. Could be the Sunflowers we planted....

[#5]

Our buddleia seems even more popular with butterflies than usual this year, and the lavender is buzzing with bees too. Hope it continues, as we need to halt the drastic decline of pollinators in recent years.

[#6]

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@Champnet wrote:

Bees, we've got loads of Bees..

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We used to have loads of bees every year for a week or two when our Laburnum tree was in flower.  Unfortunately it was blown down last year during storm Callum, although I'd noticed it was already leaning slightly, probably due to previous storms.

[#7]

Large clouds of painted lady butterflies are being spotted across the UK and Ireland - and experts believe we are seeing a mass emergence that happens every 10 years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-49210010

[#8]

The big butterfly count is a nationwide survey aimed at helping us assess the health of our environment. It was launched in 2010 and has rapidly become the world's biggest survey of butterflies. Over 100,000 people took part in 2018, submitting 97,133 counts of butterflies and day-flying moths from across the UK

https://www.bigbutterflycount.org/about

[#9]

This is one I took earlier...

No idea what type but this is, but just one of the many butterflies on that buddleia I mentioned in my post earlier.

[#10]

Are you sure it's a butterfly @Minivanman looks like a moth to me, but I'm no lepidopterist.

[#11]

I was always told that moths rest with their wings in the down position and butterflies with their wings up and closed,  but there are bound to be exceptions....

seems that Buddleja is an invasive weed in UK.... I know my sister in law dug one out earlier this year as the roots were going everywhere...

https://www.invasiveweedsolutions.co.uk/invasive-weeds/non-native/buddleja/

[#12]

Ah @wotsup, I’m not convinced by that one, as every time I’ve seen a butterfly land (not on a plant) they lie with their wings open facing the sun.

[#13]

I'd say there you may have an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly or one that looks very similar. I've never seen one with quite such long tail strands!

[#14]

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@Mook wrote:

Ah @wotsup, I’m not convinced by that one, as every time I’ve seen a butterfly land (not on a plant) they lie with their wings open facing the sun.

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https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/butterflymoth.html

There are other differences like the thickness of the body and the antenna, but it seems they do hold their wings differently - and butterflies tend to use the top of their wings to attract a mate and the underside to warn off predators.

https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2018.00068

[#15]

@Nikka That species appears to be indigenous to the USA so if it is one how on earth did it get to Wales!