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ecoevo.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
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Georgia

today was a and birds day in the garden! i've been taking part in the so it was great to see three species today - a red admiral, gatekeeper, and a large white butterfly (which flew too quickly to get a decent picture of!) i also spotted a and a load of enjoying the clovers in the sun ☀️

a red admiral butterfly, wings open, perched on a wall
a meadow brown butterfly, wings slightly open, perched amongst some clovers on the ground
a bumblebee on a clover flower amongst some grass
a forficula earwig facing the camera on the edge of a bin lid
#myphotos#entomology#nature
Jul 19, 2023, 06:57 PM·Public·Mastodon for iOS
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Georgia

update: i have just learnt one handy way to differentiate between a meadow brown and a gatekeeper butterfly is the number of white spots within the black circle on their wings - one spot = meadow brown, two spots = gatekeeper!

i didn't think this would be a gatekeeper because, as far as i know, their range is mainly southern/eastern england (i'm the very top of north wales) whereas meadow browns are *very* common around here! turns out i am near the very top of its range!

close up of a gatekeeper butterfly on a clover leaf. the butterfly has a black circle near the top of its wing with two white dots within the circle, which is one of the ways to distinguish this species from the visually-similar meadow brown butterfly (which has only one white dot in the black circle)
the beginning of a wikipedia description of the gatekeeper butterfly. the text reads: Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) The gatekeeper or hedge brown (Pyronia tithonus) is most commonly found in southern and eastern Britain and coastal areas of south and south-east Ireland. It is also found in the Channel Islands, but not in Scotland nor the Isle of Man. Given its preference for warmer weather, it can be assumed that the restriction of range expansion is due to climate. Colonies vary in size depending on the available habitat, and can range from a few... (Source: Wikipedia)"
a map of the uk and northern france, showing the distribution of the gatekeeper butterfly represented by red circles. the butterfly is found throughout northern france and southern england/the midlands and wales, with the species' range ending on a line going through bradford and leeds (there are a few other dots scattered outside of this range, including a few in ireland, one in newcastle, one on the isle of man, and a few in the lake district)
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