Small Copper

Small Copper butterfly - Amsterdam by ivomathieugaston

The Small Copper, American Copper or the Common Copper, Lycaena phlaeas, is a butterfly of the Lycaenids or Blues family. It is a common and widespread little butterfly easily identifiable in the UK. (There are similar species in continental Europe.)

The upperside forewings are a bright orange with a dark outside edge border and with eight or nine black spots. The hindwings are dark with an orange border. Some females also have a row of blue spots inside the orange border and are known as form caeruleopunctata.

The undersides are pattenered in a similar way but are paler. The black spots on the forewings are outlined in yellow and the dark colouring is replaced by a pale brownish, gray. The hindwings are the same brown/grey colour with small black dots and a narrow orange border. The caterpillars (larvae) are usually green, but some have a purple stripe down the middle of the back and along each side.

It is widespread and common across Europe, Asia and North America, and also found in North Africa south through Ethiopia.

It can be found almost anywhere in south/central England and Wales although never, it seems, in large numbers. Its distribution becomes more patchy in northern England, Scotland and Ireland.

Large Copper

Large Copper by Chris@184

The Large Copper (Lycaena dispar) is a European butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. The British subspecies of this butterfly (dispar) has been extinct for over 144 years (since 1864). Most of our knowledge of its life cycle and ecology comes from studies of the similar subspecies (batavus or batava) found in The Netherlands. The species can be identified by the silvery hindwing undersides, from the large specimens of the related, more common, drier habitat species Lycaena virgaureae and Lycaena hippothoe.

This is one of the butterfly species classified as a priority for protection and re-introduction in the UK under its national Biodiversity Action Plan. The species has been in severe decline in Britain due to the great reduction of fen habitat due to expansion of the human population.

In the rest of the Western Europe, the draining of wetlands and building and agricultural activity on shallow riverbanks has caused a strong decline. In Eastern Europe, undeveloped riverbanks and deltas are a habitat for the species, though even there it is somewhat threatened due increasing human influence on these areas.

There have been several reintroduction attempts to sites in both Britain and Ireland, but these have all ultimately failed. Research is now being conducted to see w

Atala Butterfly by pedro lastra

The Atala, Eumaeus atala, is a small colorful butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found in southeastern Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba. Its coloration and habits are unique among butterflies within its range.

In Florida, the caterpillar feeds on a native cycad, Zamia pumila, called Coontie, as well as introduced ornamental cycads. (Another name for the butterfly is Coontie Hairstreak.) In Cuba, the cycad Cycas revoluta is used as well. The hostplants contains toxic chemicals, known as cycasins, and the bright coloration of the adult is believed to be aposematic. Birds and lizards attempt to prey on the adults, but find them distasteful and learn to avoid the brightly-patterned butterflies.

Adult butterflies take flower nectar and sometimes roost in trees. Adults fly through much of the year. The natural habitat is open brushy areas and subtropical hammocks, often in pine woodlands. Many populations now exist in suburban areas with ornamental cycads. Adults keep close to a site with host plants, thus the species forms small colonies.

The females, however, may disperse in search of more hosts. The butterfly's flight is slow, unlike the swift, erratic flight of many other Lycaenidae. Like many lepidoptera, male Atalas have hair pencils ("coremata") on their abdomens used in courtship--the male hovers in front of the female, wafting pheromones exuded from the pencils in her direction. Eggs are laid in clusters of 10-50 on the leaf tips of the host plant. Larvae feed on the leaves. Pupation is usually on the host plant.

The Florida populations of this butterfly were almost wiped out by urban development, but the species has rebounded to some extent as it has begun to use ornamental cycads planted in suburban areas.

The species was originally described by the Cuban Zoologist Charles Felipe Felipe Poey y Aloy. He named the butterfly for Atala, the Native American heroine of an 1801 French novel by Chateaubriand, Atala ou les amours de deux sauvages dans le désert.

Great purple hairstreak by jim_mcculloch

The Great Purple Hairstreak (Atlides halesus), also called the great blue hairstreak, is a common North American butterfly. The larvae (Caterpillars) feed on mistletoe (Phoradendron) species.

Redbreast

Redbreast by wikipedia

The Redbreast (Papilio alcmenor) is a species of swallowtail butterfly found in South Asia.

Male upperside black with, in some lights, an obscure dark indigo-blue tint. Fore wing: a series of pale adnervular streaks not extended to the base or quite to the termen but that reach well into the apical half of the cell, and a short slender streak of red rarely absent at the extreme base of the subcostal vein.

In certain specimens also the apical half or interspace 1a and of the posterior portion of interspace 1 are diffusely white. Hind wing uniform, towards the terminal or outer half sprinkled with bluish scales ; an irregular incomplete white ring at the tornal angle that encloses a black spot bordered above by red.

Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly

Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly by Wild-Jungleman

The Papilio aegeus is commonly known as the Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly. It is the largest butterfly commonly found in Brisbane where there are many citrus trees, on which the larvae feed.

Both male and female have black forewings with a white stripe, though there is more white overall on the female forewing. The hindwing is again black, and there is a white swath through the middle. Here the markings differ in that the female has chains of red to orange and blue spots toward the edge.

Despite being a swallowtail, which group derives its name from the distinctive tails on the hindwing, this character is entirely absent. The markings on the underside are similar to those on top. The body is black. The wings span about 105 millimeters, making it rather large overall and the largest butterfly commonly seen in at least part of its range.

Alpine Black Swallowtail

Alpine Black Swallowtail

The Alpine Black Swallowtail (Papilio maackii) is a butterfly of the family Papilionidae. It is found in Asia, in Japan, China and South Korea.

The wingspan is 70-80 mm.

The larvae feed on Phellodendron amurensis, Zanthoxylum ailanthoides and Phellodendron amurense.

Chinese peacock butterfly

Chinese peacock butterfly by Pangkin

Papilio bianor, the Chinese peacock, is a middle to large size swallowtail butterfly .

Chinese peacock butterfly by niepce1827

Papilio bianor is common in the forest, is not so common in suburban and urban, because of their host plant habitation. However if there are some host plats such as Zanthoxylum ailanthoides, it can be seen even in the urban district.

Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly

Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly by ALL Photography

Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly by CameraShyMom

The Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly (Eurytides marcellus, other authorities list the species under genera in the family including Iphiclides, Graphium and Papilio) is a swallowtail butterfly found in the eastern United States, north-east Mexico and south-east Canada. Its distinctive black and white-striped pattern is reminiscent of a zebra.

The Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly is also the official state butterfly of Tennessee.

The Zebra Swallowtail has triangular wings with long tails. It has some distinctive black and white markings on its wings and some small red and blue markings on both bottom corners of the wings. There are two seasonal forms. Spring forms are more white and have small black tails with white tips. Summer forms are more black and have longer tails with more white in them. The wingspan measures 2 2/5 to 3 1/2 inches.

Males will patrol to find females. Females lay their eggs singly on pawpaw leaves and occasionally on the tree trunks. The egg is pale green but within 3 days it turns an orange-brown color, and then it turns dark gray just before hatching. The larvae are cannibalistic.

Young larvae are black. Older larvae have two different color forms. The more common form is green with yellow and white transverse stripes. Between the thorax and the abdomen is a tricolor band with yellow toward the abdomen, black in the middle, and a bluish-white color toward the thorax. The more rare form is black with white and orange transverse stripes.

The larva has a foul-smelling, forked gland called an osmeterium which it will use to deter predators. The chrysalis is either green or brown and is more compact compared to chrysalids in the genus Papilio. The chrysalis overwinters. It has 1-2 broods per year in the north and 3-4 broods per year in the south.

Gatekeeper Butterfly

Gatekeeper Butterfly by billnbenj

The Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) sometimes called the Hedge Brown is a common butterfly in the United Kingdom. It is a member of the subfamily Satyrinae in the family Nymphalidae. A similar species is the Meadow Brown, especially in the female sex, which likes to rest with closed wings however, especially the far less active females.

The name "Gatekeeper" may refer to its frequent occurrence near field gates and to the man who was responsible for the toll gates in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when butterflies were more numerous than they are today. As indicated by its alternate name, the gatekeeper butterfly prefers the habitat of meadow margins and hedges; field gates are often in such locations, and thus the Gatekeeper can be found much more frequently in such locations than the Meadow Brown for example.