The beholder's eye

By uniqueandlovely

Britain's smallest butterfly

This fiesty little butterfly is the smallest we get in the UK. It is the Small Blue, with the most romantic sounding latin name of Cupido minimus and has a wingspan of as little as 16mm! which is a little over 1.5cm - absolutley tiny.
However what they lack in size they make up for in bravery! I saw one today having a bit of a ding dong with a Dingy skipper - never a good idea.
These little butterflies live on chalk downland in small colonies of mostly less than 30 adults, and are double brooded.
The males and females are very similar in colour, but the top wings of males are sooty black with a dusting of shiny blue scales whereas the top wings of the females are more dark brown.
This is a male, keeping an eye on his patch and feeding on somthing unspeakable he has found in the grass!

Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.