The Butterfly Lady

04/09/2026

FRIDAY FLUTTER #35: Species Of The Week – Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvae)

The Grizzled Skipper, is a low-flying, darting Butterfly species from the family Hesperiidae. It is a small attractive skipper with a chequered pattern on its wings. This Butterfly can be found throughout Europe and is common in central and southern regions of England and Wales but becoming increasingly rare. The wings are black or dark brown with a checkerboard pattern of white spots. The Grizzled Skipper is a characteristic spring Butterfly of southern chalk downland and other sparsely-vegetated habitats. Its rapid, buzzing flight can make it difficult to follow, but it stops regularly either to perch on a prominent twig or to feed on flowers such as Common Bird's-foot Trefoil or Bugle. It can then be identified quite easily by the pattern on its wings. The Grizzled Skipper has a wingspan of 2.3-2.9cm and is a fast flier, so is best observed in the morning as it basks in the sun to warm up. It favours chalk grassland and woodland habitats. It is a priority species under the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework.
The Grizzled Skipper is the smallest of our skippers and the earliest to appear in spring. they require short, mixed vegetation that is usually created by grazing on chalk grassland or in woodland clearings. The caterpillars feed on a variety of plants, including wild strawberry, bramble, agrimony, salad burnet and creeping cinquefoil. The Grizzled Skipper wings have white fringes, with dark lines running through them, the Dingy Skipper is similar, but is larger and has lighter, duller wings. Although the Grizzled Skipper prefers unimproved chalk grassland and woodland rides, it has recently spread on to old industrial sites, such as mineral workings, spoil heaps, railway lines and even rubbish tips!
Eggs are laid on plants that will provide warmth and proper nutrition for development. As larvae, their movement is usually restricted to a single plant, on which they will build tents, unless they move onto a second host plant. Larvae then spin cocoons, usually on the last host plant they have occupied, where they remain until spring. Upon emerging as adult Butterflies, Grizzled Skippers are quite active during the day and tend to favour blue or violet-coloured plants for food. They also possess multiple methods of communication; for example, vibrations are used to communicate with ants, and chemical secretions play a role in mating. Exhibiting territorial behaviour, males apply perching and patrolling strategies to mate with a desired female.
With its characteristic wing pattern, the Grizzled Skipper is quite distinctive, although it closely resembles moths in appearance. Males and females can be differentiated by the shape of their wings: males have slightly more angular wings, while females have a more rounded wing shape. Larvae are coloured green and light brown with darker brown stripes. Seitz describes malvae "The terminal row of white dots developed, at least on the hindwing. The underside of the hindwing is reddish, with distinct white dots, those of the subterminal band being rounded, and veins that are bordered with yellowish white or white. They are on the wing in April and May and again from the end of July onwards, on sunny slopes, roads among fields and clearings in woods, being common everywhere in Central Europe but rare and elusive in parts of UK. The Grizzled Skipper is a very localised and declining Butterfly in Britain occuring in discrete colonies in open, sunny but sheltered, unfertilised grassland, woodland rides and glades or abandoned industrial sites, breeding where the vegetation is sparse and there are patches of bare ground. Best sites occur where there is a mosaic of short and long vegetation where the caterpillars feed on rosaceous plants such as Wild Strawberry, Creeping Cinquefoil and Bramble.
I personally had only ever seen one Grizzled Skipper many years ago when on a family outing, I hadn't seen any since then until I was on a BC field trip with friends - the target species were Pearl Bordered Fritillary and Grizzled Skipper, the latter refusing to make an appearance until we were leaving. As I walked away I saw one land near my feet and I just managed a very quick photo before it disappeared into the undergrowth - only one wing was in the photo due to the position it was in, but at least I saw and photographed it. Then a few weeks later I was on one of my field trips in a different location, looking for any spring Butterflies - and actually saw and photographed several Grizzled Skippers (such as the featured photo!)
Have you ever been lucky enough to see a rare and illusive Grizzled Skipper Butterfly?

Acknowledgements:
Featured Photo by Butterfly Whisperer UK
(the Butterfly branch of Utopia Photography)
aka The Butterfly Lady.

Disclaimer: This feature was written from a combination of my own words plus some information borrowed from various other sources...............

28/08/2026

FRIDAY FLUTTER #34: Species Of The Week – Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera)

The Wall Brown or “Wall” is a Butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is widespread in the Palearctic realm with a large variety of habitats and number of generations a year. The species gets its name from the fact it rests on any bare surface or wall! It can be found in open, sunny places like sand dunes, old quarries, grasslands and railway cuttings. It is a medium-sized Butterfly with a wingspan of 4.5-5.3cm, which is on the wing in two or three broods, between the middle of April and the end of October. It is a once widespread, but declining Butterfly of hot, sunny places such as open grassland, sand dunes and rocky foreshores, disused quarries and railway cuttings, and even gardens where they love soaking up heat from stone walls, patio slabs, gravel paths and brickwork. It is mainly pale orange with greyish-brown markings and black eyespots. The best way to identify the 'brown' Butterflies is by looking at the eyespots on their wings. The combination of orange and brown markings, together with one large eyespot on the forewing and four smaller eyespots on the hindwing, is unique to the Wall Brown. The Caterpillars feed on a variety of grasses including False Broom, Tor-Grass, Cocksfoot and Yorkshire Fog.
The Wall Brown Butterfly is not globally rare, but it has suffered a massive and severe decline in the UK, making it very scarce or locally rare in many inland regions where it was once common.They are still holding on better in coastal spots, sand dunes, and southern strongholds like the chalk downs. Conservation groups track them as a rapidly declining species rather than a completely lost one, but spotting one inland is now a notable event. Although once quite common, the Wall Brown is now classified as endangered on the GB Red List, due to a severe ongoing population crash across large parts of the UK. It is recognised as a species of principal importance under the NERC act in England and Section 7 of the Environment (Wales) Act. Numbers have plunged drastically since the 20th century, particularly disappearing from inland and southern lowlands, as well as parts of Northern Ireland. Warmer temperatures are causing the presence of extra late season broods, which are unable to survive the winter. Changes in farming and the loss of open, stony ground reduce their basking and breeding areas. Although some species are making a come back, the Wall Brown by contrast was put up from “Near threatened” to “Endangered” because it’s inland populations are still in a severe, rapid collapse. Because they are so endangered, conservationists rely heavily on public data to track where they are surviving. However, climate changed has caused a very strange paradox for the species – warmer temperatures have allowed the Wall Brown to move further north into southern and eastern Scotland, where it is actually increasing. Reports focusing on these specific regional gains can easily give the impression the Butterfly is recovering overall. At the exact same time, the species is completely vanishing from inland Southern England and Wales due to the “lost generation” climate trap, and so it remains a priority species under the UK Biodiversity Framework.
Personally I had never seen a Wall Brown until around 2005 when on a family walk in Gower. We were walking along sandy dunes where lots of pretty wild flowers were in bloom, suddenly I saw a gorgeous orange and browny-grey Butterfly like no other I had ever seen before, nectaring on the wild flowers around 8ft away, a bit higher than myself on the dunes. I was carrying my little Olympus C750 camera and did manage to get a few photo’s on zoom, although not very good ones due to the distance between the Butterfly and myself and the speed at which it flew from flower to flower and settled very briefly (featured photo). I hadn’t seen another one since then, until recently I had one visit my garden, feed from the Knapweed in my mini meadow, and settle on the path.
Have you ever been lucky enough to see a beautiful rare Wall Brown Butterfly?

Acknowledgements:

Featured Photo by Butterfly Whisperer UK
(the Butterfly branch of Utopia Photography )
aka The Butterfly Lady.

Disclaimer: This feature was written from a combination of my own words plus some information borrowed from various other sources.
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28/08/2026

Borrowed from a friend, I thought it was lovely.

28/08/2026

Still a few more plants and types of seeds to be delivered (until I order more lol) ... I still want to try and get to the native wild flower nursery though, but it's only open limited hours a few days a week and so far I haven't been able to go there when it's open. I also need some more compost for potting on and seed sowing x
Edit: just as I was about to post the above a plant, 6 plug plants and several packs of seeds arrived!

28/08/2026

Oh my goodness, I posted yesterday about a cutting I have that is rooting in two places ... I just noticed it is actually rooting in three places! If the roots all develop well I would be able to cut the stem into three individual plantlets! x

27/08/2026

I took some cuttings from my daughter's garden last week and have had them standing in water. Usually if a cutting isn't going to root it will die off, but they have all remained green and grown new leaves. I just transferred them into pots after standing them in rooting gel for an hour, it says to stand cuttings in water for a while, then stand them in the gel for a while, then plant the gelled ends into pots containing compost, which I have done (you used to be able to get little pots of rooting gel with foil tops, make holes in the foil and stand cuttings in the gel through the holes - leaving them in it until they root, but I can't get it anywhere!). It doesn't say they need to be rooting, so fingers crossed it will work. However, one cutting has started rooting in the water, in two places - at the tip and further up the stem! I am leaving it in water until the roots grow enough, then can cut the stem to make two plants! I will be taking cuttings from some of my plants soon too x

24/08/2026

24/08/2026

DISCLAIMER NOTICE:
Unfortunately the stark reality of Butterfly/Wildlife photography/spotting is that there are no guarantees of finding target species or any species at all - no matter what time you arrive at the location, how long you stay, how far you travel, what the weather is like or how much walking or searching you do on site! I can take you to places where Butterflies are known or meet you there, but I can't make the Butterflies come to us and there are many reasons why they might not be around on the same day as me/us. I had a complaint about yesterday so just wanted to put these facts here. Also I volunteer to take people with me or meet on location - for free! I make no promises about actually finding the Butterflies, I too am there hoping to be lucky on the day but I also know it is impossible to predict and it's best to take it as it comes. If it's a new location for me it is also unknown territory and I have to work out where I am going and find the best area/s, I won't know this in advance on my first visit. Even if I had been there before or many times and previously had successful visits, Butterflies are wild, living, flying creatures, they may move around, change locations, take shelter or hide away - or sadly the whole colony could have failed to thrive on site. Just because I or my friends may have seen them somewhere before doesn't mean they will be there again, so I never visit thinking they will be there, just hoping ... and I certainly never make any promises I can or will be able to find them for/with you, sorry but that's not how Butterfly/wildlife photography/spotting works. I was quite upset that someone complained. I started to offer to take/meet people on my field trips after several people asked. I am going there anyway and if people want to go too that is great - but I don't have to do it, I can just go solo and share my photo's afterwards. I put in a lot of time, energy, effort, planning, research, mileage and expense to do my field trips whether solo or not. Yesterday was a 4 hour each way drive to the first location from which I then drove another hour (traffic on route) to where people were meeting me, separately as they weren't together. Actually the second location, although not as many Butterflies as I had seen people reporting, still produced more than the first location where I had been solo, it just took a bit of time finding them. One person has since complained about that, even though the location is only about half an hour drive for them compared to my journey. Sorry about it not being a very successful visit for you, it was disappointing to me also, but I hope you have better luck when you return on your own trip/s.

24/08/2026

I have ordered a few more plants and seeds of ones I can't find ready grown, received the last seeds from my previous orders today and all the plants have also arrived since I ordered. I have also received two types of stacking planters that I want to try out for various plants, they will save space as instead of several pots they will only take up the space of one pot, but stack with three "pots" on each level in a tower formation so they take up height space rather than ground space. If they work out how I think they will I might get more, I bought two of each kind so could have two of each on three levels, or one of each on six levels. In effect they would hold more plants than the troughs yet take up less room, so I could get more in. I currently just stand pots in the troughs as a temporary measure and not actually plant in them, but I want to free a few up and sew mixed wild flower seeds in them, some for the front garden and some for the back.
On another note, I haven't started doing yesterday's photo's yet but hope to do them later, there are loads of photo's but just a few are of Butterflies as very few were seen - and even less allowed us a chance to get photo's! x

23/08/2026

Oh dear! The first location was very disappointing, I had been told the wrong area to get the shots I wanted so I missed my chance. I had walked all over the place looking for Butterflies, more walking than I should do really, but not one target species Butterfly found, not one other Butterfly photographer to be found either, I expected to see a few at some point! I did see a Red Admiral but too far away for decent photos, and a Small White but settled in a not very photogenic place. As I was about to get in my car and head for the second location to meet two people there, a couple of photographers arrived and they very kindly told me the best places, which I hadn't gone to because it looked private. They walked on ahead of me then met me before I got there, and said it was pointless because the meadows had been cut! At least they saved me walking further, thank you both for your help.
The second location was also disappointing, although we did see some Clouded Yellows flying about but they didn't settle. Again we were about to walk back to our cars when suddenly two Brown Argus, two Small Copper and a Common Blue did settle and we grabbed some quick photo's. We had a nice visit though, thank you both for coming along. Apparently there is a field at the common where photographers go at the location, which I didn't know, we went to the common itself ... at least I know now for future visits which will cut down the amount of walking on site, this is one problem with first ever site visits just to learn where to go. I did get lots of nice photo's at the first location but not of Butterflies, so when I have done the photo's they will go on my general photography page x