Silver-studded Blue

Last week I posted a blog about a brilliant site in South Yorkshire where I had been lucky enough to see Dark Green Fritillary and Marbled White butterflies (see here). I went back to this site again this weekend to see if I could catch up with another species, one that I'd missed last week; the Silver-studded Blue (see Butterfly Conservation's website here for details about this species), and this time I got lucky!

Underwing

Upperwing

I managed to see this male butterfly. Unfortunately the photos aren't very sharp, but you can hopefully see the tick black borer of the upperwing, which helps separate it from the Common Blue Butterfly (see here).

As well as this new species, I also saw at least 10-15 Dark Green Fritillaries and 20+ Marbled Whites; including several mating pairs, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, Small Heath, 20+ Ringlets, Meadow Brown and a skipper species, most likely Large.