On Saturday, Jayne and I had our annual trip to Lindrick Dale, near Worksop. It was about 20 degrees, with quite a lot of cloud cover and also quite windy, but, we still managed to spot the butterflies we'd gone to see, and two species for us there as well!!
First up, the "usual suspects", namely Dark Green Fritillary (c.10), Marbled White (c.5), Silver-studded Blue (just 2, one male and one female), Meadow Brown (c.5), Ringlet (3) and Gatekeeper (1).
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Dark Green Fritillary
The two new species were a single 6-spot Burnet, and, most surprising, a pair of mating Silver-washed Fritillaries!!
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Silver-washed Fritillaries
In addition to the butterflies, Jayne also noticed this gall on a rose plant, that turns out to be a Robin's Pincushion, also known as a bedeguar gall. This is created by the gall wasp, Diplolepis rosae, that lays an egg in the rose's bud in spring. The larvae then develop inside the gall, before emerging as adults, next spring to begin the cycle again.
Robin's Pincushion
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