Scotch Argus

The first day of August, and this was the first Scotch Argus butterfly I had seen this year.  Last weekend and the days before, the fellas and I had searched in vain.  We have always seen them on the wing during the fellas' summer visit, but the fellas arrived a week earlier than usual, and the butterflies are having a late season.

In 5 years of blipping, this is the first one I have featured despite getting a reasonable photograph most years.  I don't know why.  This photo isn't perfect, though the insect was, it was flying in a place where I don't usually see them, on a steep rocky slope with dwarf ash trees - enjoying the shelter from the morning breeze.

The scotch argus is a widespread species in Scotland, but here in England it is confined to two places in Cumbria and I am fortunate that one of those is Arnside Knott, half a mile from our house.  The English butterflies look like their Scottish cousins, but their caterpillars have a different food plant - blue moor grass as opposed to purple moor grass.  While these two grasses have similar names, they are not closely related except in so far as they are both grasses.  The curious fact is that purple moor grass is a common plant of the Cumbria bogs and wetlands, yet the scotch argus does not use it, or else it might be more widespread here too.

It was a warmer day than we have had recently, it has been feeling distinctly autumnal, and indeed the dead leaves in the photograph are hinting Autumn.