A pearl and a calendar

Britain was a late adopter of the Gregorian calendar which helps explains why, in his 1699 publication, James Petiver gave the name April fritillary to this butterfly. When the calendar changed in 1752 the 2nd of September was followed by the 14th of September. The following spring this twelve day shift meant that the butterfly started appearing in early May rather than late April. Indeed in 1795 Lewin (The Papilios of Great Britain) began calling it the May Fritillary . Its current name, the Pearl-bordered Fritillary, finally came in 1824.

Determined not to miss the short flight period of my favourite butterfly for a second year I headed to one of the reserves where they were recently brought back from the brink of extinction in Sussex. Sometimes you can spend hours looking for a species like this, today I found my first within ten minutes of arriving and a further six within the hour. For me that counts as a real treat.