I lost some photos. I must have deleted them by mistake. A painted lady and a comma, which we saw last week. Too late for the Big Butterfly Count worse luck, but lovely to see anyway. I’m amazed by the number of butterflies we are seeing in the garden, but I was upset to lose the photos as the butterflies are starting to look the worse for wear and although we still have many Red Admirals, Whites and Small Heath butterflies, I wasn’t holding out much hope of seeing another painted lady or comma. Plus, we’d been for a walk and a massive grey cloudbank had obscured the sun and wasn’t showing signs of moving.
I waited, patiently, for the sun to come out again. I took a lot of photos of bugs and bees, but there weren’t many butterflies around. After nearly an hour, the cloud shifted, and the sun came out. Suddenly the garden was alive with butterflies! Yes, the ‘usual’ ones, but at last I noticed the ragged wings of the comma – and then a tortoiseshell, which is always an uplifting sight! No painted lady, but I’ll keep looking.
I found out why the comma is so-called. It’s because it has a white comma-shaped mark on the underside of its hind wings. You can see it quite clearly in the picture below where I was looking up at it. (Also in the main picture).
The next exciting find was a caterpillar! At this time of year! I thought we were finished with caterpillars, but no! Mr C. spotted this.
It’s the caterpillar of the knot grass moth, which is a black and white marbled moth with stripey legs. I have seen something similar, but haven’t identified it properly yet, as there are a great many black and white moths.
The knot grass moth itself is seen from May to July, but there is a second brood August to September. Caterpillars overwinter in a cocoon. The caterpillars feed on knot grass, docks and bramble and they prefer a damp environment.