Dingy, Green and Burgundy: 3 Spring Butterflies

Thu 17th Apr, 2014

With spring well underway, temperatures rising and vegetation growing, it will soon be time to welcome three of the region's most delightful little butterflies. The Dingy Skipper, Duke of Burgundy Fritillary and Green Hairstreak are all moderately specialist species with populations along the Yorkshire coast and moors.

Despite its initial drab appearance, the Dingy Skipper is a beautifully cryptic species. This is essentially a species of open calcareous grassland, predominantly forming small colonies on limestone in North Yorkshire and chalk in East Yorkshire. The majority of these colonies are on warm south-facing embankments, ideally with a matrix of exposed soils and taller vegetation such as knapweeds for roosting.

The Green Hairstreak is a fantastic tiny emerald butterfly found at warm, sheltered sites interspersed with scrub. This usually consists of moorland valleys and woodland rides to the north of the region and the chalk dales of the Wolds to the south. A characteristic of this species is its highly territorial nature, with each male perched on a promontory shrub around an open breeding area.  Once a female approaches, battle commences: behaviour every butterfly fanatic needs to take time to see!

Without doubt the scarcest of the three species, both nationally and locally, is the Duke of Burgundy Fritillary. This stunning little metalmark is at around its northernmost point in Britain on the North York Moors and is another species restricted to small compact colonies, usually on or around limestone grassland or open woodland. Within these habitats it breeds on Cowslip and Primrose, with the former used in grassland and the latter in woodland.  Despite its name, this is not a fritillary at all and is in fact the only European representative of the metalmarks, a family which reaches its peak diversity in the tropical rainforests of Central America.  

Dan Lombard