Butterflies along the Old Railway Cutting

Over the last week or so, Andy M has been noting the butterfly species around along the Old Railway Cutting, and has taken a few photos of those he has seen:

Small Tortoiseshell 

 Marbled White

 Red Admiral - which seem to prefer feeding 'head-down'

 Red Admiral

 Comma

- characteristic colour and 'ragged' wing shape

Peacock

Meadow Brown

Meadow Brown - with forewing hidden, so no 'eye'spot evident.

 Meadow Brown - 

unusually with two small white 'eye' spots, more typical of the 

Gatekeeper - but lacking the orange colour of the latter.

Gatekeeper - 

note the four small white dots on the underside of the hind wing

 Gatekeeper - 

note the 'typical' double white spots in the 'eye-spot' and the bright orange colour

Female Ringlet

 - the female has more obvious white and black spots (much less distinct in the male)

 Female Ringlet

 Female Common Blue

 - brown fading to blue near the body, and with orange, black 

and white spots on the lower edge of the hind wing

Female Common Blue

Female Large Skipper

- has the chequer-board pattern, but lacks the bold black strip or 'sex-brand' of the male.

Essex Skipper

- very similar to Small Skipper, but having black-tipped antennae

(which are orange tipped in Small Skipper)

 Essex Skipper 

 Small White

 - smaller than Large White, and with paler 'grey' area just at the tip of to the forewing

(much darker tip extending down the edge in the Large White)