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This is one of my "must see" species,
even more so for my father who'd always wanted to find it one day. It
extends only just west of the former Soviet block, into E Poland, E
Slovakia and E Romania.
We were about to give up looking for this species as we couldn't find
much habitat meeting the recognised criteria "open woodland with
damp meadows". Plenty of dense forest and farmland though. Then we
came across a rubbish dump with unkempt rough flowery ground. Hey presto
- Argynnis laodice on a thistle by the car. Our habitat was more
open scrubby meadows, less emphasis on woodland and damp.
The butterfly was flying across this scrubby area where it would
usually settle in the middle of extensive bramble bushes making close
approach utterly impossible. Unless feeding (when obviously it would use
the flowers) it would settle for some time on bramble leaves. We were
walking passed a rather unpleasant fly tip we noticed 2 or 3 circling
butterflies. They were settling to take fluids from the damp ground,
presumably the tip added a certain flavour liked by the males. I've got
great video footage of a male walking so close to me and my camera that
i had to move back from the 12 inches I need to focus!
Unfortunately, just after discovering this behaviour the huge and
rapidly growing thunder cloud obscured the sun and we didn't see
anything else all day. |
