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| All contents and photographs copyright Matt Rowlings, ©2003-2008. |
| Photos: explicit permission must be obtained from Matt Rowlings for any use of any images from eurobutterflies.com. |
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Black Hairstreak
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Cote d'Or, France June 2005 |
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Geneva, Switzerland, June 2005 The egg is the dark brown dome in the centre of the picture. |
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 Peter Rowlings |
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Huntingdonshire, UK, June 1986 |
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Peter Rowlings |
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Huntingdonshire, UK, June 1986 |
 Peter Rowlings |
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Oxfordshire, UK, May 1986 |
 Peter Rowlings |
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Huntingdonshire, UK, July 1985 |
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| One of the two local specialities of
my childhood in the UK. These photos were amongst the first my father took with me
in tow. They are 20 years old! It is was the last butterfly that I had
found in the UK but not on continental Europe - and that wasn't until 2005. It is a very elusive butterfly, possibly being
more widespread than observations suggest. In the UK it is pretty certain
it is restricted to 30 or so colonies spread from Oxfordshire to
Huntingdonshire. This is a unusual distribution in the UK and
reflects some special habitat needs of the butterfly. On occasions it
was rather common, one evening in the 1980s we found an estimated 60 or so flying
around an old part of our local wood. If flies around old and large stands of Blackthorn, the larval food plant. It takes nectar from shrubs such as Privet early in the morning (we've found it feeding with the similar White Letter Hairstreak, S. w-album) and later moving up in the bushes and nearby oak trees to take sugars secreted by aphids. |