Devil ’ s Dyke Lepidoptera

I’ve taken a number of trips to Devil’s Dyke, Cambridgeshire in the last couple of years, tramping back and forth along the chalky ridge looking for butterflies. In the summer time, when the weather is fine you can almost reach right up and touch them. Saw my first Dark Green Hairstreaks and Chalkhill Blues there in 2021 and my first Adonis Blue in 2022 (an unofficially introduced species).
The Blackneck Lygephila pastinum (Treitschke, 1826)
Marbled White, Melanargia galathea (Linnaeus, 1758)
Dark Green Fritillary Speyeria aglaja (Linnaeus, 1758)
9th June I walked (150 minutes from 10am) from the car park at the Newmarket July Racecourse section to the A14 break and kept a tally of the Lepidoptera I saw, posted data to Cambs&Essex page:
Butterflies
Marbled White 54 (actually one of the “Browns” – Satyrinae
Small Tortoiseshell 7
Dark Green Fritillary 16
Green Hairstreak 3
Common Blue 5
Meadow Brown 10
Large Skipper 5
Small Heath 8
Red Admiral 3
Large White 1
Brimstone 3
Moths

Common Heath 2
Yellow Shell 2
Burnet Companion  3
Common Carpet 1
The Blackneck 1 (New to me)

Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - June 10, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Lepidoptera Source Type: blogs