Thursday, 9 August 2012

A wing and a prayer

Needless to say, this is an awful year for butterflies which must be reading Genesis for advice on making arks. But the current much better weather has tempted some out, notably a beautifully fresh Small Tortoiseshell which was on our buddleia yesterday.


Few butterflies live long in their adult state and that has sadly been true of this Green-veined White whose relic I found yesterday. Can it stand as a symbol for those Olympians who tripped and fell and failed to win the glory for which they had hoped and trained for so long?


I mustn't overdo my parallels with the Games, but since they live just down the road, I must dedicate a moth to those triathlon marvels, the Brownlee brothers. The cop-out would be a brown moth and the choice of candidates for that position is infinite in the UK. Instead, here is a Lesser Swallow Prominent which arrived last night. Its whole appearance seems to me to speak of dash and speed.

2 comments:

Ray Walton said...

LSP - Dash and Speed indeed Martin. Superb shot.
The G-vW I am going to stab at a Female, Second Brood, and I make this suggestion purely on a study of the wing markings related to the time of year. (if it was a First Brood Male, the wing would surely have perished more by now!)
The Bronze, Silver, Gold moth challenge that you set yourself over the last few days has added to my interest on both moth and Olympic fronts.
Ray

Anonymous said...

I am impressed, Ray! Very impressed. I'm very slowly improving my scientific knowledge and this sort of expertise is a great incentive. Many thanks and hope you enjoy a sunny weekend. Our local pillar box has now been painted gold cos of the Brownlees. All warm wishes M