To ask you if you have colourful butterflies where you live?

[CollieEye]

In an attempt to calm down DD (2 yrs) who was panicking about a butterfly that flew near her face I said "butterflies are beautiful, they come in lots of lovely colours". She roared at me. "No they don't. They're all white."

And she's right. The only butterflies I've seen all summer are Cabbage Whites. Where are all the Red Admirals and such? Are they living with you?

Gerund they are excellent photos. I love the monarch one. Have shown them to DD who is adamant that the brown one is a moth. Despite it being out in the day. It is a moth.

Love 2 year old know it alls takes after me

SP am in W Yorks too, about 30 mins from Leeds.

Ooh, I just saw a Brimstone!! At least I think so. Neon all yellow butterfly, not a cabbage white.

No idea what type it was but was cleaning the car earlier and a beautiful small lilac colour butterfly was fluttering around I've never seen one before.

Grimma I've been thinking of taking her to a butterfly house as there is one nearby. Bit worried she might freak out though.
She's been scared by a massive moth in her room. Its body was the size of my middle finger. The dislike has spread to butterflies, but doesn't seem to be quite as bad IYSWIM.

It's mostly Meadow Browns, Cabbage Whites, Painted Ladies, and a few Peacocks. Lots of Cinnabar moths.

The swallowtails sound lovely, Withaspider. We have pupae saving for next year, too (Death's Head and Elephant Hawk), in plant pots which we'll dig up next year. Plus some stubborn privet hawk pupae, due to emerge now, which we think may be dead.

Thank you CollieEye

There wasn't a photo of a Mmonarch there though. I've never seen one in the wild - they don't normally occur in Britain. We get the odd one blown over from North America if it's been seriously windy in late summer/early autumn.

Some moths fly by day. This is a very common day-flying moth, a six-spot burnet, examining my camera: 1.bp.blogspot.com/-sq7kJxztKzk/UfYmIv2LjuI/AAAAAAAAEqs/zxFNlSMTRoc/s1600/Burnet.jpg

The butterflies most likely to show up in British gardens are:

Large white, small white, peacock, small tortoiseshell, red admiral, painted lady (if it's a good year for them - they are migrants and numbers vary year on year), gatekeeper and holly blue.

If you're a bit more ruralified and have some wild areas/long grass in the garden you're also likely to get:

Green-veined white, orange-tip, brimstone, small skipper, Essex skipper, common blue, small copper, comma, speckled wood and meadow brown.

That's still less than half the British species, most of our butterflies are really quite scarce :( Some only fly for a few weeks per year, others have multiple generations and are around almost uninterrupted from spring to autumn.

Oh, and while I'm spamming this thread, lljkk yours could have been a male brimstone but could also have been a clouded yellow, which is a migrant from the continent. It's been a v good year for them so far.

We've got cabbage whites and red admirals here

We have white ones' brown and orange ones, and black and red ones. Don't know the names of them but very pretty.

I'd love to go to a butterfly house, don't think 8yr old DS would be as keen though but might drag him along anyway!

A butterfly house might be a bit much for someone who's nervous of butterflies - it's really warm and steamy in the house so a bit oppressive, and they are generally stocked with BIG tropical species. I think a visit to an open grassland nature reserve might be a better bet.

Would you class the cinnabar as a day flyer, Gerund. I've seen conflicted opinions on this. Some say they are just flushed out in the daytime when disturbed (if I recall correctly), others (usually older sources) say day flyers.

Weeell, I've seen quite a few cinnabars out in the day that I hadn't flushed, but I don't recall ever seeing one feeding in the daytime, which you'd expect a genuinely diurnal moth to do. UK Moths says they are nocturnal.

Burnets, most of which are black and red like cinnabars but aren't closely related, are definitely diurnal though.

I have about 40 peacock outside my window now. We have a tree with purple blossoms (don't know what it is) but they all come and sit on it. It's a beautiful sight :-)

I has butterfly stuck in net curtains. Had to try get it back out. Took ages.

It was black in the middle with orange, red and brown wings

In Leeds
Seen lots of whites,
meadow browns,
hedge browns
peacocks
small torties this year so far.

Only white ones here and very small brown jobs that could be moths. DP reckons he saw a peacock yesterday though.

It's really sad - I remember as a child seeing loads of admirals, tortoiseshells, fritalaries (sp?) and peacocks :(