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Old 16-08-2013, 08:58 AM
echinosum echinosum is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2006
Location: Chalfont St Giles
Posts: 1,340
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sacha View Post
Two of the nursery team saw a very large butterfly yesterday and I hope
one of them got a photo with her mobile phone! Apparently, it was long
and kind of narrow (Spitefire aeroplane shape was the description) and
its wings were wider than a Dahlia flower, though I couldn't tell you
which one! The background of the wings is dark and 'somewhere' on them
are two white stripes and there is an orange outline on the body that
is in itself, butterfly shaped. Ray has described it to me as it was
described to him, he didn't see it. I suspect an escapee from
Buckfastleigh Butterfly Farm but if anyone has other ideas, or indeed,
any ideas at all, we'd be very grateful to hear them. If it is an
escapee, sad to say, it probably won't survive to lay eggs here or the
eggs won't survive.
Actually that could be a garbled description of a monarch. It is the largest British butterfly with a 100mm wingspan. They don't breed here, they occasionally fly over from France and the SW is where they are mainly spotted in late summer. However they are cultivated in butterfly farms so it may be an escaped monarch.... UK Butterflies - Monarch - Danaus plexippus