Monday, July 19, 2010

Comma


Polygonia c-album or the Comma butterfly. One flitted through the garden this afternoon. So-named because of the distinctive C-shape on its ragged-edge wing. Although my photographic guide to Butterflies of Britain and Europe (1999) states that it is a fairly common species, all species of insect, in particular bee's and butterflies, have greatly reduced in number in the last five to ten years.

Postscript: 5 days after posting this, the Daily Mail has the headline 'Half of UK's butterfly species 'threatened with extinction,' and a national week of Butterfly counting July 24th -31 st is announced !

2 comments:

kevin andrew said...

Yes it is a sad fact that it is not only in the Amazon that species are being lost. It is sobering to think that in a few years this incredible creature may only exist in photographs!

btw in regard to the rss link in your sidebar - it's almost certainly something to do with the URL you have copied and pasted. try again using the 'subscribe' link at shipburial novel. I have now added an rss feed of your blog to mine and it took me several gos.

Kevin Faulkner said...

Yes I agree Kev, one doesn't have to travel to the Amazon to lament the decline in species numbers. Thanks for the tip, I will try it.