Things to look out for in the garden - identifying butterflies

While it might be relatively easy when the butterfly is basking open-winged, showing off all its markings and you've got a good guide to butterflies to hand, how do you cope if you've just glimpsed a butterfly in the garden, but it refuses to settle and your reference book is in the house? Here are some tips to help:

• The Brimstone is large and lazy-flighted - the male a striking primrose yellow while the female is much paler and can be mistaken for a large white but has a more sculpted shape like the male and no strong black markings. A good clue us that they can appear as early as February after hibernation.
• The Large White is a big butterfly, with substantial black markings on the upper wing tips. Females have obvious black spots on the upper wings. The lower under-wing is yellowy.
• The Small White - as you would expect - is smaller than the large white, although this is not always easy to see unless both species are together. The black on the wing tips is neither as dark nor as extensive as on the large white and it has a similar yellowy lower under-wing.
• The Peacock is large and very dark underneath with a powerful direct flight. The upper wings contain purple, blue, yellow and copper.
• The Red Admiral was always a migrant, flying from southern Europe and northern Africa to visit our shores, but global warming has meant that it can survive the milder British winters and has even been seen in January. It's a large butterfly, dark underneath but with bright flashes of red, black and white on the slightly pointed upper wingtips.
• The Small Tortoiseshell has orange or amber top surfaces but is quite dark underneath. A clue is to look for the light blue wing edges.
• The Adonis Blue has brilliantly-coloured blue wings if male, and can be found flying low over vegetation, seeking out the less-conspicuous females. It is often confused with the Chalk Blue, but is smaller and brighter.

Garden Adonis Blue photograph by Strange Ones, used under a creative commons attribution licence.

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