Tuesday, 16 January 2018

Essex Skipper confirmed in Montgomeryshire

2017 saw an extremely rare - though, in this case, not unexpected - event in Montgomeryshire: a new county butterfly record. Essex Skipper has been spreading rapidly in recent decades and has become common over much of southern England and Wales. It is rather similar to the Small Skipper so has possibly been overlooked to some extent.

It's definitely worth checking your Small Skippers in 2018, especially in the east of the county. There are some useful pictures for separating the two species under the 'similar species' section on UK Butterflies. If possible, please take photos to have any potential sightings confirmed.

Essex Skipper. Peter & Sue Young. July 2017, Welshpool.
Posted by DHB at 13:41

3 comments:

  1. PRW19 January 2018 at 10:57

    Excellent news - a new butterfly species in the county is a pretty unusual event.

    As a matter of interest Douglas, when was the last time we had a new butterfly species in the county and what was it?

    Peter.

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  2. DHB19 January 2018 at 11:15

    A good question!

    I believe it was Marbled White (1999) - this record is considered to represent a stray individual. Similarly, the first and only CR of Camberwell Beauty was 1995.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PRW20 January 2018 at 13:51

    Thanks Douglas very interesting. I wonder how long we'll have to wait for the next new county record and what it might be?

    Peter.

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