An Aberrant Blog.

 Having seen all of the British butterfly species several times the fascination remains, but I now look for more than just the butterfly. Now I enjoy looking for immature stages as well as aberrant individuals. These being butterflies that have developed markings or colours that are not the normal and can make a common butterfly a rare version of that species.

You can never know when one will appear, but casually checking anything that you see flying or just sitting there, occasionally one will catch the eye as being a little different.

Over the years my rarest finds have probably been common butterfly species including a certain Large Skipper and Chalkhill Blue. The Large Skipper remains the only aberrant pallida ever recorded in Sussex, and was found whilst looking for White-letter Hairstreaks back in July 2013. The Chalkhill Blue was a bilateral gynandromorph which means the butterfly is split down the middle with one side being male and the other side female. As females are slightly bigger than the males, this actually means that half the body is bigger than the other side. This gives a distortion along the length of the abdomen as well as the wings being one side the blue of the male and the other wing being the brown of the female!!  I spotted this one in July 2019 when it flew past me whilst I was looking for Grayling. It was a particularly good year for Chalkhill Blue and there were thousands on the site. Fortunately, I managed to find the butterfly and get 3 grab shots before it vanished never to be seen again.

Large Skipper ab. pallida.

Chalkhill Blue bilateral gynandromorph.

In recent weeks I have been lucky to find 3 notable aberrant butterflies, and all of them on my many walks on my normal patch. The first one was just a Small Heath, one of the commonest butterflies I get along the valley. However, this one caught my eye as being a little different, brighter and with more contrast than usual, as it flew past. I was extremely lucky at this point, as a small heavy cloud covered the sun and the butterfly briefly went to roost on tall grass. On closer inspection I could see it had an enlarged eye spot on the wing. It also had 2 white dots in the eye spot instead of the normal one. After getting a couple of shots, I disturbed the butterfly and it flew a few metres before landing again on tall grass. I then managed to photograph the other side of it. When I got home I realised that this side was actually different again, with a different shaped eye spot and 3 small white dots in it. I sent the photos to the Sussex recorder, and he suggested that I send the photos to the top UK aberrant butterfly expert. He came back with the name of the aberrant as ab. anticrassipuncta addenda. It actually has 2 names due to the enlarged eye spot being the first part and the addenda due to the extra white spots.

Both sides of the Small Heath ab. anticrassipuncta addenda.

Exactly a week after finding the Small Heath, I was walking the other way along the valley. The weather was not particularly good, so I had decided to only take binoculars with me, as it was highly unlikely that I would find anything of interest, and the camera does get heavy during a long walk. However, towards the end of the valley the weather started to improve and a few insects started to fly around. I then spotted a very fresh, but pale straw coloured Small Copper. Strangely, this was in exactly the same spot as I found a Red-veined Darter dragonfly last year, and that day too I hadn't brought the camera. That darter was the only Sussex record of the species in 2024, and the insect fortunately hung around for me to get home and come back with the camera. This time I did have a secret weapon as Lisa was at home doing some correspondence and I was pretty sure that she would want to see this particularly rare specimen, so after contacting her she drove up to the car park with my camera as well as hers. The butterfly was also easy to re-find as it was still in the same area, and we both got several photos. I then contacted the aberrant expert again, and this time the result was that the Small Copper was an ab. lacticolor. 

I actually walked along the valley several times over the following week and each time the butterfly was still there in exactly the same spot. Gradually it began to look a little bit more tatty, but it still remained, sometimes chasing off rivals as well as chasing the female Small Coppers. It was certainly a very territorial butterfly. It remained in that small area, no bigger than the footprint of my house, for 10 days after I had found it.

Small Copper ab. lacticolor.

The photos above are from the first day that I found the Small Copper. The photo below is from 3 days later.

Small Copper ab. lacticolor.

The third aberrant find was actually on the final day of the Small Copper being present, and was only around 200 metres away from it. It is also not such a rare aberrant as the other 2. This one was a Comma butterfly. The Comma gets its name from the white mark on the underside of the wing which looks very much like a comma mark. Occasionally the 'comma' mark becomes a full circle instead, and any Comma butterfly that shows this is regarded as an ab. o-album.

I have seen this a couple of times over the years, but not for some time. As the butterfly was in the middle of a bush, I did struggle to get close enough for a photograph as the brambles were all inter-connected, but on its 3rd landing, I got one grab shot before it flew. That was the end of it. I did hang around for a while hoping to see the butterfly again, and I also walked the same way the following day, but with no further sighting.

Comma ab. o-album.

With 3 aberrant butterflies in less than 3 weeks, I will now probably have to wait for ages before another, but then again, it could be much sooner. One of the delights of being outside as much as I can searching for wildlife moments.