Lmst

A pair of Common Blue #Butterflies, doing their bit for the survival of the species. Female above, male below. Photographed last month at the Prestbury Hill reserves of Butterfly Conservation in #Gloucestershire.

#Butterfly #CommonBlue #Insect #Insects #InsectPhotography #MacroPhotography #Nature #NaturePhotography #Natuur #NatuurFotografie #Wildlife #WildlifePhotography #Schmetterling

Photo of a pair of Common Blue Butterflies (Polyommatus icarus) mating. The Butterflies are perched, wings closed and abdomens joined, on the side of a grass flower-head (which looks spiky, and is mostly purple in colour); we are looking at them side-on. The female is facing upwards, and the male, below her, is facing downward. They have hairy bodies, whitish in colour with hints of pale blue which are much stronger on the male. That blue colouring extends, in the case of the male, onto the lower parts of the underside of his hind-wing. The rest of that wing (and in the case of the female, the whole of it) is brown, with white, black-centred spots, and (near the outermost edge) a row of orange markings, which are darker on the female. The faces are white with black eyes, and the antennae are black with white bands along them (or possibly the other way round); the thicker ends of the antennae are black with white tips. The legs are white, with the lowermost parts encircled by black bands.

The current weather's hardly suitable for field trips (which, for some reason, L. megera didn't mind at all which is said to prefer dry and warm conditions) and I managed to mess most of my shots up. I hope this female P. icarus doesn't mind the noisy portrait of itself.

#Lepidoptera #Butterfly #CommonBlue #Insect #Nature

A female common blue (Polyommatus icarus) feeding on red clover (Trifolium pratense).

Två fjärilar säkrar artens fortlevnad.

Jag tror att arten är puktörneblåvinge / European common blue / Polyommatus icarus.

#nature #butterflies #commonblue #fjärilar #naturephotography

Två fjärilar på en överblommad maskros.

Two butterflies mating.

Meet the Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus)—a small but striking butterfly fluttering across Europe, including the Netherlands. Males flaunt vivid blue wings edged in white, while females sport brown wings with orange spots and a hint of blue.

Active from May to October, they thrive in sunny meadows, grassy verges, and even urban parks. Their caterpillars favor legumes like bird’s-foot trefoil and clovers, making these plants essential for their survival.

Often seen basking in the sun or gathering in small groups, these butterflies are a delightful sight on warm days. Their presence indicates healthy, flower-rich habitats.

So, next time you're out enjoying nature, keep an eye out for this charming pollinator—it’s a true gem of the European landscape!

#photography #photooftheday #picoftheday #photographer #canon #canonphotography #justgoshoot #macronature #nature #naturephotography #naturelovers #wildlife #wildlifephotography #pollinators #garden #wildlife_perfection #insectsofinstagram #butterfly #butterflies #butterflyphotography #butterfliesofinstagram #insectphotography #macro #macrophotography #macro_vision #insects #lepidoptera #commonblue #polyommatusicarus #icarusblauwtje #insectphotography #pollinators #photooftheday #picoftheday #photographer #nederland #natuur #natuurfotografie #natuurgebied #tilburg #brabant

Polyommatus icarus not only making its first appearance during this season but getting straight down to business. Right now this species is significantly outnumbered by their close relative P. bellargus, so they have to work harder to boost their own population again to justify their English name.

#Lepidoptera #Butterfly #CommonBlue #Insects #Nature

Two mating common blues (Polyommatus icarus).

🇳🇱 Icarusblauwtje ♂️
🇬🇧 Common Blue ♂️

#Icarusblauwtje #commonblue #Polyommatusicarus #hauhechelbläuling #vlinder #vlinders #vlinderstichting #butterfly #butterflies #butterflyphotography #explorenature #wildlifephotography #vegan #vegans #insects #animalphotography #animalkingdom

Never noticed #CommonBlue butterfly in Australia 🇦🇺 Har set @mortendd.bsky.social på TV blive meget glad når han en #Blåfugl sommerfugl 🇩🇰

[Archive – 03-09-2024]

So… it seems the weather will remain rainy and rather cool, so the past week was spent donating more software to the Internet Archive, modding my 3DS to get the most out of the games I got from a public bookcase, and generally just testing some retro software that may end up on IA AND one or both of my Fujitsu (Siemens) machines I currently am restoring. I live post about it on my tech account linked in my bio, in case anyone wants to see lose my mind over my ancient Mitsubishi monitor failing due to a leaking electrolytic capacitor.

A female Polyommatus icarus – probably the last I got to see at this mini zone that may or may not move to the "historic zones" next season.

#lepidoptera #butterfly #commonblue #germany #canoneos700d

One Polyommatus I just got to observe. Overall activity remains so low that I decided to take a closer look at the vegetation of each of my zones & speculate on why my shoes have been picking up "rusty" dust since the end of August.

Yesterday's trip got scrapped due to my local farmers having decided to cultivate & fertilize their fields, with one guy dropping slurry on his remaining alfalfa field (if that already doesn't sound ridiculous enough to anyone knowing that alfalfa already fertilizes soils with the help of bacteria, it gets worse). After digging through my old chemistry books & taking into account that nearly all farmers treated their fields with dung, the brown powder on my shoes may be iron(III) hydroxide (FeO(OH)3), which is more common in areas known for ore mining. This hydroxide may develop as a result of ammonia falling apart but FeO(OH)3 but also is a common agent to mitigate decomposing of cultivated plants. A current hypothesis of mine is that both cases - the direct application of FeO(OH)3 in some areas & the indirect development of it after the dung began to fall apart to FeO(OH)3 and other chemicals in other areas - may be contributing to the devastating state of my local flora right now, alongside the strict mowing regimes imposed by my municipality. Even very common plants such as chicory are unusually sparse & the few grassy paths show clear signs of (perhaps unintended) overfertilization due to such chemicals getting stuck on tractor/car tires (and all paths in my zones currently are used by virtually everyone because of one single street having been blocked out of the blue). Given that another area will undergo "maintenance" starting in October & over 50% of all fields consisted of nothing but non-corn-carrying corn for biogas plants, I fear that the next season in particular may be much more terrible for insects than what happens to be the state of things at the moment.

#lepidoptera #butterfly #commonblue #germany #canoneos700d

Well, today was rather disappointing due to most areas still being soaked from the heavy rain two days ago. One Polyommatus icarus was kind enough to let me document it properly, whereas my first male A. cyanea merely passed me multiple times without giving me a chance to photograph it.

(Today's log entry: https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/magda.cities.yesterweb.org/oblog/2024-july-29.gmi)

#lepidoptera #butterfly #commonblue #germany #canoneos700d

The next generation of Polyommatus icarus has started to appear and the first male seems to have discovered my local playground.

#lepidoptera #butterfly #commonblue #germany #canoneos700d

Here’s a shot from the same cemetery a couple of years ago. They seem a bit later this year with my 1st sighting coming in June and this image being end of May. Numbers seem low at the moment, I hope they pick up.

There is a lot to be said about being able to walk to a local patch and have a couple of hours peace and quiet.

A few dog walkers about but most people are oblivious the the beauty that’s around.

#commonblue #butterfly #cornwall #photography #nature #wildlife #macro #closeup

A common blue butterfly in late golden sun against a plain out of focus green backdrop in a portrait format

Phone shot… I’ve managed to get out a few evenings now and bag a few butterfly shots. This common blue was in a local cemetery which has been good to me the last few years.

I’ve probably got 1,000s of images of these but can’t resist taking more. I absolutely love doing it…

#commonblue #butterfly #nature #wildlife #cornwall #shotoniphone #photography