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Image-of-the-Day by Subject

Image Taken on 11 May 2009 at 13:49    Image of day on 03 Jun 2009

Wow - an orange tip actually stopped flying long enough to get a pic 'in the field'!


Ref: 20090603_db1_20090511_1349_060 orange tip butterfly male on teasel leaf(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 16 May 2016 at 10:36    Image of day on 25 Jun 2016

A male Orange Tip butterfly perched on some fresh Blackberry leaves.


Ref: 20160625_df3_20160516_1036_016 orange tip butterfly male perched on blackberry leaf (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 19 May 2023 at 13:02    Image of day on 07 Jul 2023

At last we get to see a female Orange-tip Butterfly, here on the right of the male. They share the wonderful intricate green tracery on the underside of the wing.


Ref: 20230707_d72_20230519_1302_415+df3_20230521_1615_458 orange-=tip butterfly male (left) and female feeding on red campion (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 27 Apr 2011 at 16:12    Image of day on 22 May 2011

A pair of orange tip butterflies spent a couple of minutes fluttering round each other (very hard to photo) and then the female landed on the grass path and the male made his intentions excitably clear. Here one moment from the action - they flew off together & we lost sight of them in the undergrowth.


Ref: 20110522_df1_20110427_1612_092 pair of orange-tip butterflies courting 21 of 35 (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 14 Apr 2020 at 12:52    Image of day on 01 May 2020

2 days later presumably a different couple of Orange-tip Butterfly 'getting to know each other'.


Ref: 20200501_df3_20200414_1252_047+1251_027 orange-tip butterflies courting on blackberry leaves (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 14 Apr 2020 at 14:55    Image of day on 01 May 2020

All this chasing girls is hard work.
Here a male Orange-tip Butterfly refuels on what we think is a Ground Ivy flower.


Ref: 20200501_df3_20200414_1455_060 orange-tip butterfly feeding on ground ivy flower(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 22 Apr 2019 at 13:03    Image of day on 18 May 2019

We caught another male Orange-tip Butterfly on this day, so took the opportunity to show you female (left) and male Orange-tip Butterflies, so you can compare.


Ref: 20190518_da1_20190422_1303_088+1319_121_ft1 orange-tip butterfly female & male in flight (montage)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 18 May 2014 at 14:18    Image of day on 16 Jul 2014

Top right is the Male Orange-tip butterfly, together with an image of the female and a flowering Garlic Mustard - one of their favourite plants for egg laying which we encourage down our trackway edge. We would love to have caught this setup 'for real' but it's hard enough getting a decent image of one insect in flight at a time, so this is a montage of 3 images to illustrate what we see in the wild.


Ref: 20140716_da1_20140518_1418_265+1540_338+1529+332_ft1 orange-tip butterfly female & male in flight with garlic mustard (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg

Image Taken on 08 May 2018 at 12:52    Image of day on 22 Jun 2018

Here is a female Orange-tip Butterfly (without the orange tips) sipping delicately from a Garlic Mustard flower.
This plant is the food plant of the Orange-tip caterpillar, so she is probably attracted to the smell of them, although she can feed on other flowers.


Ref: 20180622_df3_20180508_1252_131 orange-tip butterfly female feeding on garlic mustard flower(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 19 May 2019 at 13:28    Image of day on 22 Jun 2019

We tend to mostly notice the male Orange Tip Butterflies, so catching this female (no orange!) feeding on a ground ivy flower was worth a pic.


Ref: 20190622_df5_20190519_1328_066 orange-tip butterfly female feeding on ground ivy flower(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 15 May 2024 at 16:09    Image of day on 08 Jun 2024

A female Orange-tip Butterfly.
No orange tip like the male, but like the male has that beautiful green and white patterning on the underwing. This one is feeding on Herb Robert.


Ref: 20240608_df3_20240515_1609_019 orange-tip butterfly female feeding on herb robert(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 10 Apr 2011 at 15:44    Image of day on 09 May 2011

A female Orange-tip butterfly (which doesn't have the orange tips so obvious in the male) on some of our Lady's smock (Cuckoo flower) flowers they like so much.


Ref: 20110509_df1_20110410_1544_413 orange-tip butterfly female feeding on ladys smock (cuckoo flower) flower (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 15 May 2024 at 16:09    Image of day on 08 Jun 2024

A different female Orange-tip Butterfly, this one feeding on a Red Campion Flower.


Ref: 20240608_df3_20240515_1609_025 orange-tip butterfly female feeding on red campion (detail)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 23 May 2012 at 12:45    Image of day on 21 Jun 2012

The only freshly emerged butterflies at the moment are orange tips. They don't seem to feed to on buttercups but fly over them on the way to their regular food plants.


Ref: 20120621_da1_20120523_1245_032+1311_054_ft1 orange-tip butterfly female in flight with buttercup (montage)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 22 Apr 2019 at 12:58    Image of day on 18 May 2019

This is a FEMALE Orange-tip Butterfly - which doesn't have even a trace of the orange wing tips, but has a similar wonderful lattice pattern on the lower surface of the wing.


Ref: 20190518_da1_20190422_1258_058+1507_183_ft1 orange-tip butterfly female in flight with garlic mustard (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 09 Apr 2011 at 13:28    Image of day on 02 May 2011

Caught in a sheltered corner on a sunny but cold day this is the first time we have photographed a female Orange-tip butterfly flight before. What does she lack - the orange tip! You are seeing her slightly from the rear with her head lower left. The pretty flower is called 'Lady's Smock (Cuckoo Flower)' - it seeds freely and our site is every increasingly awash with it!


Ref: 20110502_da1_20110409_1328_119+1511_378_ft1 orange-tip butterfly female in flight with ladys smock (cuckoo flower) (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 11 May 2025 at 12:22    Image of day on 13 Jun 2025

The Orange tip Butterflies are having to wait longer than usual for the Garlic Mustard plants to appear. Here on a purple flower we see the harder to identify the FEMALE Orange-tip butterfly - with a smaller and less dense Black tips to the wings to replace the males glorious orange.
Both sexes have the subtle green patterned underwing.


Ref: 20250613_r70_20250511_1222_009+010 orange-tip butterfly female on (poss red dead nettle) flower (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 09 Apr 2011 at 13:34    Image of day on 02 May 2011

Here she is standing on more of the same flower.


Ref: 20110502_da1_20110409_1334_158_ft1 orange-tip butterfly female on ladys smock (cuckoo flower) (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 21 Apr 2021 at 15:10    Image of day on 12 May 2021

A few days later this female Orange-tip Butterfly was resting on a Lady's Smock (Cuckoo Flower) flower-head, wings fully folded so we get a great view of the wonderful green tracery.


Ref: 20210512_d73_20210421_1510_155 orange-tip butterfly female on ladys smock (cuckoo flower) flower head (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 18 May 2014 at 14:16    Image of day on 16 Jul 2014

This is a female Orange-tip Butterfly, who lacks the orange tip! This one has been bird pecked, but you can enjoy the intricate pattern on the rear wing underside (only) and the patch of the same pattern on underside edge of the forewings so that the disguise with wings vertical is complete.


Ref: 20140716_da1_20140518_1416_256+1421_273_ft1 orange-tip butterfly female with radish flower (montage 1)(r+mb id@768).jpg

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