Butterbugs

I must admit, I’ve never been much of a fan of insects, arachnids and other creepy crawlies. It’s not because I dislike them or run away from them but rather the fact that I could never see or catalogue them all. A group like birds is manageable; there are 2 species of Sparrow in Ireland and 2 species of wagtail etc... Insects however have over a million described species worldwide. So many species are discovered yearly that it seems a task implausible to catalogue them all. In short, I have no way to read about or photograph or see all of them or even a fraction of them, consequently I ignore the list that could never be finished and concentrate on groups with less species.

Recently though, I saw this tiny blue butterfly (above) which turned out to a holly blue and I decided to do some research, turns out Ireland really doesn’t have that many butterfly species. I found this great website with its helpful list and started pointing the camera at some more species http://www.irishbutterflies.com. It will never be as big an obsession as birds but it is none the less quite entertaining. The white butterflies, peacock, small tortoiseshell and speckled wood seem to be quite common in Cork city and who knows, I may just find the rest as well!

The two red ones I’ve found, small tortoiseshell (right) and peacock (below) are both relatively easy to find and can be seen commonly on the UCC grounds and in Fitzgerald Park. I’ve spotted a red admiral too in Fota but have yet to spot (or photograph) one in the city centre. Fingers crossed!

Speckled woods are also very common and reveal a surprisingly intricate wing pattern despite their brown colouration. I see a lot of them on the Lee river walks but can be found in most of the city’s green zones.

Finally several species of white butterfly can be found around the city, the green veined white seems to be the most common (below) and is the only species I have positively identified other then the orange tip. More pics coming soon!

Some random flies, no idea what they are. 

 

Robin of the day!