The 24th #butterfly species for our suburban garden is this essex skipper. Glad I didn't mow that piece in the back of the garden yet! #urbanbiodiversity

In Belgium L. juvernica is the rarer of the two and where it flies, L. sinapis is present as well. I guess the two will fly together in Germany as well? These are the pages of the recent German Atlas

I did not make judgements about the author, I only wrote that we should be cautious to use the windscreen metaphor when talking about insect declines now that the major study forming the basis for this metaphor is retracted. I've probably seen this cartoon pass 100's of times on social media...

Thermal imaging at home #urbanbiodiversity #mammalwatching

Last week I joined the UGent 3rd bachelor biology field course at the Belgian west coast, close to one of the places where Synanthedon theryi was discovered new to Belgium 5 years ago. So I took the opportunity to search for it, it reacts to pheromone lure for six-belted clearwing. #mothsmatter

I agree, tips of essex antennae are also more blunt while in small skipper the tips are a little bent backwards. I have seen similar small skipper males with more brownish tips than usual, an example in these two pics, see alt text for more info.

Last night Conisania luteago came to light at the trap of Dries De Vreeze in Ghent. This noctuid species is expanding its range in France & Germany, has been seen in the Netherlands once but is #newtoBelgium! Dries is a #migrantmoth magnet, he always pics out the best nights to trap! #mothsmatter

Hi Martin, after checking Bink (low countries, www.phegea.org/Dagvlinders/...), Tagfalter und ihre Lebensraum (Switzerland) and Lafranchis (2015, France) it seems Valeriana is the main foodplant of M. diamina and only the Swiss mention Plantago as a literature reference.

Calinaga is a small eastern Asian Nymphalid genus. With their small heads, hairy thorax and clumsiness on the ground they resemble Apollos a bit. And once on the wing they're just as strong & graceful gliders. Here's Calinaga sudassana. More of my Vietnam #butterfly pics: flic.kr/s/aHBqjCVwQz

New generation will be on the wing shortly now #butterflies #brimstone

How it started - How it's going #cancelculture www.demorgen.be/nieuws/als-d...

In SE Asian #butterflies, Batesian mimicry is a common survival trick: harmless species mimic toxic ones to avoid predators. A nice example is the harmless Papilio paradoxa swallowtail, which copies toxic danaid species like Euploea eunice. More pics of my #Vietnam trip on flic.kr/s/aHBqjCVwQz

I spent the long pentecost weekend in NE France looking for #butterflies. Lots of caterpillars in the Meuse & Mosel valleys (here purple emperor and scarce swallowtail) and Violet copper in the Vosges. More pics of this trip on my flickr here: flic.kr/s/aHBqjCVkpU

Some 40 days after I found 4 eggs the last adult southern small white has emerged this morning (3 males, 1 female). #butterflies

Baas Fedasil stelt zijn kandidatuur voor eufemisme van het jaar

Op 3 dagen een gescheurde velg (klapband incluis) en een gebroken houder van kinderzitje (gelukkig op dat moment zonder kind erop). Ik hoop dat'k hiermee m'n fietsaccidenten voor het jaar wel heb gehad! Iemand in O Gent die zo'n bevestiging van een Thule Yepp maxi op overschot heeft? Give a shout!

Caterpillars of orange tip on Arabis hirsuta was also a nice find. In the north of Belgium we mainly know them of Alliaria petiolata and Cardamine pratensis but elsewhere in Europe they have a range of Brassicaceae as host.

A happy surprise to find a caterpillar of Satyrium spini on buckthorn today in the Belgian Viroin valley. This #butterfly was only known from a few Belgian sightings but in 2017 it was found in the S of the province of Namur and has since then settled locally. #belgianbutterflies

10 days ago I found some Pieris eggs on evergreen candytuft, Iberis sempervirens, in the #UGent botanical garden. They emerged last weekend and the black head capsule in young larvae is diagnostic for southern small white, Pieris mannii. #butterflies

Here's a male & female from my garden last september. In late summer individuals the discal spot clearly touches the surrounding veins over some distance. This doesn't seem to be the case in the Norfolk individual, one of the reasons I think it is a P. rapae.

One of my many wildlife lists is my bicycle list: all #butterfly species I see sitting on a bicycle I ride. I can now officially put blue admiral, Kaniska canace, on my bicycle list! In Ba Be National Park in N Vietnam. #dailylepi

On my way home after 2&1/2weeks in N Vietnam. More than 230 #butterfly species seen, like this common windmill, Byasa polyeuctes. That'll be a lot of fun checking pictures in the next few weeks!

I'm id'ing Diptera collected in European dune habitats at the moment; this beefly Cyrtosia marginata is from Soulac-sur-Mer, N of Bordeaux and yes it is very tiny, less than 2mm long!

In Belgium as well numbers in summer are much lower than in spring. imo they start hibernation quickly after emerging in june while in spring territorial and mating activity makes them more obvious for observers. The figure shows the statistics of our citizen science website waarnemingen.be

So this arrived today, I don't think that micromoths of the low countries have ever before been compiled in one (2 volume) guide before in such a clear and accessible way, with life cycle info. Anyone with interest in micromoths of NW Europe should buy this! knnvuitgeverij.nl/artikel/hand...

Last night was mild so I set up the first moth trap of the year at my inlaws'. 81 moths of 12 species with highlights Achlya flavicornis (first Belgian of the year as it seems), Lithophane ornitopus, Conistra rubiginosa etc. Dull light so I only took some phone pics. #mothsmatter #teammoth

Niet toevallig dat tegenstanders van het eredoctoraat voor Francesca #Albanese zich distantiëren via berichten op X... Met 1500+ ZAPers aan de UGent is het feit dat 2 proffen - waarvan 1 gastdocent - zich distantiëren overigens ook een non-issue... www.demorgen.be/nieuws/leuve...

Pearly heath & Alpine heath form a complex of seemingly integrades in the southern Alps known under the name Darwin's heath - Coenonympha (gardetta) darwiniana. Here's the 4 players in that complex, check ALT text for more info on these species in the making #darwinday #dailylepi #butterflies

Thanks a lot, our (short) coast is sandy beach with marram grass dunes (where there's no urbanisation), there's R. crispus but afaik not in high densities. We have 2 estuaria/saltmarsh & maybe some ruderal sites mimicking shingle. This is the map of C. hydrolapathella on our citizen science website

Coleophora hydrolapathella is a rare species in Belgium but maybe overlooked. We have 1 population near Ghent. The larvae winter in their cases on old stems of the larval foodplant Rumex hydrolapathum, so marshy grasslands need unmowed parts to keep this species #dailylepi #teammoth