Little Red Machine

When I was younger, Red Admirals, Vanessa atalanta, always seemed to be relatively rare and special butterflies. It could just be that I'm looking harder or it could be that our evolving garden is more attractive but last year they seemed to be much more common. Possibly because of their previous unavailability they still seem special.

In fact Red Admirals are very widespread ranging throughout both Europe and North America and undergo some fairly impressive migrations. The one above is feasting on a relatively unusual buddleia called Buddleia X weyeriana. Unlike most varieties that are B. davidii cultivars this is a hybrid of B. davidii and B. globosus and is very vigorous. I think its yellow colouration may make it even more popular with butterflies and insects too as it seems to be more popular than our other varieties (anecdotal observations dressed up as scientific thought if ever there was such a thing).

Here's another side to the red admiral; its more cryptic underside. You can just about make out its probiscus snaking straight into one of the mini-flowers on this unidentified white B. davidii cultivar.